July 4th, Independence Day

Today we celebrated our nation's independence by hanging out with our family.  James was supposed to work, but then ended up not having any visits scheduled, so that was nice.

We went north again, though this time only to Ogden.  My cousin Jodi, her husband and new baby are moving to Roseville, California and decided to use the 4th of July holiday as a chance to throw a going away party.  We used to always have Petersen parties on the 4th, so it was fun to do that again.  Molly, Kate, Hyrum, and Jack played on the not-so-slippery and not-so-slidy slippery slide that my aunt LeeAnn set up.  Had bigger kids been playing on it, we probably would have had to move it to a steeper slope, but for the little kids, it worked great.

We left Ogden for Magna and my Grandpa's house, swimming, and a barbecue with most all of my mom's family.  The food was tasty, Molly and Jack had fun swimming, and it was a good day.

I feel bad because Jack got a little sunburned on his back.  I thought we had used plenty of sunscreen, but obviously not.  Molly is fine, but Jack's shoulders and top of his back are pink.  I guess we either missed a spot, or should have applied sunscreen a third time.  He's probably a little uncomfortable, but I think he'll be ok.

By the time we got things cleaned up and finished at my Grandpa's, it was almost firework time again.  Instead of going home, we (along with Annie and her family) just headed over to my mom's house.  The kids all had a bath and got their pajamas on and then we lit some fireworks.  Jack zonked.  Molly had her first experience with sparklers.  Quinn grazed on the grass.  It was nice to just sit outside and enjoy the slightly cooler temperatures.

When we got home, our neighbors had just started their fireworks display.  Molly and Jack had fallen asleep on the way home.  Jack stayed asleep, but the noise of the new fireworks woke Molly up and we went back outside and watched the neighbors for a little while.  They had tons of huge fireworks launching into the sky and they were SOOOO noisy.  They were setting each firework off inside and open Winder Dairy cooler.  I guess they were doing that because it was probably safer - can't explode and won't misfire into someone's garage - but, it made them so loud it was ridiculous.  I thought our house was being bombed.

Eventually it ended, Molly went to bed, and all is well.

I'm grateful for our country and for holidays where we get to sit back and appreciate the fortunate lives we have!