Happy 4th of July!

I guess I should have waited until after my vacation to start my Blog. I wanted to start with a bang! I am in Utah for the month of July and I have had a hard time getting on my parents computer. And figuring out how to add pictures is beyond my expertise. But I am really excited about starting to write down the good, bad and ugly of our summer trip to Utah.



I have spent the last couple of weeks visiting family. We have had a blast. My kids and I arrived in Richfield, Utah June 30th. Richfield is where I grew up and I have many ties still here and of course thousands of memories. We stayed for a few days, unloaded most of our luggage then we headed off to Salt Lake City. We met my Father and Mother-in-law in Spanish Fork at Jon's Brother's house. We went to lunch and went shopping. I picked Jon up at the airport at 10:00 p.m. in Salt Lake. The next morning we went to Lagoon ( Utah's amusement park). My kids had so much fun with their cousins. We don't get to spend a lot of time with the Pace cousins. It was extremely HOT. We found ways to cool off though. We spent 2 hours in the water park of Lagoon called "Laguna Beach".



Being at Lagoon always makes me feel like a kid again. They have new rides now, but I spent most of my time on my old favorites. The old rickety white wooden roller coaster. The Tidal Wave ( a giant boat that rocks forward and back). And of course, the sky ride that makes you wonder how you are it staying up in the air on a thin cable. It's was fun walking down memory lane with my kids. We all had a blast.



My Brother, Jon arrived from New Mexico that night. He stayed at the same Hotel and we did so he could catch a ride with us. We all woke up early on the 4th and headed back to Richfield. We arrived shortly after the parade started.



I have never missed Richfield's 4th of July. I have been there every year since my birth in 1974. I believe it is the best 4th celebration ever. Although how would I really know? I know nothing else.

The canons go off at 6:00 in the morning to wake you up. They are really HUGE fireworks but it sounds like a canon. The parade (mostly old John Deer Green tractors and beauty queens) is at 9:30. We then catch up with old friends and family at the city park. It's like a class and family reunioun all in one. There is games for the kids and lots of booths with yummy food. Have you ever tried a fried Twinky of Ding Dong?

They have kids races and the infamous fish grab. Which I'm sure PETA has not heard of yet. The fish grab consists of the fish hatchery people bringing the rainbow trout and dumping them in a huge man made tarp pool thing. Kids fight their way to catching a fish with their hands. And even though I cross my fingers every year and hope that they do not catch one, they always do. This year they were HUGE. Riley, Kade and Cole all caught one. Pictures to come.....

Next we venture to the swimming pool where all the Kids do the money dive. Riley and Kade did it this year and both were able to get around $2 in nickels, dimes and quarters. They love it.



We had a B-Que with my family. Then of course the mighty fireworks. This year was great. My brother in law, Jeremy brought tons of fireworks from the reservation. We had the best show in town. We watched the towns fireworks which were great then we continued our own private show late into the night. We went down the middle school so we could have the parking lot to have our fun. We cleaned up all the scraps of stuff and put them in the dumpster. Jeremy stayed a little longer than the rest of us. He threw some things in the dumpster that were still HOT. We heard the next day on the radio that a fire crew was called out to Red Hills Middle School to put out a fire in the dumpster, that occurred from the careless use of fireworks. Jeremy just about died. It really was funny. We went and checked out the dumpster. Luckily everything was OK. It was just a little warped.