Utah: Part 8 (Our EPIC 4th of July!)

The 4th of July turned out to be a long but exciting day. We started by waking up super early to run a 10K... apparently too early for Jake!

The girls were in rare form from being exhausted, but once the stroller started rolling they chilled out!

Taber, Becca, Me, Jake, Munro, and Kevin ran the race with Brooklyn and Lily in tow. Here we are before the run.

The race followed the parade route so it was really awesome because the whole course was lined with cheering spectators!

Me and Jake ran/walked the whole thing because of injuries and finished in 1:13:00, which happens to be a PR for me! Jake could have gone faster, but he was nice and stayed with me the whole way while pushing the stroller :) I don't know everyone else's time, but they all pretty much killed it!

In the meantime, the rest of the family watched the hot air balloons rise while they saved us a spot on the parade route.

When we were done running, we headed over to our spot to join them for the parade. Brooklyn was very concerned about something in this picture, but for the most part she had a BLAST watching the parade... especially when princesses and ponies came prancing by.

In fact, all the munchkins had a blast at the parade, DESPITE the super hot temperatures.

But my favorite thing was watching Lily's reaction to everything. She thought the parade was the coolest thing that ever happened to her. Her favorite things were the bands, fire trucks, and horses.

Here she is again, being cute and gazing off into the distance :)

After the parade, Kevin and I grabbed the girls and headed over to Uncle Glen and Aunt Connie's house for a quick visit. We had tons of fun chatting with them, saying good bye to Lisa (who was heading off on her mission), and eating yummy Popsicles!

Next, we headed home to meet my aunt Diane and her family for a 4th of July BBQ at my parent's house!

We ate TONS of food, laughed our heads off, had a few political debates, and took advantage of the opportunity for an impromptu photo shoot.

And then the real fun began! My Aunt Diane has 3 handsome sons, and 2 handsome grandsons to keep her company... but she is a girly girl at heart and loves to buy pretty things. So every year she secretly shops around and builds up a stockpile of jewelery, purses, and makeup that she showers us and her beautiful daughter-in-law, Kelly with. She makes it super fun by having us play funny games for things and she always picks out the most beautiful jewelery. I came home with a beautiful necklace and bracelet, some new lipstick and fingernail polish, and the PERFECT purse for a mom on the go! THANK YOU AUNT DIANE!

And while the adults were playing, the kids were in the house next door organizing a talent show! It was so cute. They formally invited us over after hours of practice, showed us to our seats, gave us refreshments, and then started the show. It involved a lot of "ballet" from the little girls, some brake dancing from the boys, and a ton of good laughs from the adults!

The kids were so wiggly that it was hard to get a good picture of them. But they had a blast dancing for all of us! And we loved watching them! When they were done, all the aunties entertained the kids with some old camp songs we used to sing, auntie Liz danced a Tahitian number for ever one, and then Becca, Sarah, and Tau wrapped up the night with this: