"This Land is my land, this land is your land"

I have always loved the fourth of July! Its a great time to celebrate our country, friendships, and family. This fourth of July received the name "Epic Fourth of July" and rightfully so. We started our celebration on Saturday with the Stadium of Fire. Sadly, I didn't get to go to the Stadium of Fire, but the Riviera is right next to the Stadium.

So, we all sat on Brooke and Kristen's balcony and watched as the sky divers dove into the stadium. Few minutes later, the Jets flew across as well. We were able to watch and hear David Archueleta sing from the big screen. Then later that night we watched the Fireworks! Stadium of Fire has some of the best Fireworks in my opinion. And because we live at the Riviera, we had front row seating for them! It was awesome!

Sunday, we watched Independence Day, a great way to get us in the spirit for America's Birthday! What is more patriotic than Will Smith and Aliens... nothing!

Monday started early. When I was a kid, I remembered going to the Balloon Festival with my Grandparents. They have tons of Hot Air Balloons that all Inflate around the same time and fly off into the sky. I hadn't gone to this festival at all during my college years, understandable... who wants to get up at 6 on the one day you can sleep in?

However, since this could possibly be my last 4th in Utah, I decided we had to do it. So Brooke, Collin, Tyler, Garrett and I all woke up bright and early and took off to the Hot Air Balloon Festival. Sadly, the weather didn't quite agree with the Hot Air Balloons so they weren't going to take off that day. They did still inflate the balloons so we were able to walk around and see them up close. Hot Air Balloons are HUGE!!!! They got a new balloon to the festival, Darth Vader! We were able to get one picture of us with the Balloons in the Background before the huge gust of wind knocked all the balloons down.

After, we came home and made a delicious chocolate chip pancake and egg breakfast before we had to run to the parade. I'm not the biggest fan of parades. You just watch floats and bands walk by and they never seem to end. But, it was Epic Fourth of July and it can't be epic unless you have the Parade in there. We got to sit next to Ginelle and Steve so that was good to see them. (They just got engaged!)

After the parade, we hiked Bridal Veil's Falls. We hike right up the waterfall, took a break for lunch and then went on an adventure past the waterfall. Every time I have done that hike, I just get to the top of the waterfall and then I venture back down. But I loved exploring past the waterfall. We now have a goal to go even farther than we went before the next time we do the hike!

We went for a drive to a really pretty look out and then made our way back to the Riviera. We managed to fit in a little swim before I had to get the BBQ ready. Tommy and I are the "Grandparents" in our ward. We are in charge of the FHE program. Since Fourth of July is a Monday, we made it a ward FHE BBQ! We ate some burgers and then played games with the water balloons. And even had some time for Swedish twister.

After the BBQ, we took off to the Malt Shoppe. Another memory from my childhood. Whenever we came to Utah for the Fourth of July, we would watch Fireworks with my mom's side of the family in the Field that is right by the Malt Shop. Then we would get some shakes from the Malt shop as we waited for the firework show to begin. Well, that Field is gone, so I don't know where my family watches the fireworks, but the Malt Shop still stands! So, I had to continue tradition!

We finished Independence day because we weren't able to watch it all the night before and then drove to Lehi to watch the fireworks at Thanksgiving Point. They weren't as good as stadium of fire and we had to deal with the horrible traffic after but still enjoyable.

All in all, it was a great fourth of July, probably one of the best! We probably spent about 18 hours straight with each other but every minute was a blast!