Happy 4th!

We did have a happy 4th of July this year. I totally changed something that looking back on it now, has happened for a very long time. I'm usually up and ready and roaring to go to the parade on the morning of the fourth and it's usually a highlight of the day for me. This year, not so much. I'm not sure if it was because my sister was out of town and we usually go with her or if we slept in too long or what but something inside me just didn't want to get up and make the effort necessary to make it to the parade. I was kicking myself later on in the day for not going but I guess that's life. We were able to check out the new Iggy's in Ogden for lunch and then we went to see Wall-E with Ellyse. She liked it but towards the end she wanted to go back to the "firework place" a.k.a. FatCats to play with the balls. Grandma and Grandpa had taken her over there before the movie to play and she wanted badly to return. I couldn't help but try to say wall-eee and EvvvvA with the same tone the robots did in the movie for the rest of the afternoon. Those two words were about the jist of the conversation between the two throughout the entire movie. Later that evening, we got together for a BBQ at the Rich's and we had a good time. Allie is taking a few steps so I'm armed with the camera at every turn trying to capture those moments. After celebrating James' birthday, we went out front to watch the spectacle of fireworks being shown by their neighbors, who apparently spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on fireworks each year. We had a couple of uninvited guests show up after about a dozen or so illegal fireworks went up in the air and have come to find out that the neighbors were fined 1,000 big ones for possession of the illegals. Yikes! Note to anyone considering buying them; are you prepared for that price tag? Riverdale started their fireworks and so we headed out in search of the BIG fireworks and after a few last minute decisions, ended up in some neighborhood in West Haven watching Hooper's fireworks from our van where we decided that with all three of us pooling our money, we MIGHT be able to afford to share a house in that neighborhood. All in all it was a good day.