"you look like the fourth of july"

friday, after a long day of class and work, we peaced out of provo to head home for the independence day festivities. maybe one day i will stay in p-town to experience firsthand whatever happens down there for the fourth, but the stuff at home is just so fun that it's unthinkable to miss it at this point.

i packed only red, white, and navy clothes for the weekend (tastefully and stylishly, i should add. i don't go around wearing sequined star-spangled t-shirts. not that there's anything wrong with that.). by monday, it maybe got a teesny bit old, but i still went with it because i love america and wanted to give it a good birthday.

so saturday we headed over to the golf course and our primo spot to watch the fireworks and the people who mill around before the fireworks. i wore my sunhat and sat in my beach chair. here are pictures.

we went to the golf course with one goal and one goal only: to emerge with new profile pictures.

a rousing game of apples to apples

mom and dad

a good time was had by all. i tried to take some pictures of the fireworks, but, alas, i have not yet mastered that technique (i'm not even sure anyone can master/has mastered that. but anyway) i LOVE fireworks. every year i kind of forget how much i love them since i haven't really seen them since last fourth of july (except at disneyland, where they are also gorgeous and magical), and then when they start i feel that same excitement and joy i felt when i was a kid watching them. this year a tiny bit of the excitement was squelched by the millions of people who were setting off their own fireworks all weekend long, but i guess that was to be expected.

sunday we ate a dutch oven dinner and i took a long nap, both of which were delicious. my mom's brother and his family are in town for a few days, so we've gotten to hang out and chat, too, which is always fun.

on monday we woke up extra early for the ward fourth of july breakfast, something of a tradition. the food is usually really good and this year we were having a four star general who happens to be in our ward speak to us about his feelings about independence day. and the four of us girls were singing the national anthem in parts, a capella. nbd. but everything went well and we had fun and ate good food  (read: we strategically stood in one line so we could raid mom's famous breakfast quiche. i don't think anyone else got to even try it :)) and thought about how awesome our country is. when we got home we got some stuff ready for our barbecue later (i made deviled eggs, my favorite bbq food) and then headed to park city to get in some outlet shopping. going there on holidays just reinforces how much i have been missing by neglecting the outlets so much since we moved up here. i bought a new swim top, some new jeans and yoga pants, some cute shirts, and pretty much everything was at least 50 percent off. love it! then we met up with some other beloved cousins and went up to the alpine slide, where i also ran into one of my students, who assured me that he was almost done with the paper that was due today haha.

we sing hymns from the hymnbook

some of the riders on the chair lift

a picture of a picture being taken. (sorry to that person whose butt this is.)

whew, monday was a long day. after park city we drove down to orem for the bq/swim party. we ate a delicious meal, swam in a lovely pool, went down an exhilarating water slide, and then ate a scrumptious dessert of cake and ice cream. and then it started to rain, but that was okay. by the time we got back to our apartment, meredith and i were both exhausted. but, all in all, it was a great, fun-filled, busy weekend and i'm glad i got to share it with my family.

happy birthday, america!