Sunday thoughts

I think I loved having the 4th of July on Sunday this year!

Singing America the Beautiful (my favorite), the national anthem, and even My Flag in Primary all gave me the chills. I heard some small Primary children singing The Star-Spangled Banner and they had their hands over their hearts, it was adorable.

I loved that it was fast & testimony meeting today and felt like I was that much more prepared to feel the Spirit. Some Sundays I leave church without truly feeling uplifted due to wrangling kids and trying to establish reverence the whole time, but not so today.

Today it seemed like all of the testimonies echoed the feelings of my own heart and I was full to bursting.

• We enjoy so many freedoms, and I am especially grateful for the freedom of religion.

• I'm thankful that Heavenly Father prepared this land so that the gospel of Jesus Christ could be restored and the Book of Mormon could come forth.

• The gospel is founded on free agency. We are always free to choose our actions. When we choose to be obedient to God's laws, we are happier.

• So many many people have worked and fought to preserve our liberty, including Captain Moroni (one of my heroes).

• No matter what exciting places we go to, there is a special feeling when returning to American soil.

For some reason, all through sacrament meeting I had some of the lyrics to How Firm a Foundation running through my mind:

In every condition
In sickness, in health
In poverty's vale
Or abounding in wealth
I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
And cause thee to stand
Upheld by my righteous
Upheld by my righteous
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

Today I feel strong, capable of anything with the Lord as my partner.

Today I am feeling more hopeful than I have in a long time.

Balloon festival 2010

Yesterday we got up at 5:30 to go to Provo's hot air balloon festival. On Thursday night (and when my alarm went off) I was wondering why we do this every year, but once I was up and about I enjoyed the early morning hours.

My kids were cold and glad they had brought sweatshirts and blankets. (I, of course, was wearing a short sleeve t-shirt and felt fine.)

Lucas and Eva huddling together.

Following tradition, we got hash browns, biscuits, and o.j. from McDonald's. (I love orange juice. Why do I never buy it? It's like an annual treat.)

Landon didn't show any signs of unusual tiredness!

Once the sun came over the mountains, it really warmed up.

The Coke bottle balloon was a new addition to the arsenal.

early-morning SPT for documentation

Eva got the last pink frisbee and was quite pleased. Here she is working on some moves.

I enjoy the balloons reflected in Jill's glasses.

I decided that this is my favorite balloon – I love the flags hanging off the sides. (I'm generally a fan of anything that cascades.)

A huge line of people helping to collapse and roll up a deflated balloon.

All the kids started running around, playing frisbee and making up all kinds of games. They were very kind to include Eva.

hilarious pyramid

The kids made a tunnel for Eva to crawl through, but she didn't get the concept at first and kept trying to go through the sides rather than the ends!

making a booster seat of some sort

The balloons didn't launch again due to too much wind, but this one lifted off momentarily, and that was as good as it got this year. Too bad, I love it when they all lift off and you can see them from underneath.

For some reason, the usual get-up-and-shake-it music was replaced by decidedly muzak tunes, reaching a new low when Moon River started up. It was weird, and definitely messed with Jill's groove.

But as she says, hey, we did something!

harking back to the Fourth

This year was an unusual Fourth of July for us in that we had two cousins visiting (Greg and Sam, two of Marc's sister Lisa's sons). Their family was in town from California to see their oldest son off on his mission.

We really don't see Lisa's family that often, and consequently our kids have never known each other well. It seemed like a great opportunity, so we invited the boys to stay over for a couple of days. Mission accomplished! Now they know each other and they all had a great time.

The boys were content to just hang out together, playing video games, jumping on the trampoline, having water fights and tennis matches, which suited me just fine.

It was strange having every seat in my van filled! And discovering that it's possible to be even pickier than Lucas!

We had a barbecue with hamburgers, corn on the cob, potato salad, potato chips, and fruit. One boy had an ear of corn, and the other had a small bowl of mac & cheese. That's it! They didn't even want the after-dinner popsicles I proferred! I had to apologize to their mother when I returned them because they pretty much starved while at my house, despite my continuous offers of various foods...

They did accept Italian sodas the next day. (This is our new favorite celebration drink of choice.)

We went to the store to pick out some fireworks and the boys were thrilled, since they are outlawed in their hometown (Sam holding sparklers here).

Marc just about went crazy trying to light the sparklers. Our butane lighter ran out of fuel and apparently our matches are too short and flimsy to be of any use. In addition, it always seems to be super windy on the night of the Fourth! (Note to self: make sure we have a fresh lighter and "real" matches next time...)

We had our now traditional play with sparklers and photography (Max making an M).

Greg making a circle.

Eva went to bed because she couldn't stand the sound of the fireworks. "Seriously." "For real." I can't remember when I didn't love fireworks.


It was a typically low-key Fourth for us. I always feel a little disappointed about this, but when it comes down to it, I'm just a "low-level recreator" (as Denise says), so I should probably just accept it gratefully.

We also decided that it's a good thing to have cousins stay over occasionally so that we can experience the sigh of relief that comes when we are restored to our little family. They are good kids, but having that many kids around is just loud loud LOUD! and definitely more chaos than we are used to. I guess it's a good thing that we have just our three...

better than last year!

This morning we went to watch the hot air balloon festival in Provo. Last year, when Jessie was in town, we all got up early and drove down there, only to discover that we had missed the whole thing! @$%! I left myself a note on my blog to leave at 6:00 a.m. this year (1/2 hour earlier than last year), so that is what we did. Imagine my surprise when the balloon inflation hadn't even begun! It was too weird.

We made the obligatory stop at McDonald's on our way to the field. We get plain biscuits, hash browns, and o.j. (Lucas opted for milk). He also shocked me by announcing that he prefers the hash browns to the biscuits. What the? I thought my little starchatarian favored bread above all else!

I found it interesting that the balloons look so massive when they are spread out on the ground and filling up, and then when they are fully inflated, they suddenly don't look nearly as big anymore.

Jill was violently opposed to my picture-taking.

Eva was cold, so Max obliged her with some snuggling inside his cozy blanket. For the record, it was not cold at all, even though most years it is chilly before the sun comes up.

We were positioned right next to the Smokey the Bear balloon and got a close-up view of its inflation. It's really quite a process! It takes a whole lot of people to lift and shift the balloon around, and it looks even harder to deflate it and pack it up.

I'm not sure what Whitney was saying here, but I love that I caught her in this dramatic moment.

While it was fun to watch the balloons inflate, it was a bit of a disappointment when they announced that, due to rain in the forecast, they would not actually be taking off. That's my favorite part. And if I were a balloonist, I don't think I'd be too keen on getting it all set up and filled, only to deflate it and pack it all away...

Eva was so tired from the 5:45 wake-up that she spent most of the time crying. She didn't like the smell of the gas (I couldn't smell anything), she didn't like the sound of the balloons filling, she was cold, she wanted to go home and go back to bed. Such a delight. (She did, however, take a 3-hour nap today, woohoo!!)

Jill & Randy's relaxed feet. I'm not sure how they were able to relax with all the crying, but I have to assume it's because it was not their child doing all the crying. Still.

Landon & Lucas. These guys have been great friends for as long as I can remember. I love that.

(Incidentally, I felt like I needed to make a disclaimer on Lucas's long, out of control hair. Jill said the same thing about Landon. I didn't even notice Landon's hair because I was so focused on how much I want Lucas to get a haircut! Too funny.)

Who knew there was a balloonist prayer??

Early morning sp: complete with bedhead, yesterday's makeup, and cold sores. And a completely uncooperative Eva. But it had to be done!

to sum up: It wasn't our best-ever balloon launch experience, but it was still fun, and I'm glad we kept with our tradition. Check!

a happy Fourth for all

We had a relaxed Fourth of July at home. It always makes me happy to see the flags in everyone's yards. (Max was supposed to go help put them out at 6:30 a.m. but he didn't hear his alarm! He went at 8:30 p.m. to take them down.)

Much water play kept all the kids entertained.

Max and Lucas agreed to watch the girls so Jessie and I could escape to Archiver's, a place which is much better experienced without small children. Hannah met us there and we all oohed and aahed over the products and pawed through the clearance sections for good deals. Jessie and I were both amazed again by Hannah's restraint -- I think she only had about 3 items in her basket!

Jessie with her purchases

When we got home, we gave the kids lunch and put the girls down for naps. Then we played with some of our supplies! When they woke up, it was time for more water play.


We made a less healthy version of Hannah's muffin tin snacks for the girls:

When the boys saw it, they wanted their own! Hey, whatever it takes to keep them happily playing outside.

We did snaps and sparklers before the little girls went to bed so they wouldn't be completely left out.

Jack even managed to come out and join us (we thought the door was completely closed!).

Bella got brave and held her first sparkler!

But then she touched the end of it while it was still hot, giving her instant blisters on her fingers. It was so sad -- what a reward for her bravery! (It reminded me of the time we girls were inside on July 24th making place cards for Jessie's wedding reception, and the boys were outside doing sparklers. Lucas held a sparkler for the first time and did the exact same thing.)

I bought some Molli Coolz ice cream -- it looks just like Dippin' Dots, only at the grocery store -- and the kids gave it their stamp of approval. After the girls went to bed, we did the rest of our fireworks and Jessie and I played around with our cameras.

the boys' shadows during a strobe firework

Max got promoted to firework-lighter. He cracked us up by telling us that there are no duds on his watch!

Lucas with his sparklers

Jessie had the idea to make initials with sparklers. She claimed that the little sparks falling down felt like being hit with shrapnel! She won't live that one down anytime soon...

That's just cool!

I overcooked the caramel for the caramel corn... oops. We still ate it. It was great fun having Jessie & Bella around for the Fourth -- just like old times.