Fourth of July Fun and Festivities

It has been such a fun Fourth of July holiday.  This really is one of my favorite times of the year.  Blanding sure knows how to put on a fun celebration.  This year was no exception.  My brother Drew and his family have been visiting from Brazil.  Chrislynn and Nancy also came down with their kids.  We have had a lot of family fun together.  Some of us participated in the 5K and Fun Run in the morning.  Whose idea was it to get up and run at 6:30 in the morning?  Oh yeah, that was me.  Garrett and I ran it.  Also, Kim and Worthy ran in it (and as you can see from this picture, lots of our friends, including Jenifer and Jade Warren).  Tyler, Rachel, Drew, Isaac and Stella ran in the Fun Run.  None of us won any awards, or even any of the prize drawings.  But we all had a good time.

the runners pose with their Fun Run ribbons

We enjoyed the Rotary Club breakfast, too.  Then we headed over to watch the parade.  The blankets we had left out to save our spots were drenched from the morning rain.  This week our area participated in a special fast to petition Heavenly Father for more moisture in our area.  Kind of a nice reminder that prayers are answered.  My niece Stella couldn't help but notice (in church it was mentioned multiple times) that we sure pray for rain a lot around here.  We definitely need it. The skies cleared just in time for the parade.  And we all enjoyed watching it.

 Look who is back in Blanding!  We are all so thrilled to have our Morgan home!

 And we have loved getting to see our Hughes cousins again these past few weeks while they were visiting from Alaska.  I have more pictures of our visits with them that I promise I will post soon.

 lovely Sophia

Tyler did NOT want her picture taken 

 Richie was loving all over his sister Grace

There's a patriotic pair 

love this girl 

yeah, she really didn't want her picture taken (think Sophia is embarrassed to be seen with her?)

After the parade was over, we headed down to the park for the Fair.  We got some food from Salvacion Bradford's booth, ate quickly, and then hurried back to the pool for Diving for Dollars and Swim Races.  I did not take any pictures.  The kids had fun diving.  It was pretty chaotic.  Then, Stella, Isaac and Olivia participated in the swim races.  Olivia did well in her heat.  Stella and Isaac finished in the top five.  Their swim lessons seem to be paying off.

I was pretty tired by then, so we headed back home for a little rest.  Then, some of us joined the Macdonald family for a barbeque at their house and a washers tournament.  It was a lot of fun, even though none of the teams we were on won.  

Back home, we watched a movie for a little while, waiting for the fireworks.  We watched them from our lawn, with most of the Glover extended family coming over to join us.  Some of us visited our neighbors, the Rays for cake and ice cream and their own little fireworks display while we waited.  It is fun to be part of such an awesome neighborhood.

And it has been wonderful to get to spend more time with my awesome family, too, especially since they have been so far away.  We love them.  And we love America!