Happy 4th of July! I think this is one of my favorite holidays. I love the parades, the fireworks, the barbecues, the family time and, oh yeah, it is also my birthday!! Russell and I decided to stay in town this year because I am still trying to recover from our South Dakota trip and it is my month for sharing time. So we had a stay-cation instead.
Our first adventure started at 6:00 am on the 4th. Russell, Traci, and I participated in the Uncle Sam 5K.
This was a really fun race. We ran through down town St. George from the Sun Bowl to the old Woodward and back. I am happy to report that we did much better this race than the last 5K. Russell finished in like 25 minutes and Traci and I crossed the finish line in 28:30. This was 4 minutes faster than my last race but still not as fast as I would like. Oh well at least I am improving. Any way the race goodies bags were very interesting this time. We got our free shirts obviously, but we also got these "awesome" Uncle Sam hats and white beards! Don't we look so patriotic! Russell was a little crazy with his beard and wore it for a long time. I could only wear that beard for like two seconds while we took a picture than I tore it off because I was getting claustrophobic. The hats however were pretty cool. Russell and Traci wore their hat during the race but then about half way, they both tore them off because they were so hot. Yeah running with a wool hat in the middle of the St. George summer is probably not the best idea. Even though the race was at 6:30 in the morning, it was still really hot. While we were running, Traci and I were sweating so bad. Then we saw the sprinklers were on watering the grass in front of one of the businesses along the route. We both both made a beeline for the sprinklers, ran through them, and then got back on course. The water felt so good.
I have been enjoying getting back into running. I feel so much better about myself after I have been running and it really helps me start my day. I have been running with a few of the ladies in my neighborhood and that has also been fun.
After the race, LeeAnn brought the kids into town and we met them for the city parade. As you can see, Russell still has that beard on. He was talking to some our old neighbors and their kids kept asking him if he was Santa Claus and if he was Santa Claus how come he wasn't fat. We all laughed as Russell tried to explain that one.
These kids just love parades. They loved all of the floats. Emily loved the princess floats, Colby loved the cars (especially this yellow Camero that looked like Bumblebee), and Logan loved the horses (or the YEEHAWS!)
But more than anything, they all LOVE getting candy. They each came home with a bag full of parade candy. Logan was very observant. He was sitting on my lap just watching Emily and Colby run out to get the candy. Then he had figured it out and he got right off my lap and ran out to the road to get his own candy. He did not sit down the rest of the time. We did have to watch him though because before we knew it, he was running down the street after more candy. He did this multiple times so we had to keep chasing him. He was getting quick too because he would sometimes beat Emily and Colby to the candy.
After the parade, we went home to just relax. It was too hot to go outside and we were tired from getting up so early so we just spent the day chilling. That night we had a barbecue and family dinner with the Farnsworth's. It was fun to get together.
After dinner, we drove up to the old airport hill to see the city's firework show. Well the entire city of St. George had the same idea as we did so everyone was up on the airport road. We finally found a place to park thanks to Russell and the fire department. Then we sat in between the motel and the motel's swimming pool in a little alley way and had a perfect view of the fireworks set off at the Sun Bowl and the Red Hill. The ones shot off at the airport were behind a wall so we couldn't see them but we sure could hear them. We had a "blast" watching the fireworks. My kids are afraid of the big booming ones which is sad because those ones are my favorite! The firework show was really cool. Here are a few pictures:
After the city fireworks it took as an hour to get home due to the traffic. Then we went to watch Tyler's and his friends' firework show. As you can see, Logan and Colby were amazed by Tyler's fireworks. They loved watching them.
The next day was of course my birthday! I am 29 now! I can't believe how old am.... I decide this was my last birthday. From now on, I am either going to go in reverse or just have anniversaries of my 29th birthday. So next year I will either be 28 again or it will be the first anniversary of my 29th birthday. I haven't decided which one yet but I am not going to be 30! I did have a good birthday though. We kind of celebrated it on the 4th while with the family. Uncle Ron made this really good chocolate cake. It was so good I had to stop myself from eating too much. On my birthday, Russell and the kids made me another birthday cake and sang to me. I loved it! For my birthday, I was able to get candy from the kids, a new pedometer from Russell, and running clothes, watch, and also new running shoes. I am set for marathon training (well maybe half marathon training...). My shoes are actually like professional running shoes. They were actually fitted by a professional runner from the Running Center. I am excited to try them out. The guy said that the reason my IT band and knee was hurting was because my old shoes were shot. I have been doing hip strengthening workouts that have helped but I hope these shoes help out too.
Sunday night we had another firework show in honor of the 4th and my birthday:
The fun thing about it was it turning into a neighborhood firework party. We started lighting a few fireworks, then the Valks from across the street came out to watch bringing a big bowl of watermelon to share. A little bit later, the Webbs from down the street came with the Alldredge and Gunnell kids. They brought their own bag of fireworks to add to ours. We also had LeeAnn, Tyler, Traci, and Traci's friend, Shawn, there too. Our house was definitely the happening place. We had so much fun watching the boys light the fireworks. One firework did go a little crazy though and we thought we started the neighbors oleanders on fire but luckily we didn't! We were all in shock as it went off and was shooting sparks and fireballs everywhere! After that we went to more conservative things like Sparklers...
One day I will figure out the ISO and shutter speed on my camera and get some really good sparkler pictures but until then, we will have fun practicing. I think Sparklers are my favorite fireworks. They are fun for everyone.
Happy 4th of July!
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