Fabulous 4th of July!

Our holiday started with dinner and playing at the park with Grandma and Grandpa Luke

We had our first sleepover at Grandma's house. Claire counted down the days until her sleepover and couldn't wait to get ready for bed. Sean couldn't settle down so Mark and I put him in the car and drove through Springville at 10:30 at night to get him to go to sleep. I slept between my two big kids. It was a crazy night!

Parade

Daddy, Grandpa Luke and Uncle Todd got up at 4:00am to get to the parade route and secure out seats. The parade is one of our favorite traditions. We had both sets of Grandparents, my Grandma Mary and several cousins and aunts and uncles from both the Hamblin and Luke families.
Luke was an adorable parade baby. He ate a lot of food and sat in his daddy's lap. He did great!
Claire watched the parade from the front row. At four years old, Claire was able to soak in every aspect of this holiday. She waved at the princesses and followed her fun cousin Brooke everywhere.
Sean surprised us by watching and enjoying the whole parade. He settled into Grandma's lap and sat with her the whole time. Sean LOVED the firetrucks, police cars, motorcylces and tractors. He said lots of words, clapped, waved and danced to the marching bands. Way to go Sean!



My Dad is the best! He coordinates the parade every year. He let us sleep over at his house which goes against his rule of everyone has to leave by 9:00pm! He works hard and loves my little family. What a great Dad!

Mark and I met while marching in the Timpview High School band together. It's always fun to watch the marching bands and try to remember what those days were like. Now we watch the parade with our three kids in tow.
Luke went to bed early and we did sparklers and poppers with the big kids.



The next door neighbors came out to set off fireworks. We threw all caution to the wind and let our kids stay up for fireworks.

Our neighbor gave us some of her homemade red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. At 10:00pm we ate cupcakes and went out to the back porch to watch the Thanksgiving Point fireworks.
Our church house was blocking our view so we went to the park. Sean went on the swings while Claire, Mark and I climbed to the top of the slide for the best view.

This was the best 4th of July holiday. It was so fun to let our big kids stay up to enjoy everything. Our neighborhood was booming with fireworks in every direction. Mark and I enjoyed the bottle rockets just a few doors down.
It is meaningful to me to watch the vetrans in the parade. So many people sacrifice for our freedoms so that we can sit and enjoy simple things like a parade. Provo always does the 4th of July right. This was a great holiday for our family this year.