This being one of the first summers that we were actually in Provo for the fourth of July- and quite possibly the last- I made sure we got our fill of the fourth of July activities that Provo has to offer.
Many of the events lasted for four days running from Thursday through Saturday, and we were able to space them out, which worked quite well for our young family.
Kyle had school on the third, so I headed with the kids to the Colonial Fest in Orem, which ended up being super fascinating for me, but not so much for the kids. We got to see live demonstrations of newspaper printing, calligraphy (each girl got to get a card with their name calligraphied [is that a word?] on it!), black smithing, military drills, and we got to talk with some who were reenacting explorers camping out and Native Americans who were generals in the British army (one whose father's name was Locklan!). The whole while my girls had their eye on the playground that was nearby, and we ended our relatively short trip there.
The morning of the fourth, we got our crew up and going early so that we could get good seats for the Grand Parade, little did we know, everyone else had the same idea- only they did it the day before. It was pretty packed by the time we got there, though we were able to snag a little patch of grass that was partially shaded about 20 feet away from the street. It was a hot and muggy morning... perfect for heading out to get ic cream cones afterward!
Here we are all ready with our candy bandit sign, and turns out, they don't throw any candy at this parade! Who ever heard of a parade that doesn't have any candy??
Many of the events lasted for four days running from Thursday through Saturday, and we were able to space them out, which worked quite well for our young family.
Kyle had school on the third, so I headed with the kids to the Colonial Fest in Orem, which ended up being super fascinating for me, but not so much for the kids. We got to see live demonstrations of newspaper printing, calligraphy (each girl got to get a card with their name calligraphied [is that a word?] on it!), black smithing, military drills, and we got to talk with some who were reenacting explorers camping out and Native Americans who were generals in the British army (one whose father's name was Locklan!). The whole while my girls had their eye on the playground that was nearby, and we ended our relatively short trip there.
The morning of the fourth, we got our crew up and going early so that we could get good seats for the Grand Parade, little did we know, everyone else had the same idea- only they did it the day before. It was pretty packed by the time we got there, though we were able to snag a little patch of grass that was partially shaded about 20 feet away from the street. It was a hot and muggy morning... perfect for heading out to get ic cream cones afterward!
Here we are all ready with our candy bandit sign, and turns out, they don't throw any candy at this parade! Who ever heard of a parade that doesn't have any candy??
Kyle took pictures of some of the parade highlights (meaning the parts that the kids liked best)
Firetruck and a hummer filled with paper mache animals
Wells Fargo stagecoach (they also had a mini stagecoach being pulled by miniature ponies which was our girls absolute favorite) and Kyle's favorite: a unimog
Of course no Fourth of July parade would be complete without a giant patriotic squirrel balloon:
And we thought this was really neat: only in Utah would the MTC missionaries be featured in the Fourth of July parade, and get the loudest cheers:
That afternoon we headed down to the softball field for a family bbq, any summer holiday must. And after the kids were in bed, Kyle and I ventured across the street to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks show. We had great seats and could even hear Carrie Underwood singing her finale since we were so close to the stadium.
The next morning was another early one as we headed to the Balloon Fest, where we got to watch a field full of hot air balloons fill up and take off (we made it at the end, so we actually only saw a few), got donuts and headed to a local park for a picnic breakfast, and later attempted the Freedom Days in downtown Provo, which proved to be a bunch of local businesses trying to sell you their stuff and acting irritated when you tried their 'free' samples but didn't buy anything. Another hot and muggy morning, so at least it was nice that one of the vendors was handing out otter pops!
That evening we broke Wymount rules and let the girls have fun with sparklers out in the softball field.
Overall, it was a really fun few days packed with activities with our family. We are so very grateful to live in this country, and to be able to have the freedom to do all of the things that we get to do on a daily basis.
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