The Fourth of July Is All About Family

I love Independence Day, and I love our country. I'm so grateful for the freedom we have, and for those who made this possible, including my grandpas, who are WWII veterans, and my dad, who is a Viet Nam era veteran. Hey, Jimmy! Thanks for covering our backs. We think you are fabulous!

I also love the 4th of July, which is something altogether different. The 4th of July is a day off of work and school. It is a day to play. This year it was fun because the 4th happened to land on a Saturday, so we were able to play long and hard and still get to sleep in the next day. :)

We got up at 7:00 a.m. and went to our ward breakfast. It was a nice way to spend a morning (even though we might have had a little bit of groaning about the early hour).

After breakfast we ran to Petsmart to get Bella food, and to Walmart to get water bottles and snacks so we could drive to Timpanogas Cave to have a fun family hike. We had a three hour wait before we could go on the trail, so we spent some time throwing rocks in the river (!, Daddy!).


The water is high and swift this year!


I wish Bri had caught the tree stump Taylor was standing on for this pic. It was about 5" in diameter and 30" tall, so it was actually pretty cool that he could balance up there. He looked a lot like the Karate Kid! :)




We went back down the hill into Alpine to have lunch. We also threw some rocks in the river down there (the irrigation portion). Then we went back to begin our hike. It had been cloudy and cool in the morning, but when we got hiking (1:30ish), it was sunny and WARM.

Taylor beat us to the top by about 20 minutes. That is quite a hike! The cave was fabulous, and we did lots of laughing, ooo-ing, and ahhhh-ing. Outside of the cave we stopped for drinks and snacks and more laughing. The temps had cooled a bit as we headed back down the trail.

After we got home (and showered!) we went to the dollar movie. By the time we got home some of us headed to bed and some of us went to watch the neighbors do fireworks. It was a long day. Some of us are a little bit sunburned. Some of us have sore muscles. All of us slept very well.

What a great family day!