Happy 3rd of July!

Here in Utah, if a holiday falls on a Sunday, it gets rescheduled. This was the case with the 4th of July this year. And let me tell you, the 4th of July is a big deal here but we all celebrated on the 3rd!

We woke up early (as Addy has been waking up early lately!) and got decked out in our patriotic gear. At 8am we headed down the street to the local Ward (Mormon church) for a neighborhood pancake breakfast for all of Highland Park (about a 20 blocks). We had breakfast with our next door neighbors and their 4 kids and we enjoyed getting to know them a little better.

After breakfast we plopped down on the grass along one of the streets and prepared for the neighborhood parade. Starting with a gun fire, kids on bikes and in strollers, horses and riders, a man with a handcart, a fire truck, an old John Dear tractor, funny cars & lots of dogs strolled down the street throwing candy and waving at everyone. It was so cute and it seemed straight out of the 50's! (Have you seen the Sandlot?) After the parade we headed down to Alden St. (it goes Alden, Beverly, Chadwick, Dearborn. . . A, B, C, D. . .) for the carnival. We got to pet the horses, go on the fire truck and partake in cotton candy, ring toss, bubble blowing contests, snow cones and everything else you could think of for FREE! It was really fun and Addy loved it!

We took a little siesta through the middle of the day in preparation for the big night ahead. Around dinner time we headed down to a neighbor's house (who happen to be the parents-in-law of the pastor of the church we have been attending) for a 4th (3rd!) of July celebration. We ate fabulous food, got to know some couples from our church and Addy got to see lots of little kids running around.

After all the food, we put Addy to bed in their house and headed for their front lawn to watch the fireworks display being set off at the park nearby. The fireworks were fabulous and it was so neat to live so close to the greatest display in Salt Lake! We got to meet more of our neighbors as they ventured out to see the display. It was quite a celebration even if it was a day early!