6th July 2012
I had a birthday! Shout hurray!
I should be a little embarrassed to post this picture, but oh well. At least Leah is a cute little blow-out-the-candles-helper.
To celebrate, I wanted to have a nice little picnic up the canyon with my family. We found a pretty little picnic spot up my one of my favorite canyons. It was private, surrounded by trees and next to a mountain stream. The kids had a blast cooling off in the water and building a little fairy village on the banks. My mom brought up an awesome birthday dinner spread and we feasted and enjoyed the much cooler mountain air. I wish I had more pictures from the evening.
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My other birthday wish was to go mountain biking. I haven’t been since before I was pregnant and I was worried about how I’d do cranking up the hill. I woke up super early, fed my little Sam and hit the trail. I was greeted by a beautiful sunrise.
(This Mormon Temple sits right at the trail head.)
I was completely beat by the ride. I had to huff and puff during the climb up but, of course, still loved the swooshing downhill ride. The rest of the day I spent in a recovery position.
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We also had a nice Independence Day celebration. We spent the hot afternoon at the water slides. I spent most of the time in the shade with Sam but Emma did persuade me to join her on the sides once.
{imagine picture of my cute sun-kissed kids splashing in the water}
In the evening we went to our neighborhood’s annual BBQ and fireworks gathering. It’s always fun to eat good food and sit around and chat. It got exciting, though, when we were in the middle of watching our pool of fireworks go off when I looked over to see an 80 year old man who lives down the street and around the corner standing over and hollering at one of my neighbors. I didn’t know what was going on but watched in jaw dropping shock as the yelling escalated. The old man finally got back in his car and on his way out of the cul-de-sac, drove over a spouting fountain of fireworks. Luckily the car didn’t burst into flames but a couple different neighbors stopped him for his reckless driving (they were worried about the safety of their kids) and more yelling began and eventually very loud cursing.
{imagine picture of grown men in a yelling brawl each being help back by another grown man. Yes, imagine something you saw in middle school. Ha!}
After all the drama was over I found out that the old man was upset because his poor horse was having hysterics and he was mad at us for having loud fireworks. I guess it happened last year too but we had been out of town. Poor guy. I do feel bad for him but HELLO!! It’s the 4th of July. Loud fireworks were going off ALL OVER THE CITY COUNTRY. I’m really sorry about his horse but what could we do about it? If we stopped, there were still fireworks going off just around the block.
My dog hates the fireworks too. All animals do. We came home to a panting, running-mad-all-over-the-house dog. Do you have an animal that hate the fireworks? Do you do anything to calm them down? What can you do for a horse?
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It is a little surprising we were allowed to have fireworks at all.
I snapped this picture while I was out running errands the other day. That is smoke, not clouds. Utah has been riddled with wild fires. It has been a super dry and hot summer this year. These mountains can be viewed from my kitchen sink. Crazy, huh! Luckily it rained yesterday which helped. It was a real good rain too. An answer to prayers!
jodi
July 7, 2012 at 9:22 am (323 days ago)Sounds like an eventful 4th and a fun birthday. Kind of jealous of your beautiful mountain bike ride. Sounds wonderful. That was fun (and exhausting) when I went with you last time I was out there. Thanks for letting me tag along.