4th of July Weekend and the Discovery of Fireflies

This 4th of July Holiday ended up being one of my favorites.  We had such a fun time.  It actually dawned on us the Wednesday before that Dave was actually going to be home with us on the night of the Logan fireworks.  This hasn't happened in quite a few years....probably the seven that he's been working at the Sheriff's Office.  For the fireworks, Dave is usually on duty and can meet and watch them with us for a minute but then has to leave to go and direct traffic.  So this year it was fun that he could enjoy the whole evening with us.

The night of the Logan fireworks we picked up my mom and went to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner.  We were joined there by some of our camping friends the Rindlisbachers and Bensons.  After dinner we went to BATC where the kids could run and play while waiting for the fireworks to start.  It was so fun going from five of us (me, the girls and Grandma Peterson) to the six of us (Dave, me, the girls and Grandma Peterson) to a whole bunch of us!! 

Saturday, July 2, was the Cruise-In so Dave didn't have to go to work until 5 p.m., which meant he had to work late but we got to be a "normal" family for once on a Saturday morning.  Dave went to work and the girls, Grandma Peterson, and I loaded in the van and headed to Layton to do a little shopping.  We stopped for dinner at the Red Robin....yum....and then went shopping at Target.  It ended up being a fun and relaxing trip.  The girls were great, which makes a big difference.  The only trauma we had was driving through the canyon and Nicole freaking out because she had to pee.  We had to stop at the Park-and-Ride in Wellsville so she could pee behind a tree and be able to make it the additional seven minutes home.  I guess that's easier than having to clean the car seat.

Sunday was just a relaxing day.  Once again, Dave was off so the day was filled with church and a yummy steak dinner with mashed potatoes and steamed shredded carrots.

Monday brought the festivities.  Dave started work at 6 a.m.  The girls and I got up and after breakfast headed to Hyrum for the parade and to watch Dave ride his motorcycle.  It's always fun to watch him ride.  The bummer of the parade was pulling out the camera to take pictures of Dave and getting the "dead battery" icon on the display.  No pictures this year.  I guess next year I'll be better at bringing extra batteries.

After the parade, we met Dave at Fredrico's for lunch and then he headed home and the girls and I went grocery shopping.  Once we made it home, I put the groceries away while Hannah and Ashley played a Food Network show and made a pasta salad for the cookout at G'ma and G'pa Welker's.

After dinner in Nibley we left and headed home to Mendon and agreed that we should let the girls light some fireworks.  We sat out on the driveway and did a few boxes of sparklers and a few other fireworks that we had purchased at the grocery store.

As we finished our fireworks and were loading up to head inside, we realized that we can see the Hyrum fireworks from our driveway.  So, all of us climbed in the back of Dave's truck and watched.  While we were watching, Hannah says, "Dad, did you see that?  Is that a firefly?"  Dave said, "I think you're right Hannah.  It is a firefly."  Then Dave says, "Look!  There's a whole bunch of them."  We are looking out over our pasture and you can see a TON of fireflies.  Dave said that the neighbors across the street had told him there were fireflies in our neighborhood but in the almost three years we've been here we've never seen them.  Of course, we've never sat outside in the back of the truck with the lights out either.  It was so hard trying to decide what to watch......the fireworks from Hyrum or the fireflies.

Just before the fireworks ended we loaded on the golf cart and drove down the the bottom road below our house.  We kept the headlights off and got another great view of the Hyrum fireworks finale and then we were so impressed at the fireflies on both sides of the street out in the fields.  We drove down another little dirt road but couldn't see any and went up our street a ways but couldn't see any that way either.  So we headed back to our house.  Dave drove us to the backyard and into our pasture a little bit.  We parked the golf cart, turned off the headlights again, and were amazed at the fireflies.  Who knew?  I'd have to say that was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.  It was almost as if your eyes were playing tricks on you.  It was awesome!

The weekend did end up being a little on the expensive side though.  Sunday night Dave and I went for a walk/jog.  We're trying to get ourselves ready to hike the Subway in Zion National Park the end of the month.  After we'd made it back home, we wanted to back track where we'd been to see how far we had actually gone.  We went to get in the van and I noticed that the back tire was low with air.  Dave looked and said that we for sure had a flat.  So.....we jumped in the truck with Hannah riding in the back.  We had gone three miles!  Hurray!

Monday morning as we were getting ready to head out for the parade the tire was low again.  Dave had pumped it up to 35 pounds of pressure and it was down 20 pounds of pressure.  So I unloaded all of the girls from the van and we took the truck.  I really didn't want to chance getting stranded somewhere knowing Dave was at work.

Tuesday morning, Dave pumped the tire up for me and off we were to the tire store to get it repaired.  Thank goodness for my mom being willing to pick me up and take me to work while it was being fixed.  Well, I hadn't even made it to work when they were calling to let me know that the tire was unrepairable.  We knew the tires were bad and needed to be replaced when we bought this van but our "plan" was to make it through this summer, put my snow tires on for the winter, and get new tires next spring.  As I always say.....don't have a plan because it never works out how you want it to.  By my lunch break on Tuesday the van was strutting four new tires.  She runs like a champ!!!

That pretty much covers the holiday weekend.  We're looking forward to a camping weekend coming up and then our 24th of July celebration festivities here in Mendon!