happy fourth of july!

We had both a relaxing and exciting Independence Day celebration. The first part of the day was sleeping in, hanging out at home and not doing much. Then, at about 4:00pm, we took off for Provo where we had dinner at a couple of our favorite haunts from our college days--Tom ate at El Azteca and the girls and I ate at The Brick Oven (known during my mom's day as Heaps of Pizza). Then, along with 50,000 or so of our closest friends, we crammed into Lavell Edwards Stadium at BYU for Stadium of Fire.

We were all riveted by the sky divers who jumped and landed in the stadium--we were amazed at how fast they came in! It was impressive. Glenn Beck was inspiring, patriotic and fun to listen to (as always). Ava loved the "Blue Guys" a.k.a. The Blue Man Group. She especially thought the part where they painted themselves while playing the drums was funny. Ella danced and rocked out to Miley Cyrus and loved every minute. I loved seeing her have so much fun--man, she's growing up fast. Then, ending it all was the amazingly extensive fireworks extravaganza. It went on and on--Ella kept asking if it was the finale. The only downside of being in the stadium for the fireworks was the constant rain of ash falling on us. But it was a small price to pay for being up close to all the action. I thought the funniest part of it all was that we were watching fireworks made in China while listening to "God Bless America" sung by a French Canadian (Celine Dion). Apparently, it's a holiday that can bring us all together.

After getting back to the car, fighting traffic to get on our way home, stopping for drinks and a bathroom break and driving home, we finally all fell into bed a little after 1:00am. Needless to say, we took it easy today and I really should be sleeping right now. Hope you all had (and are probably still having, if you're like everyone else) an excellent Fourth of July. Despite all the problems and challenges we're facing today, we still live in a pretty amazing country. Happy birthday, America!