Fourth of July

We are hardly ever in town for the fourth of July.

We loved going to Chicago for the 4th or to CA.

But the lakehouse in Chicago is gone, and our Shaver reservations are for next week.

So, here we are.

Luckily, Mike was in town too so he took us to the Western Stampede Fair.

It was interesting...

Most of the rides were broken.

We overheard some carnival workers saying that they had been taping things back together.  Kasen said that he has never seen so many mullets and missing teeth in his life!

Me either.

Kasen asked "Is this what fairs are like in Utah?"

Umm...not the ones we usually go to.

The ones by my house are cute and small and full of families.

We usually see all of my neighbors.

Gregor and Joy stopped by but Gregor said that it creeped him out, so he left :)

It was really funny.

But...the kids had a BLAST and Mike was our hero for finding something fun to do.

Dalton and Saxon got their hair sprayed green and Dalton got to ride on a pony.

He LOVES horses and this was the highlight of his week!

He cried when he had to get off...

When we came home, the boys decided to launch rockets.

Everyone promised me that rockets will not cause wildfires.

Utah has had a ton of fires lately and I do not want to cause another!

So, they adjusted for the wind and aimed the first rocket.

They counted down...

3...2...1...

Blastoff!

The rocket went up, the parachute came out, and it sailed right over us and landed on the neighbors roof.

So, there went the first rocket...

The second rocket was bigger.

They adjusted it even farther to try to compensate for the wind.

The kids launched it and it shot like a missile straight into the field behind us.

It landed in the dirt, where the second charge went off, charring the ground.

Didn't everyone promise me that rockets DO NOT start fires!

Luckily, it didn't, but it was close...

They went out and brought it back and tried again.

They readjusted the stand...again...and launched.

It went up, the parachute came out, and it flew straight into a tree.

About 50 feet up.

Nate and Kasen climbed over the fence to to try to get it back.

They broke off a tree branch that was about 30 feet long, but it didn't even come close.

Then they tied two tree branches together, but still couldn't get it.

They tried throwing rocks at it, but still no...

Oh well...I think we lost that rocket.

The baby was dying to climb the fence and go with the big boys!

After rockets, we did fireworks out front.

Mike bought giant sparklers and some fountains and the kids had a blast!

Even baby got a sparkler :)

I hope everyone else had a great Fourth of July too!