Let freedom sleep in...please.

Bryce got 2 days off for the 4th (we're guessing because he gets no days off for the 24th - which is a Utah state holiday if you are wondering) so we had a nice long weekend to celebrate our country. We decided to honor all that is good and just about our nation by shopping. You can thank me later for stimulating the economy (will that phrase ever die?). Actually, the first day he had off we didn't do much of anything. Friday we headed up to the Park City outlet malls. I always arrive at the outlets optimistic, with visions of clearance in my size dancing in my head. As usual, I left this time empty-handed as far as my own wardrobe. We almost struck out with the boys too, but at the last moment we hit up Osh Kosh which had a sale on top of clearance prices and so Will got stocked up on shirts for next summer. Bryce did okay. He got a couple of pairs of microfiber dress pants (not just for sofas anymore!) for $5.80 each. Not too shabby. Afterwards we went to Cascade springs and walked around and took some pictures. It has been a long time since I've been there and it wasn't like what I remembered. Mostly, I don't remember it being so far off the main road. It was pretty though.

Usually I am all for fixing my highlights and shadows with Picasa, but this one (above) is straight out of my camera.

This one was also straight out of the camera.

Every year I think "this year we will wake up early and go see the hot air balloons" and then every year when the morning arrives I think "there is no way I am voluntarily waking up a sleeping child so that they can see hot air balloons and be miserable for the rest of the day." So once again, we didn't see more than a couple balloons that were still flying when we made our way to the parade route. We found about 2 feet of empty curb and sat down on the cement to wait for the parade to start. Apparently, the people who had already roped off half of the block behind us felt that they therefore owned the curb too as they didn't seem too happy to see us sitting there when they showed up to claim their spot. They told their kids to go ahead and set up their camp chairs in front of us and just put their blankets in front of us in the street. We could still see so it didn't really matter, and I'm sure someone would have sat there anyways, but it was kind of obnoxious considering they had roped off the whole area behind us and then didn't show up until after the parade had started. Whatever. Coincidentally, we were directly across the street from this group. Will spent the whole parade obsessed with trying to get candy, but he wasn't aggressive enough so by the time he ran out to try to get some it was all already snatched up by the roaming herd of older candy-seeking children. Then he would cry until the next time a candy-thrower came by and the whole cycle would repeat. Hope springs eternal. We took off a little before the parade ended and made our way down to Center Street to check out the fair. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea and it was mobbed. We made a quick walk-through and then headed home by way of the grocery store to buy some ice cream. I don't know if the kids liked the parade very much or not, but I hope they fondly remember that "Mom and Dad always took us to the parade" because it is no small feat in this town!

We spent the afternoon hanging out at home and then headed up towards Salt Lake for dinner and swimming with some friends of ours. It was fun and the kids were having a blast. Sawyer would not go in the water, but Will wouldn't get out. He spent most of the time paddling around in one of those inflatable tubes with the harness that are designed for babies. After eating Will wanted to get back in the water. Bryce had already changed clothes so he said it was my turn to take him. The water was a little too cold for my liking so I was sitting on a chair next to the pool with Bryce talking to one of the other guests there. Will was playing on the pool deck and I told him not to get in the water by himself and then I turned to answer a question. I looked back at the pool in time to see Will in the pool with his head underwater kicking and flailing. I jumped in and grabbed him and he was fine, but he scared himself and scared me! Apparently he had tried to get in the pool using a kickboard, but he let go of the kickboard and couldn't keep his head above water. That child is going to give me a heart attack. [When I put him to bed that night I asked him what his favorite part of the day was and he said "swimming"; I asked him what his least favorite part of the day was and he said "when the water was in my mouth and I couldn't breathe." No kidding!]

We set off some fire crackers in the parking lot and then went and watched the Sandy city fireworks. We could see 3 different sets of fireworks going off from our view up in the foothills. It was a fun, although exhausting, weekend.