Utah Holiday... Happy 24th of July!

One thing that is very unique to Utah is that there are two major holidays in July where stores and doctors offices close, we get off school, etc. One is the fourth and one is the twenty fourth! I've always recognized this day and remembered it because when I was growing up we were often in Luna for it - which also has a parade and everything! This was Heath's first time celebrating it though! It was a fun weekend and great to think about the Pioneers and the sacrifices they made to keep the gospel coming forth. They are great examples and have such wonderful testimonies to learn from! Heath got the day off so we made it a two day little vacation up to Salt Lake! We headed up Sunday morning in time for Music and The Spoken Word. It was a beautiful performance all centered on the Pioneers and their memory. Every time I'm able to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir I'm filled with the Spirit. It's so wonderful - the power and testimony that can come through music. We were right in front and enjoyed listening to the music!

We decided after that that we'd just go somewhere along the parade route (that was going on Monday morning) and enjoy the afternoon together. Little did we know that you aren't supposed to set up along there until 8pm the night before the event. The cops came through and told us to leave and gave us a paper with the city ordinance on it. Crazy! Of course, I was ready to leave and get out of there. But there were tons of people out there already and they told us that they did this every year and if we sit on public property then they'll leave us alone. The cops came through several times but once we put our chairs back on the other side of the sidewalk they said we were fine. It was quite the exciting afternoon. We made some friends and chatted with the people around us, played some games, read, and ate our pasta salad and treats we had brought. On their way back from Idaho Chad, Denise, and Marcus stopped by and said hi too! They drove by and Denise threw starbursts out the window! We were very excited - they were the pre-parade! It was fun to talk to them for a while! (And turns out that was the ONLY candy thrown! What? Parade and no candy? Sad day! -Well we did get two pieces from an older gentleman in an old car. He had thrown one piece to a kid next to us and we cheered so he gave us some too! He's the only one that understands what's necessary for a parade - besides our siblings! :)

Behind the sidewalk so we didn't get in trouble by the cops.

I made a LOT of pasta salad and it kept us filled up! We had some in the parking garage after Music and the Spoken Word and then ate it throughout the day. Yummy!

We also brought some other food... like Pringles! Quack Quack!

Our friends that sat next to us throughout the day. :)

The police keeping us off public property... crazy!

 At 8pm the cops came around and told us that we could move forward and start camping out! We still weren't allowed to set up tents but we could set up anything else. So we moved up and settled in for the rest of the night. What a crazy experience but fun and entertaining as well!

Heath laying out on our prime spot reserved at noon on Sunday! :)

Food! :)

Bread and honey for a snack

Having fun watching the old cars and playing yahtzee through the evening!

Yeah... people brought couches and put them up along the street! haha... awesome!

There was a family that came right before 8 and kept unloading and unloading... there were a ton of them with lots 'n lots of stuff!

 We had fun playing games and watching all the old cars that drove past through the evening. The streets were FILLED by that point and really was such a fun atmosphere to be in! I eventually laid down on our air mattress and slept for a quite a bit of the night (sort of) and Heath got a little bit of sleep but mostly it was in and out, talking, reading, playing, watching... what a crazy evening just sleeping out on the streets of Salt Lake City!! :)

In the morning we had some bread and honey and peanut butter and enjoyed the crisp morning together. The race runners came by fairly early and we watched all of them run by and cheered sometimes. The ladies next to us were WAY into the cheering! They cheered the whole time for every single runner... which was about an hour to an hour and a half of cheering. Impressive, kind of crazy, kind of entertaining! ha. :) A while after that the parade began! It was pretty good... less about the pioneers then I expected but it was still a fun parade! My favorite part was watching everyone stand in respect and wave to President Monson and his wife that were in a car near the front of the parade. He's such a sweet man and she is so sweet as well. It was a cool feeling to be able to wave to him and super neat to watch everyone along the street stand in respect for him. What a neat thing in the midst of crazy parade-ness and celebration! :)

Waiting for the parade

Front Row Seats!

The motorcycle cops at the beginning of the parade were way cool... and funny because all of them had mustaches (some fake - including the women! Awesome..)

Happy Pioneer Day!

Yee haw!

Press Forward Saints

Heath was pretty upset because there weren't any fire trucks in the parade! What's a parade without fire trucks?? This was the only one we saw and it went by the night before. Sad!

After the parade was over we gathered up our stuff and put it back in the truck and then walked the rest of the parade route. We were very happy with where we ended up - great seats and great area! The parade ended at a huge park! It was set up with all kinds of stands and food and games... it was like a mini state fair almost. We just looked - avoided any money spending - but even that was way fun! It was a cool park with a man made lake in the middle and stuff. It was fun! We spent a while there and then walked back to the truck and headed home! What a fun fun fun weekend with my husband!! We're not sure if we'd ever do that again but it was quite the experience! And it was just so fun to be together!! When we got home that afternoon we said we were going to take a nap and then get up and do some things we needed to do. Well... our nap lasted until the next morning! We were pretty exhausted but it was such an AMAZINGLY fun 24th of July!! :)

Christmas in July... Riding in a Helicopter!!

Something that Heath has always wanted to do is ride in a helicopter! One thing that I've always wanted to do is go scuba diving! When we were engaged we planned our honeymoon to Jamaica and we were going to get to go scuba diving (didn't happen because of the weather but someday :) so I decided for Christmas I'd get Heath a gift certificate to ride in a helicopter so we'd both get to do something we've always wanted to. We had that gift certificate on our fridge since we got married and kept talking about when we wanted to go. We decided we wanted to wait until it was prettier and nicer weather so finally once summer hit I called and made a reservation. We were supposed to go at about 7. We got there and it was sprinkling and the sky looked pretty ugly. It was up in Bountiful so we didn't just want to reschedule so we waited out the storm. We had a few hours to spend with the helicopter guys. They were really nice and kept saying they thought pretty soon the storm would be over us and it would be perfect weather. We waited so long they even ordered dinner for us from Cafe Rio! Yummy! Just before our food got there the weather cleared and we decided we'd go up while it was clear.

It was SO fun! We ended up going up right before sunset so we got to see the beautiful sunset up in the sky and then see the city lights at night. It was such a cool feeling to just hover up in the sky. When the helicopter takes off it's nothing like an airplane. It's smooth and then you're suddenly just up in the air. We flew over bountiful - saw Lagoon and then had a really cool view of the temple. He took us up by the mountain past the temple and then came in sideways over the temple. It was a gorgeous view! The sunset was beautiful too! And it was fun to be up there once it got dark too because Heath and I have spent a lot of time up on the top of mountains looking at the city lights - in Albuquerque and Provo. It was such a fun night - I'm so glad we waited because it was perfect weather then and the perfect flight! And we got dinner out of it! :) We didn't get home until about 10 or 11 but it was worth it! Heath loved it too - which made me so happy! He can check that off his list of things to do... the next thing he's trying to convince me to do is Skydive... Ah! :) We'll see if that happens. He's working hard on it. I love him! Merry Christmas in July Babe!

Ready to go

All closed and ready for lift off... so excited!

End of the Beautiful Sunset!

Bountiful temple from above

So fun!

Happy Fourth of July!

So... our 4th of July week was quite eventful and so fun!! Friday evening Shelby flew up here! Chad was taking Denise to the airport to go to visit her family anyway so he picked her up and brought her to our house. She stayed with us for a week to hang out with us and to go to a Basketball Camp at BYU. It was so fun to have her! She and Heath are just like siblings... they tease each other constantly but they like each other, I know it. :) Heath took off work that Saturday so we could spend it all together. I went and swam with the Dabling kids in the morning (which was way fun!) and then brought Kneaders French Toast home for breakfast. We had fun just lazying around the house in the morning and then headed to campus to play some sports! Heath was Shelby's personal post coach for the week and we spent a lot of time in the gym with him helping her with things she can work on as the post. It was fun! And fun to just sit back and watch them work together too. :) Shelby's a good ball player! And Heath is too... :)

They were so fast most of my pictures turned out blurry. ;)

Ready to go...

Trying to take him on the drive

Score! :)

After basketball we went outside and played tennis. The first match we played Shelby and I vs. Heath. He won... we need to work on our doubles strategy together. :) It was really hot but it was way fun! The second match I let the two studs play against each other. Shelbs gave Heath a run for his money... it was a good game! Fun to watch for sure! And good for me to watch them to try and learn from their skills!

After we had a fun day of sports playing we got cleaned up and met up with Rhonda, Chad, Harrison, and Austin at Sizzler for dinner. Rhonda treated us all - so nice of her! It was fun to see them all too. We had a yummy and fun dinner chatting and enjoying some good food!

From dinner we headed back to our house and hung out for a while and then headed to the Stadium of Fire. The parking was crazy so we just walked from our house, which was a good idea. We were all in our Red, White, and Blue ready to celebrate the Fourth! :) They had dancers and music to celebrate, a talent competition, a sweet flyover with the captain on the screen talking to us, a message from Jimmer and some BYU sports lovin', concerts by David Archuleta and Brad Paisley (he sang "Waiting on a Woman" - Heath was happy, that describes our life :) he also sang "water" - we were joking about him not singing any drinking songs and Chad added "Here in Provo we don't want beer, we just want water!" ha it was great!), and then a firework show - which was AMAZING!! The best I've ever seen! It was so much fun!!

Dancers - they made the Liberty Bell and Statue of Liberty too - pretty cool!

Flyover - Heath loves those!!

Fireworks during the National Anthem during "And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air..." Gave me chills!

We love our sunglasses, each other, and stadium of fire! :)

Shelbs enjoying her frozen lemonade and Chad texting his wifey!

 Above: Chad singing some David for his wife! Heath isn't a David fan... :)

Fireworks! We got some good pictures and great videos too!

Leaving... there were LOTS of people!

Monday Heath had to work :( but Chad, Shelby, and I went to the Provo parade. It was pretty fun! We had a good spot (until someone put up a huge umbrella in front of us half way through the parade) and then we walked around and watched and then had some yummy lunch at a BBQ place. It was a fun morning!

Yay parade!

Heath LOVES Star Wars (NOT! ha)... so I took this one for him!

I love my lil sis!

Missionaries!! We came to the conclusion that these were Provo missionaries not those in the MTC... but we still looked for Kyle just in case!

Aw.. siblings! Just missing one.. Go Elder Harrison!

Aw... cowboys remind me of my hubby! :)

That night we had a family BBQ at JT and Sara's it was all of the Wisers and Harrison/Wests except Kyle and Denise. :( We had a fun night though! We ate and then the boys played football as us girls sat and chatted. Then we ended it with a few of our own fireworks and taking some videos/recordings for Kyle!

Seeing if we could spell words with our sparklers... got the K

Then got the YLE but missed the K

Looking like Kyle..

Woo hoo.. good job team!

One more for good measure.

Our little firework

Our big fireworks

We enjoyed the rest of the week with Shelby visiting us! And Grandma and Mom came the last few days and we had fun with them here too! I love my family! I'm so thankful for the freedoms we have in this country and for all those that continue to defend it! Since my travels to other countries... which I really enjoy... I'm incredibly grateful for this one. God Bless America!