Fun and Family on the 24th

Here in Utah, the 24th of July is a bigger deal than the 4th in a lot of ways. One thing I love about where I live is that we're right in the middle of everything.

This year I woke up the kiddos with the grandiose plan of walking to Liberty Park to see the floats as they arrive at the end of the parade route. I thought we could get there at, say, 9:30 or so and see the majority of the floats as they arrive.

At 11:15 we walked out the door.

We live close enough to the park that we can walk there, but far enough for it to feel really miserable in the 100 degree weather.

Still, the kids were troopers and off we went.

Here's some of the fun stuff we saw:

By this point, the kids were hot and tired and Sadie kept asking me when we were going to have fun.

So, like the good mom I am, I made them walk through the Native American festival.

I would have loved to have taken them to the pow wow, but one good look at the shadeless circle (and the admission prices) made me change my mind.

We plopped down in the shade and I took some fun portraits of my cuties:

Tired, hot and hungry, (and not really excited about spending 8 dollars a plate for fair food,) we start towards home when Josh says, "The Aviary is free today!"

So, not one to pass up a bargain even if my kids melt into sticky sidewalk blobs, we make an Aviary detour.

My cutie pies (especially Isaac and Sadie) really love animals so we had a lot of fun. I even got to take some birds home with us!

Hot and tired and REALLY done now, we head back home via 7-11 for Slurpees. I get a little souvenir of my own as I get to do the walk of shame with a huge read spill of cherry slurpee all over my light blue shirt.

The kids have enough time for a little nap before we head to Reed's parent's home for dinner and fireworks.

Here's a picture of Marlow, my nephew. Isn't he a cutie?

Liberty Park has a nice fireworks display for the 24th. All we have to do is walk a block or so and can get a decent view. I've been trying to get the firework picture thing down, and I STILL don't have it down (I think I've got the shutter open too long, and for some reason I'm not really getting the right color.) Anyway, here's my attempt:

At the end of the night, Sadie climbed on my lap and said, "Mommy, I had LOTS of fun today!"

Mission accomplished.

I can ride my bike with no handlebars...no handlebars....

Well, I could, until my badonkadonk got too big for the seat.

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I've been having a lot of fun lately altering photos. For those of you with Photoshop, there's a fun filter plug-in that's FREE (yes, FREE) called Virtual Photographer from optikVerve labs. Below are some photos that I played around with using some of their different filters:






The last one is my favorite...I have been thinking of pictures I can take this fall that I can use that filter on.

Speaking of filters, for some reason my artistic filters that came with PSE don't work right. (The drawing and painting ones.) Not sure if I messed them up with my plug ins or if they were already messed up. Anyone have a good suggestion for some download ones that do colored pencil, watercolor, etc.? Mine just do this weird green thing.

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In other news:

1)Bree goes to EFY next week...and I'm a little clueless as to when and where she's supposed to show up. I guess I should get that figured out.

2)Kids are taking dance this summer, and both of the boys are really interested in tap. The teacher is thrilled with them because they keep their knees bent and seem to have a knack for it. She even said she thinks that they'd do well in competition. Sometimes I think she's one of those teachers that tries to make you think your kids are the next hot thing so you'll keep them at the school. *wink*

She's already got a partner picked out for Josh for couple's competitions (cute little girl named Jen) and keeps telling me to save up now because they'll need tap shoes and jazz shoes (when they grow out of the ones they have), not to mention costumes and our monthly fee. The school rates are actually really reasonable, and she's giving me a HUGE break on the boys tuition, but it is still adding up like crazy. (Costumes for the 3 kids this year were 200 + and that's not counting the shoes.) The kids love it, so I'm happy, but BOY, did I not think this thing all the way through.

3)Speaking of dance, I have pictures of the kids that the studio did and they are dang cute. I'll have to photo them or scan them and post later.

4) Bree went to her first summer XC practice today. She's so funny, because I think she actually does enjoy it but she really doesn't WANT to enjoy it. She pouts and moans and complains, but says she misses running when she doesn't have practice. If we can somehow get an attitude adjustment, I think she'll find she can do much better than she's currently doing. I think she needs to get her "head in the game." (She'll kill me for that quote, since she attends THE East High School of "High School Musical" fame, and had to endure trying to go to school while they filmed the third one-- she despises EVERYTHING remotely related to it.)

5) Poor Ike woke up all stuffed up today with puffy eyes. All of my kids look like their dad's side of the family, except Ike, who looks so very much like my brother Nick. Poor kid also inherited Nick's ezcema, Becky's allergies, and my nearsightedness. I get ONE kid out of four that resembles me at all and he also inherits all the crap my side has. I guess I should be gratefull the rest take more after the Watson side.

That's it for today. I've got to try to get some laundry done before I head off to work later. Thanks for stopping by. :)