J-July 4th Hot Air Balloon Festival and 4th Festvities

 We had a great 4th of July! We woke up super early to go down to Provo to go down to the hot air balloon festival. Every year when my alarm goes off at about 5:15 I wonder, "Why are we going?" But it is tradition and the kids do really like it once we get there and wake up a little bit. Sadly it was not the best balloon year, the balloons all inflated and then caught a wind and were all gone with in 5 minutes. McKay was not a fan, way too much for him. It was lots and lots of people and he hated the heaters and the noise they  made when they were filling the balloon. Carson had fun watching the Coke balloon go up, Brynn loved the rainbow balloon and the pink piggy bank balloon.
We decided to for go breakfast at the balloons this year and go to breakfast after. We went to Denny's. For some reason my kids think Denny's is a magical place. Carson and Brynn love it there! Carson got eggs and pancakes and ate almost all of it. Brynn was excited to get chocolate chip pancakes with "whoop" cream.
Afterwards we went with my family and Kyle's parents to a movie, we went to go see Madagascar 3. I was a little nervous to see how it went with all three kids. McKay has never been to a movie. But we planned it out and we brought Grandpa's I Pad and the headphones and he just sat on my lap and watched the Bubble Guppies while the rest of us enjoyed the movie. It was great movie, supper funny and the experience overall went much better than I expected.
We came home and everyone, I mean everyone (except Carson) took a nap. It was nice to have some down time and to get a little recharged.

 After we all woke up Kelli and I stared to get our dinner together. The boys and Brynn went outside to throw around the glow in the dark Frisbee we got. It was big hit!

 We had a super yummy classic 4th of July BBQ with hot dogs and hamburgers, potato salad, veggies, and fruit kabobs. (The kids helped me make the kabobs and loved it, we will definitely be making them again!) We had yummy trifle for dessert!

After dinner I got McKay down to bed and then I took Carson and Brynn over to my sisters. We were not allowed to do ANY fireworks in the neighborhood, basically in all of Utah county. We have had wild fires raging through out the state like crazy. There was actually one in Alpine burning on the 4th which was a little too close for comfort. We made a conscious effort to support the no fireworks. I knew the kids would be disappointed because it is one of their favorite things. But they were really good about it. We showed them the no firework signs and explained why we couldn't do it. Carson was baffled why there will still firework stands and why people were still buying them. So we went to my sisters house to get the cousins together and play and do glow sticks and have ice cream sandwiches.

I am a major firework sucker as well and it just didn't feel like the 4th without any fireworks. So I knew the kids would love to come with me to the Thanksgiving Point fireworks. So it was just the 3 of us but we had a blast. We took some candy and found a good spot and watched the fireworks in the back of the car. It was a lot of fun and I am glad we went.