Almost Caught Up

Here in Utah, we celebrate the 24th of July (the anniversary of the pioneers arriving in Utah.) As is tradition, with a family of cousins growing up in Spanish Fork and now another of my mother's siblings moving there, and some of his kids following suit; we celebrate the 24th at the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days. I'll admit, we skipped the rodeo this year, and the local production (since none of our family decided to participate.) But you never skip the parade. What is Spanish Fork known for? Championship baseball teams. They fill the parade.

They ride on the backs of flatbeds...

They ride the parade route in ski boats

They ride on house boats and pontoons...

There were some championship girls' teams this year too

You want to make friends with toys? Make friends with Spanish Fork residents. Between all the power ATVs you see in the children's parade and the watercraft carrying athletic teams in the regular parade - yah, you are sure to find yourself a hook up.

Also, following tradition, we go back to my mother's sister's house and the kids enjoy the huge back yard blow-up water slide. Here's some fun video of the craziness.

(this take the slide is kind of dry since we were still filling the back up catcher,
the little pool for those who slide the slide really fast...)

And now more of the bunch... (I thought the twins used the slide too, but they aren't in the video? Nor the Syracuse kiddos...hmm...)

And though the slide is for kids, my cousin has always performed his little trick. Here's one of his daughters introducing his stunt... (sorry about the background noise)

Though he used to clear it no problem, I guess the 30s have taken a little spring off his jump...

And here's another fun videos of my cousin's little girl - tantrum style. Don't you wish all tantrums were this easy...

The neighbors in my aunts and uncles (because my mother's sister and her brother live about a block away from each other) apparently all snuck into Wyoming at sometime because we were essentially surrounded by a stadium fireworks display with the large fireworks going off all around, well all above us. We stuck to the legal in Utah kind. Here are some photos of our fireworks fun!

I didn't get the tower at it's final height, but since legal fireworks can only go so high,
my cousin decided to just keep stacking them on top of each other.
It was pretty effective actually.

Why is another cousin so excited here?

Take away the small child in the shot and you can see why...
FIRE, heh he, Yeah!! Mmm.. FIRE, FIRE!!! ala Beavis and Butthead...

I loved this shirt

Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of milk...

And the prize for the most awkward sleep position of the night, and he fell asleep during all the fireworks, goes to...


He really is asleep...

My final observation or comment on the holiday. Did anyone else have "ground bloom flowers?" You know, the fireworks that spin on the ground and change from red to orange to yellow? Did anyone else notice that they last maybe a third of the time they used to? And this isn't because we are adults now and everything seemed bigger and longer when we were kids. They honestly do not last very long anymore. Disappointing!