4th of July 2012

We began our celebrations for the 4th of July by getting up at 4:30 AM so I could wash and curl my hair before we drove to Provo and were there for the 6:00 AM lift-off of 25 colorful hot-air balloons.  At that time of the morning, it was below 70 degrees -- a little on the nippy side.  We brought our folding chairs so we could watch the activity in comfort.  There were a lot of couples and families, and it was a fun time watching the balloons being filled as well as all the people watching. 

The first balloon up was the Alexander Print Stop balloon. 

As it ascended, we sang the Star Spangled Banner and then said the Pledge of Allegiance.  It was good to make a sound proclamation of our patriotism.  

 Up

 Up

 And Away. . . .

The "Smokey the Bear" Balloon was especially meaningful for us all as there are currently at least ten major wild-fires burning in Utah right now.  In many places, fireworks are banned right now because of the dreadfully high fire risk.  It's been very hot since the middle of June, and the humidity is frighteningly low.  Last Sunday, Governor Herbert requested that a letter, asking everyone to pray for the protection of all the firefighters, homes and property, to be read in all church meetings.  As I type this, on the evening of July 5th, it's been a rainy, overcast, cool day.  We're all so grateful.  See, there are answers to prayers.

From the balloons, we found our seats for the Parade.  As we sought out our seats, we learned that many of the parade viewers had spent the night in order to secure good seats.  In the wisdom that comes with getting older, we had purchased grand-stand seats this year. We were so happy with our foresight and decided that this was the only way to do it!  We were in the shade of a big tree, and could hear the commentator, and were able to view the whole production without people walking in front of us. I think we've started a new tradition.  Next year we'll bring a couple grand-kids to share in the experience. (Sorry -- no picture of us in our seats.)

As we approached the parade route, we had to cut through a river of 10 K runners.  It was pretty risky for a couple of sectarians.  (That's a "C", not an "X"!)

 It was a great parade.  They had big character balloons!

Floats with pretty girls,

 High school marching bands,

 Bagpipe players,

And a guy on a pink Case Tractor???  Crazy. . . . Is there a "real man" joke in there somewhere?

We had a good time, celebrating the 4th of July this year.  The only problem was that we were too tired to stay up for the fire-works. : (         I guess we ARE getting old.