The 4th with No Pictures

The 4th was good. It was fun to be with both Tom and Trav's family. The parade was much better than I've ever seen it (it was like, 45 minutes!) and they threw out lots of candy.

We had a really good time with the lunch at Grandma June's and the great food and great company just made the day. We had the usual sloppy joes, Carol's beans, fruit salad, chips, and lots of soda. Desserts were also the usual, there was Texas sheet cake that Madlyn brought, of course the marshmallows with caramel and rice cereal, and then some brownies, and cookies, etc. Theresa didn't get in a political or eco fight with Ray or anyone else this time so that was different than usual.

We went to a softball game that Wasey (sp)'s sister played in. I couldn't tell if they won or lost, but it was fun to watch them.

All of the Hallidays were there. Macy came for the first time in the 4 years since I've been going and she's a pretty cool girl. She's leaving for her mission to the Palmyra church history sites on July 30th, which she's really excited for. She says that after Hawaii she thinks California's cold, so I gave her some tips on how to keep warm. I guess all the people in my (Utica) mission complain about how cold it is, but say "At least we aren't in Rochester" which is the mission she'll be in, so I hope she doesn't die. She's also a vegetarian, so she's trying to decide whether to tell everyone about it or to just eat meat when she goes to the member's homes for dinner...we'll see what happens.

Malad Idol was different than any other year. Usually it's a bunch of 12 year old girls singing Shania Twain or Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats," but this year it was a bunch of older girls singing in prom dresses songs like Mariah Carey's "Hero" and "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid---not the best. There was a 5 year old kid who wore a wig and sang Michael Jackson's "Beat It." But, he didn't know the words so they had to take out the karaoke television and have him read the words from that...it was interesting.

After that we all went to the fireworks. They've stopped doing it at the high school and now do it in the fair grounds, so we all go there and lay on blankets or sit on Grandpa's white chairs. They were really good (they're always really good), and it seemed like they went on for a long time.

We all then went back to Grandma June's and lit some fireworks. Of course, Jordan was in charge of the whole thing, so they did things like jump over the fireworks while they were going or the ones that had flashing lights (like a strobe light), they danced around them. It was pretty cool.

It was then time to drive to the Ranch to call it a day.

The next day was super fun. Trav brought 5 dirtbikes (which I had never driven before, only rode on, one time before), and he let me drive Dillon's little 90 (super fun, especially because I'm awesome at it), so we had pancakes for breakfast, went on a drive, ate lunch, watched The Office (we brought Season 3), went on a drive, ate dinner, went and looked at the house/went for a drive, watched The Office, and went to bed. The next day, it was pretty much the same thing, only there was an hour of church in there for Sacrament Meeting. It was a good weekend. Trav's the most fun to watch The Office with because he laughs at every little thing that's funny. It's awesome.