Party for the USA!

Oh, the fabulous fourth of July!  We went to Stadium of Fire this year.  I had never actually been to it before.  When I was a BYU student, I watched the fireworks from campus once or twice.  And we took Daniel to see the fireworks from near the BYU library when he was 1 1/2.  But that's all.  I'm not a fan of big crowds, especially when packing kids along, so we are usually content with a family or neighborhood party for the 4th.  But we decided to go anyway this year, partly because we are all David Archuleta fans, and he was performing.  Brad Paisley also performed, but we're not really huge country music fans.  David Archuleta sang 5 songs, including "The Star Spangled Banner."  Apparently, he performed it for the Stadium of Fire back when he was about 12 years old, and so they started off the song with the clip of him singing way back then.

David Archuleta!

Daniel and Benjamin started to get tired while waiting for the concert to end and the fireworks to begin.

Since the Stadium of Fire was on Saturday, that was only the beginning of our party weekend.  On Sunday, we had a family dinner with my parents.

The cousins put on a patriotic parade in the basement, complete with floats that they made from toys.

Benjamin found my dad's old army jacket and thought it would be perfect for his patriotic costume.  It was nice for him to acknowledge the men and women who serve (or have served) our country in the military.

On the actual 4th of July, Wayne volunteered at the Freedom Festival Parade.  We met up with him afterward to go out for pizza and bowling.  Because what's more American than pizza and bowling?  Actually, the kids were just thrilled to have Dad around for a long weekend, and that's what sounded fun to them.