July 4, 2012

For Ryan's birthday I got him a bike rack that could hold 5 bikes. We decided to go for a family bike ride on the morning of July 4th up the Provo River Trail. We got 5 bikes on the bike rack and Evelyn's trailer and Austin's bike on top of Ryan's car. I was pretty impressed.

It was a beautiful day and a nice ride up to Bridal Veil Falls.

After cooling off in the falls we rode up to Vivian Park. It was a little tricky trying to take this picture with my phone while riding a bike with one hand in a cast. Good thing I didn't crash. I just love the view of all my family riding in a line. It's pretty long.

After we got home and put everything away we got back in Ryan's truck and headed up to Nikki's for a 4th of July family party. There was a lot of yummy food and Austin had a blast learning to play volleyball. But it was nothing compared to the fun of Adam's Amazing Fireworks.

The kids played around with family fireworks for a while. Then at 9 pm Adam asked if he could start his. I said, No, that he needed to wait until it was dark. I could tell he was a little antsy to have some real fun but I still made him wait.

Finally at 9:30 pm I told Adam he could get started. First he brought out these long sticks and handed one to each of the kids. It took as all a freakish moment before we all started screaming, "Get out from under the trees, DON'T point that at Jack, move away from anyone else and POINT YOUR FIREWORK UP!" Whew. It was a little stressful because these sticks launched 6 rapid fireworks 150 feet into the air. They packed quite a punch and I think a lot of us parents saw trees burning, or even kids burning, in our minds eye.

Still, cool fireworks. Sorry about the fuzzy pictures. My phone has a very weak flash and doesn't do well in the dark.

Then Adam brought out "the grand finale". It was a huge box that launched half a dozen fireworks 300 feet or so with a boom! We all hoorahed and clapped and Adam sat down. Then a minute later he stood up and brought out a bigger box and said "now for the Grand finale"! And there was even more booming! It took my breath away. Well, he did this 5 times! And each box got bigger with more booms. I've seen an illegal firework or two in my time but nothing like this! It was so impressive. We decided that we're inviting Adam to all the Fourth of July parties. (Since I guess this is the kind of party he usually has at his house in CA for the fourth).

Evelyn enjoyed the show for about ten minutes before she fell asleep on Ryan. She had quite the day and there was no amount of booming that was going to keep her awake for another minute.