July 4th was on a Wednesday this year. Having it midweek means it stretched out the celebrating over an entire week. We started the previous Friday, on June 30, and finished celebrating as a family on Friday the 6th.
The annual Salmon River Days kicked off the celebrations. It was a wonderful, and long, parade. Kathy saved us a spot by the Mahoney House, where we the procession from the lovely shade! Some of the boys' friends watched it with us, too, which was nice!
On Saturday night, we went to the Demolition Derby. It was ran by the Eagles for the first time this year, rather than the Spokes and Chrome Club, so it was a bit different and rather unorganized than usual. There were hardly any cars in it (only 3 big cars with more Herbie Derbie smaller cars), but tons of motorbike and 4-wheeler balloon busting. It was also more expensive than normal, which is kind of a disappointment. However, Josh's ticket number was pulled out of the raffle, so we won a free case of pop, which was a bonus!
On Independence Day, Tiffany's family arrived. It was beautiful weather, and we ate and played outside for several hours. Edward and Kathy bought some bounce houses to use for family reunions, so they set them up, and we set up our racquetball net, croquet set, and new cornhole game in the yard to play with as well.
That night, our family was invited to the Jackson's for dinner, games, and fireworks. We went to purchase some fireworks to take to their house, but unfortunately the firework stand was closed due to selling out!! Several of the other guests that came were in the same pickle. Thankfully, Eli had plenty of giant sparklers to share! It was comical watching the kids/teenagers with those things! Dinner was SUPER delicious: there was a smorgasborg of good things to choose from, and the homemade golf hole and cornhole games were fun for the guys and kids, too! We could barely see the city fireworks display from their house, but we weren't too bothered. I personally am tired of driving up the old dump hill and sitting in sagebrush to watch the show and wish they would pick a new venue!! I miss laying out on park grass to watch the fireworks display above my eyes.
On July 5th, we went floating in our innertubes/inflatables as a family down the Salmon River that afternoon. The sun was shining, and the river speed was just right! It was very enjoyable! We had dinner as a family that evening, and our own fireworks/sparkler show after sundown.
Josh and I had ridden the motorbike out to the Amish store that afternoon, and on the way there, his phone dropped out of his pocket. It hit my foot, but at the time, I didn't know what it was and for some reason thought it to be a bird or something we must've hit, but I didn't say anything. When we arrived at the store, Josh realized his phone was gone, so we left after I bought a few items, and we left. I told him I knew right where it was--well, the general vicinity anyway. We drove to that spot, parked, and about a .5 mile section of the road's borrow pit on foot, but couldn't find it. I kept calling it, so that we could hear it ring if we couldn't see it in the deep grass, but to no avail. There was one last section that it could've been in, but Josh was stressed out about being to dinner on time, so we drove home to eat the family meal. Thankfully, I'd already made my salads earlier in the day, and although we were a little late, the boys had taken the food down to the meal for me. After the meal, we enlisted the boys help and drove back the 10+ miles to the last section that we hadn't looked, and I started calling the phone again. This time, someone answered. Her father had found the phone, but he didn't know how to answer it when I repeatedly called earlier, so he had taken it to his daughter. That had happened during the hour gap from when I had last called to this time. We met up in town, and got the phone back, and shockingly, there wasn't any damage!! That was lucky!! He was so glad to have his phone back!
That afternoon, we ate a big meal, and played outside together for several hours. Tiffany's family left that evening, and Gideon and Malachi's family left the next day. Amanda and Ryan came to visit that evening--Ryan had never been out to our place before. We sat around the yard for a while, then had a bonfire with goodies, and some of Josh's family joined us for that, too.
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| Since we were already at the cemetery, we visited his grandparents' graves, too. |
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| This was the first time we'd seen Gideon & Alyssa's daughter Vivienne. She's adorable! I got to hold her a lot, which was super fun for me! |
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| The racquetball game had a TON of usage! It was so fun to watch all the kiddos play it with each other so much! |
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| I love to play games!!! We also played croquet, and I lost big-time to Mal! |
I kind of liked spreading out the festivities this year; it felt more relaxed! The holiday celebrations this year were a fabulous mixture of family, friends, food, and fun--the perfect combination!
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