Happy 4th of July!

Who doesn't love the 4th of July?! Growing up in Utah I remember having the funnest 4th of July's ever. My favorites being the couple of times I was able to dance in the annual Stadium of Fire extravaganza at BYU's Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. One year my dance group "The Salt Lake Stars" had us dancing around Night Rider's car, Kit (I don't think David Hasselhoff was there) and the other year we were backup dancers to THE JETS! Oh yeah, who doesn't remember "Crush on You!" Loved it. And can I add that last year the Stadium of Fire had Taylor Hicks from American Idol, and this year they had Hannah Montana! Say what!? Then again, some may say that the Stadium of Fire has come A LONG way to get Miley Cyrus, but how many people can say they danced with "The Hoff's" car?! I mean, honestly...

Anyway, this year had to take a distant third in my memory book...can't compete with Kit and The Jets, of course, but the annual Frisco Freedom Festival held it's own pretty well. After a wonderful BBQ at the Rottweilers, Garrett and I dropped off Jeff and Isaac at home (the little guy isn't invited to too many activities these days) and then we were off to Pizza Hut Park, home of Texas' major league soccer team, FC Dallas. The minute we entered the park, Garrett spotted his prize purchase....some glow-in-the-dark stick. $10 later, we were good to go. I have to admit I was happy I had made the purchase after I saw how much fun it added to Garrett's night. Garrett, and his friend Alex, had more fun dancing around the field with their "light savers". I mean back in the day, all we had was a glow-in-the-dark necklace (that lasted all of 20 minutes before losing it's juice...the stick is still glowing strong), so they've come a long way since then.

The fireworks were fabulous if you didn't care that half of the sky was covered by the stadium. Oops, didn't realize that we were sitting a little to far forward. But we didn't care, it's the 4th of July and they are fireworks!

The most fun part of the night for me was seeing how much fun Garrett was having. Life really is so much more fun with kids (unless you are grocery shopping!). This is the first year we have officially taken Garrett to see a real firework show (last year's consisted of sparklers at the condo in Orlando....) and you could totally tell. I also got emotional when I saw all his friends around, having just as good of time. These 3 friends of Garrett's he has basically known his entire life.

Garrett, Alex Barker, Scotty Frederick, and Jaxon Copeland (cousin)

We met Kellie and Ryan when Alex was no more than 5 months old and Garrett was just 3 months old. We met Steve and Jenny weeks before Scotty was born, and of course, we've known Jaxon his entire life...after all, he is my nephew (my brother Cameron, and Anne)!What an amazing friendship these little guys have already. To Garrett, they are all his "best friends!" And this fall will be especially exciting when the three older boys (Alex, Garrett, and Jaxon) will all be starting Kindergarten! I swear they were all just born...which made me think how quickly time will fly and we will be sending these 4 boys off on missions!

Anyway, it was a wonderful day spent with great family and wonderful friends. And what a fabulous treat to be a mom to this sweet little boy!