4th of July...a little late.

(I can't get the photos to move below the pictures for some reason, so if you want to know the details to my 4th of July, you will find it at the bottom of this post.)

The younger kids were supposed to take a nap, but that never happened. How can you sleep when you have fun cousins who want to play?

And even if you are too big, there are times when you really should have a nap. Instead you can mope in a chair until you get over it.

The Fourth of July was a very fun and busy day...and it started early with an alarm clock. No sleeping in for SM and I. His parents set off early for the park in Salt Lake County, to save a place for the whole family. We put together a salad for my family reunion, gathered together all the things we needed for that day and hopped into the car. We took SM's sister and youngest with us to the park where we met up with his parents. We were only there a short time because we needed to travel south to Genola. I honestly couldn't remember how long it would take us to get there...but we planned it perfectly and arrived at my family reunion right when it was supposed to start. Well, of course you can't start with a majority of the aunts and uncles missing. So, we waited until everyone arrived and then the festivities began. We had lots of food and a great opportunity to visit with cousins and aunts and uncles. Some of my cousins I haven't seen for years and years so this was a great time to get caught up on their lives and on their children. It was fun to see kids who had grown and grown. I remember most of them as babies and now they are no longer babies. During this reunion, I didn't pull out my camera. I now wish I had but at the time I felt awkward.

After the Genola reunion, we drove back up to Salt Lake to the park where all of SM's family were now enjoying the 4th of July. We had yummy food, played games, sat around talking to each other and kept an eye out for all the young kids who almost got lost many different times.

I did bring my camera here and so here are photos of the events. We stayed at the park all day and a good portion of the night. The fireworks were fabulous! And after the fireworks, we waited around as the thousands of people cleared the park. We had a great talk with the cops as they stopped to see why we weren't leaving. The main cop we spoke to must be a comedian as a side hobby because he had us laughing for a good half hour. It was a highlight of this years' trip to the park.