Socks and Sparklers

Here are some fun July pics.

Megan and Lacie started the month off by showing off their best moves in their favorite crazy socks. 

Somehow, everything is more fun in silly socks.  Don't you think so?

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Happy Fourth of July from the Fowler girls.

Silver Lake Rewind

During our trip to visit the Baker family over the 4th of July, we discovered a new place to explore.  If you can endure the winding, car-sickness inducing ride to the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon, you'll love it.  (I was miserable by the time we made it to the top!)

Apparently we weren't the first to stop for a picnic lunch.  The squirrels were quite tame.  Lacie was a little worried about them trying to steal her sandwich.  You have to look closely to see the squirrel.

The area is simply a boardwalk/path around a lake.  You are surrounded by lake and pretty forest.  It's a really nice, easy hike.  You can make it as fun as you want to.  Just follow Lacie and Megan's example.

The path made a really nice airplane runway!

So, next time you're in the area and want to see some pretty scenery, check out Silver Lake.  (But bring a jacket.  It's cold at the top of the mountain--and a little windy.)

Fourth of July Parade

After our 911 incident, we finally made it to Haley's house for the holiday.  Saturday morning, we attended the Murray Fourth of July Parade.  You know you must be in Utah when people can set up folding chairs the night before, leave them unattended, and their spot is still there in the morning.  Amazing!

The only area not "reserved" the night before was at the end of the parade, so we waited a little while for things to get started.  We staked our claim and settled in to wait.

Before the show, the paramedics passed out beads to the kids.

Then more people came with American flags. 

Tessa and Paige liked their flags, too.

My favorite parts of the parade were the dog with the monkey on his back, and the jacked up jeeps that drove on each other's tires.

There were cute floats, good bands, and clowns, too.  The girls loved it all--especially the candy throwing part!  They came home with quiet the haul.  Good times.

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a really fun family day on the 4th. We started the day with a Builder's Workshop at Home Depot. (If you haven't tried this yet--take your kids! They get to build something for free. We've done it twice now, and the girls love it.)

Here are the girls working on their projects. The last time we did this, Steve was on call, so I had all three girls by myself. I'll skip the details and just say that building three projects and corralling Lacie and Megan is much easier with two adults!

After the gluing and hammering was complete, we painted the "picnic trays" at home.

Here are the girls with the finished products:

And here they are with their first projects--tool boxes for Dad. (Okay, Lacie's was the only one we gave to Dad. Melissa and Megan made treasure boxes for themselves. We used Melissa's Cuttle Bug to make the lettering and shapes.)

. . . Now back to the Fourth!

Our next stop was a picnic at our favorite Splash Pad (for those not from this area, that's a park with a water feature--kind of like giant sprinklers). The pavilion was full, so we ended up picnicking on some grass in the shade at the high school. That was way better than the pavilion. We'll go there first next time! After the kids played at the park, we headed home for some fireworks.


After the girls played with the "poppers" (whatever you call those things that you throw at the ground and they make a popping noise), we did some fireworks in the front yard. Our girls (particularly Melissa) don't really love the fireworks. Actually, I think Megan and Lacie like them, but they think it's fun to copy Melissa when she hides.


Here's what the girls were doing during the festivities (getting as far away as possible!):


I had to seriously lighten this one so that you could see the girls hiding on the side of the house.

After cleaning up our mess, we headed to a ridge overlooking the city to watch the real fireworks. Little did we know that while we were waiting for the fireworks to begin, a more serious show was happening behind us. I heard someone mention fire, and turned to see a house completely ablaze on the hill behind us (not on the same ridge, but we could see it from where we were sitting). One of the houses (yes, Dad, in the neighborhood you like) was in flames. Someone near us called 911, and it sounded like they were the first to call it in. Within about a minute, the flames were gone. Since no firetruck had arrived, I'm assuming that the house burned completely to the ground. Everyone was so focused on the show about to start, that apparently, no one saw the fire until it was too late.

It's weird, though. I've searched the internet, and I can't find a thing about the fire. Steve asked his colleagues at work about the fire (several of them live in that neighborhood), and no one noticed a thing. I am positive a house burned down, but the community is gated, so we can't get in to check. There were tons of witnesses. How come no one knows about it? I guess no news is good news. That must mean that no one was hurt.

Despite the distraction (and the new fears awakened in Melissa), we enjoyed the fireworks. (I think Lacie and Megan were more interested in their glow stick bracelets than in the show, but they still had fun.)

Happy 4th of July, everyone!