July 4th

I guess our 4th of July fun actually started on June 28 with the Children's Parade in Provo. The library had a bunch of kids show up wearing their lovely bright orange bug T-Shirts and we walked as a group for the short 6 block parade. Geddy wasn't too sure about it at first, but once he got a balloon bug and a Popsicle he was happy. And being a typical boy he was very excited to see all the fire engines, ambulance and police cars with their lights flashing and sirens going off. He also enjoyed the marching bands, especially the bass drums.

This was the first year Scott and I purchased fireworks. We don't usually do much for the 4th except go to a movie and avoid downtown Provo. Now that we have Geddy we thought we would get into the spirit of things a bit more. So Friday afternoon we took Geddy to see Wall-E at the theater (he calls it Bots - as in Robots). He loves going to movies and we don't mind as long as he sleeps through half of it. It would have been nice though if the theater had bothered using the air conditioner, it was hot just sitting there, but when you have a sleeping almost-2-year-old on top of you it is quite uncomfortably hot. After the movie we did some shopping and went to one of the plethora of fireworks stands to get a few little things. We didn't want anything to big and crazy as we weren't sure how he would react. We picked out some of the ground flowers, black snakes, and one big one - a parachute man shoots out and we had planned on Geddy keeping the man. Then Geddy saw some Dice and was quite adamant about getting them so we did. We spent a whopping $7 on fireworks but we figured it was enough for his first time.
This is how he reacted to each firework. He was laughing and still watching, but every time they popped or sent lots of lights up this is how he would act.

He was very disappointed that the wind stole his parachute guy. We saw it blast into the sky but the wind took it through several backyards quite a distance from our house. We figure it got stuck in some trees. Geddy has been quite bothered by it and keeps mentioning the "hot guy go bye-bye". "hot" is what he says for fireworks. He had so much fun the first night that we spent a couple more dollars at Wal-Mart the next day and bought "hot eye balls" and some small colorful fountains. The "hot eye balls" spun around and popped and threw sparks, they were quite a hit with our little guy as were the "hot dice". So Grandma and Grandpa beware, we will probably be doing more when you are here as they are allowed during Pioneer Day also.