Freedom Fire

Kaleb and Jared's scout troop was one of the troops that were performing in the flag ceremony for the Freedom Fire on July 3 at the USU stadium.

They had a list of guidelines and rehersal time etc....

Kirk was in Georgia painting murals for Worlds of Wow from Texas.  So I was a little behind in who needed to be where and at what time.  I woke up leisurely because the email had said something about rehearsal being at the stadium at 10:30.  Well, I had made a mistake and saw that it was to be at 8:30 am......and it was 7:45! Yikes! So we had a very hectic, crazy morning getting them to where they needed to be.  As we were driving closer and closer to the stadium, we were noticing that people had already claimed their spots with chairs and blankets.  It looked like a patchwork quilt all layed out on the grass.  I couldn't believe it.

 My first thought after living in Phoenix for so long was....Oh my gosh, look, no one has stolen their blankets or chairs.

 Needless to say, it was an extremely busy day with the scout schedule and then having to irrigate the garden after we dropped the boys off, and then off to a BBQ with some other church families.

 We played a little croquet.  I am just amazed that we were sitting outside and it was cool.

 I love how all these houses were nestled behind one another.  It was very cozy. There were horses here, cows there, something crouching in the grass over there....

 Victoria charmed her way into winning a croquet game.  She played against all the men and had them wrapped around her little finger. When Jerry brought out his croquet set and asked if anyone knew how to play, Victoria immediately piped up claiming to know.

She and her Dad have had many hours of playing croquet since she was just a toddler.  Now I wouldn't say that she knew the rules because she would make up new rules all the time and her Dad would just go along with whatever was the rule of the day.

 I have to think really hard to a time that we have ever needed a blanket on 4th of July. I think this was a first.

 Getting ready for the Freedom Fireworks.

 Beautiful and exciting as usual.  I wish Kirk could have been with us.  I imagined the boys sitting on the field at the stadium with a perfect view of the fireworks.

And then we were driving against THIS to  pick up the boys. Our friends house was right next to the stadium but we discovered that the street where we were supposed to pick the boys up was blocked off and the police weren't letting anyone in.  SO,......I parked the van on the side of the road.  Kyle and I ran....yes, I said ran....in flip flops by the way, from the north side of the stadium to the south side of the stadium to find the boys.  After sitting for 20 min in traffic, then running/walking to the boys which was another 20 min, then trying to actually drive home which is only about 2 miles....it took us over an hour.  I was very happy to get home. Oh, I'm glad that Kyle was with us, because he pulled Victoria out of the van who was dead asleep and carried her up the stairs to her room. 

When we had finally reached Jared and Kaleb, Jared sees Kyle and I completely out of breath....he asks me in a sarcastic way,

why did you come running? We're okay you know.......

No duh.....we came running because I want to go to bed! For pete's sake.

When he actually saw all the traffic he understood better.  I could have knocked him one for that comment.  But I didn't.  Little does he know how far I would run for him.  How far I do run for him.  I love them, they are my boys and I am their Mom.