The 3th.

I need to catch up on my blog posts. Having the fourth fall on a Sunday meant celebrating for 3 days! Sounds good in theory. No, we really did have fun. We dragged Greg, our French foreign exchange student, along for our festivities. On Saturday we headed to West Bountiful to see the parade and play at the park. Well...the parade was a bust. The paper said it started at 11:00 a.m. That was a lie. It ended at 11:00. But we were hopeful we would find the Holmgrens, our good friends, and still be able to spend some time with them. As we drove the streets of the just ended parade route I proclaimed, "Keep your eyes peeled for a Holmgren." JUST then we saw Nels walking down the street with Joe. What are the odds? Well, we WERE in West Bountiful. It was fun spending time with their family at the city park. There the kids ran around and ate taffy, had a horse drawn carriage ride, played carnival games, etc... At the park pavilion they had variety acts and eating contests. Between the candy cannon that loudly shot showers of taffy every 15 minutes at hoards of waiting children and the hot dog and pie eating contests, Gregoire had a gastronomic view of America cemented in his European brain, I'm sure. Yup. You are not convincing him otherwise. He will take back these tales to his friends and family that Americans aren't only big eaters but their food is shot out of cannons! We had a lackluster showing at a tug-o-war. My side didn't even have a chance! Tried our hand at log sawing. (Emily and I did the best of the group! Even over our big strong husbands!) AND someone was walking around in the creepiest Elmo costume I've ever seen! Lilly was still starstruck even though she doesn't even watch Elmo. All in all, a fun day spent in the Holmgren's neck o'the woods. We got home in the late afternoon and Greg and Alan took short naps. Then it was off with the Grafts to see the fireworks in Sugar House. While it was fun it certainly did remind us why we tend to stay away from those big fireworks shows. The crowds and trying to drive home was INSANE! We did the show for Greg. But I'm not sure how much of that entire day he would actually remember. He was severely jet lagged.