Provo puts on "America's Freedom Fest" every year during the week of the 4th of July. Friday night we went over to the festival and walked around the booths and watched the carnies. I love the atmosphere of city fairs and festivals. I'm glad we went, even if all we did was walk around. We enjoyed each other's company and the environment.
Saturday morning started out like this at 6:30am:
Do we look awake? Ya we weren't...
There were a lot of fun balloons, but in my early morning patriotic spirit, I announced to Jeff that the flag balloon, seen on the left side of this picture, was my favorite. It is amazing how small you feel standing in a field of massive hot air balloons...
I love the things you can do with photoshop! I think these turned out looking like something from a 1930's circus or illustration from a child's storybook...
They had a competition for the ballooners, where they cleared out the field once they'd all lifted off, placed a giant X there, and put up a bunch of helium balloons. The hot air balloons came in one by one to try and throw a ball/streamer thing from their balloon as close to the center of the X as they could, then grab one set of helium balloons and pop them on their way back up. It was a lot of fun to watch.
We weren't able to stay and watch them all finish and land because I had to go to work, but I'm glad we got to see as much as we did!
So I made it to work and just sat, wondering if I'd even see a single soul all day, making a bet with myself that I wouldn't, when I heard my radio beep. I knew instantly it was good news. My boss told me I could go home! I was thrilled. I rushed home and Jeff and I ran over to catch half the parade. I was surprised at how many people there were! I had no idea Freedom Fest was as big as it is, and I've lived in Provo for almost 5 years!
I thought this float was cool cause it was the Bank of American Fork float, and Bank of AF owns a bunch of the hot air balloons we saw that morning! The pig, the red, white, and blue one, and the colorful one in the back/middle were all ones we saw.
I've always had a small obsession with pirates, ever since Pirates of the Caribbean came out when I was in high school. So naturally I thought this float was cool, plus it was advertisement for a new restaurant opening in Orem, Pirate Island Pizza. It's supposed to be more like a chuck-e-cheese, but I'm still excited to go try it out!
Ok, this picture needs a little explanation. We were trying to take a picture of my patrioticness, and Jeff said, "pose for it." "Pose how?" "I don't know. Do a Tiffany pose." This was the result:
(This was the pose I was picturing in my head...)
Ya, not quite.
After the parade we hung out for a bit, then went up to Jeff's parent's house in Lehi and planned a barbeque. I went to the store with his mom and Amy, and we put together an awesome BBQ. We had homemade hamburgers, (Jeff and my recipe,) fried rabit, Amy's pasta salad, watermelon, cantaloupe, 3 flavors of Doritos, 7-layer dip with tortilla chips, a fudgy cake made in the sun oven, and homemade blackberry ice cream. It was awesome! Especially for last minute!
Nea wanted to sit on my shoulders and Jeff couldn't help but notice how well we matched with our red shirts and jean shorts so of course, more pictures. She's such a cutie.
Jeff, Alex, Tyler, Jared, and their cousins Jake and Nate had a little ping pong tournament. I'm not sure who won, or if they got to that point before the food was ready, but I know they had a lot of fun.
We had a hard time deciding where to watch the fireworks, whether we were going to go to Provo and find a good place to see the Stadium of Fire, find a spot by Thanksgiving Point for their fireworks, or sit on the roof and see all the shows from a distance. Out of indecisiveness we ended up on the roof, along with Nikki and Brad, Alex, Jake, Tyler, and Jared. Papa K got up for a while too. The Statidum of Fire was the size of a quarter, and there was a tree blocking Pleasant Grove and one half blocking Thankgsiving Point, but we just enjoyed hanging out. In fact, we were the only ones up there for a little while...
;)
Hey, how many times can you say you've kissed on a rooftop with fireworks all around?
It was definitely a typical American 4th of July, but that's how I wanted it! Happy Birthday USA!
cjane's Freedom Festival 4th of July Photo Contest
4 comments:
wow! what a fun weekend! That hot air balloon thing looks awesome!
okay that picture is super cute at the end! ahhh i can feel the loev hahahah. looks like a heck of a
4th of july. did you actually go up in the air balloons?! that is seriously one of my dreams haha. maybe i should plan a date one of these days and go up in one eh?! that would be awesome.
i totaly would have taken pictures of that lady and been more in her face but i had tired little kalen in my arms. joel said we totally should have grabbed her cram and taken the memory card out and scraoed it on the pavement haha. oh well. i'll admit i am a bit uneasy about her having my licence plate.... stupid lady.
So fun Linds! That's awesome you got to take the 4th off. I love the hot air balloon pictures...very fun. And I totally agree. Sitting on top of a roof watching fireworks with your hubby seems so romantic :)
Lindsey! I was blog surfing on Kathryn Ririe's blog and found yours! I love it when that happens! :) You look great and I'm glad that you found an awesome guy to be your best friend for eternity.
I remember the freedom fest when I was a kid. The ballons at 6:00 AM were my favorite part. Nice pics!
I'm married now too and am living in NY for the next two years. Come check out our (er, my) blog. I think I might just stop in at yours from time to time.
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