4th of July (on the 3rd of July)

The 4th of July celebrated on the 3rd of July. We started the day at 5:30 by hitting the balloons, or atleast the attempt to fly the balloons. There was a brisk wind and so after several attempts to launch the balloons they gave up. We packed up the kids and went home for a pancake breakfast with strawberries, powdered sugar, whip cream and blueberry syrup (red, white, blue and brown). The kids loved it and we have begun a new tradition.

Balloons and wind

Following breakfast we headed up to rock canyon for the traditional 4th of July Ice Blocking! The kids love it!

The Traditional Pyramid

E

S

H

J

Lil' J

B

C

Dawn

Following Ice blocking we had 45 minutes to kill so the kids and I went to play tennis at the park. Big J won the family competition beating out Lil' J in the end. At One O'clock My aunt Sandy and Uncle Trevor had the traditional Gillings (said with a J - Jillings) famly party at her house in Sandy. It was a blast, My sister Mandy and her husband are up from Brazil so they also were there. We had amazing food, the annual volleyball match, and of course the slides and pools for the young ones. Over 50 people attended.

After the Party we went home to attend the Melissa and Kendall Brinkerhoff 4th of jluy celebration. I created this fruit salad by request of Gillian and Mitch who were up visiting from Tenessee.

It had watermelon, Strawberries, Cantelope, Blueberries, and the USA letters are cut out of thinly sliced honeydew melon. 

The party was a blast, the kids played volleyball and thouroughly enjoyed themselves while Dawn and I just spent time talking with family. It's always a good time. I think half of pleasant grove attends this celebration.

The sisters and Greg. I don't know what they were talking about, but it must have kept Greg interested, doesn't he look interested?

We capped off the night with the Gillings family fireworks, so the kids could spend more time with the Arbuckles.

Fireworks provided my Mike Gillings, tunes provided by Gavin's Dodge, screams provided by the children.

All in all a good long day. This year the fourth seem to last for three days as this all occurred on saturday, sunday we went the Farr's for a family get together and Monday back down for more fireworks. We all loved it, now we just have to recover for a few days.