Happy 4th of July!

Have you ever tried to get up very early while on vacation? Well, if you're ever visiting Provo, UT during the 4th of July, I highly recommend it. Provo holds their Freedom Festival every year. It's a week long celebration full of fun. There are multiple parades, multiple balloon launches, fairs, fireworks displays, 5 and 10K runs, and more.

This year we got to participate in a bit of it.

Dark and early Saturday morning, we got ourselves up to see the Balloon Launch. The launch started at 6:30 am, so we wanted to be there by 6. Amazingly, we made it. We brought a sleeping bag to sit on, and a blanket to cuddle in and sat ourselves down while the hot air balloons were being laid out on the field. Soon enough, we were allowed to walk among the balloons as they were filled with hot air. The noise was really loud, but it was really neat to watch.

There were a lot of fun balloons to see. There was Smokey the Bear, Toni the Tiger, a piggy bank, a dinosaur, a few patriotic balloons, lots of fun colored ones, and even a fall themed balloon. My guess is that there were somewhere between twenty and thirty balloons participating.

The hot air balloons have a contest each day that they can participate in. On the 4th, they were to launch, catch the high wind, float north, descend to the low wind and come back south. When they reached the field on their return, there were stationed helium balloons that they were supposed to try and pop.

After they launched the first time, we headed over to the adjacent McDonalds for breakfast. I sat outside with the kids watching the balloons as they did their rounds while Seth got the food. My brother's family joined us there, and soon after we headed to the parade route.

My sister had gotten up before 5 am to secure us seating for the parade. When she got there (at 5:10 am), there was only a small sliver left. Luckily, it was in the shade and stretched 15 feet from the road to the sidewalk. Turns out it was a really good spot. There are a lot of people who camp over night to get good spots for the parade. By the time the parade starts, it's practically standing room only.

We were stationed at the end of the parade route, so for us, the parade started at about 10 am. There was a pre-parade though that was fun. Some small groups came along breaking up the silence while we waited for the big event. And boy was it big. By 11 am, we'd had enough, and it was still going. There were floats, marching bands, dancing groups, political cars, balloon characters, police groups, and everything else that you see at parades. I think that the parade was about an hour and a half long. Parking was crazy too, and even though we left early, it took a while getting back to the folks' house.

After that, I took a shower, put the kids down, and took a nap. My husband went out to lunch with a friend that was also in town.

Sometime around 5 pm, I was woken up for the BarBQ. Fireworks for the kids started around 8 pm, and around 10 pm, the Stadium of Fire fireworks display began.

It was a VERY long day, but we had a lot of fun.