A Fun 4th of July Weekend.

We started off the weekend on Thursday by going to see the hot air balloons in Provo. We got there a bit late and they were already taking down a lot of the balloons. We met Joe, Allie, and Ami at the field. They didn't launch the balloons like they usually do because of bad weather. But it was still pretty cool. Andrew also enjoyed pretending to drive a fire truck. We then enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Kneaders. It was a lot of fun! (Thanks Dixie.)

Friday started off as my last day of work. Yep that's right; after almost seven years at Wells Fargo Bank I decided to quit my job. Recruiting this fall is going to be very hectic, so I decided to quit my job to work on getting a career. As soon as I got off work we went to pick up our new minivan in Salt Lake. We decided that we needed a larger vehicle for our growing family. The Camry was a great car, but just too small for us since Rory joined our family, especially for when we want to do any traveling. I will post some pics of the new van soon. It's a 2006 Chrysler Town & Country. I think it will work well for our family.

So back in February or March my cousin Christina told me that her family would be coming to Utah for a visit. I got really excited because we hadn't seen them since before Andrew was born. Also two of my cousins have had babies that we had never seen before. Christina told me that they would likely come in March or April. Well that didn't happen. After a lot of waiting and constant bugging, they finally let me know that they would be coming for the 4th of July weekend. They came in on that Friday and left the following Monday. We went to visit them at my grandparents house after we picked up the van. It was a good visit and Bekah came to stay at our house that night.

On the 4th we spent most of the morning just relaxing and in the early afternoon Nigel, Christina, Hannah, and Leah came over to go swimming with us.

After we were done swimming we headed up to my parents house. We all decided to go to the Sandy City Parade and Firework show. The parade was a lot of fun. Andrew had a blast waving his flag, getting candy, and looking at all of the different floats and animals.

Rory enjoyed herself at the parade as well, especially after the "Chick-fil-a" cow gave her something to chew on.

The rest of the family also had a good time at the parade.The kids were given glow sticks by Michael. They had a lot of fun playing with them. So did Nigel. When it was time for fireworks the kids were still awake but getting tired. Rory fell asleep before they started, but Andrew loved the firework show. He was so into them!

On Sunday we went to church with Wayne's family. It was very different from an LDS service, but it was interesting and we enjoyed ourselves. After church we went over to my grandparents house for dinner and visiting. It has been a long time since we had such a large family picture. We were only missing Dan's family. Hopefully sometime we will be able to get the entire family together.

Hannah and Leah stayed at our house on Sunday night. The next morning we hung out and then took them up to my grandparents house. We then said goodbye to Wayne's family as they left for home. It was great to see all of them again. Hopefully it won't be another two years before we see them again. Thanks to everyone for a great weekend.