Holiday Replay

I took so many pictures of our trip to Utah for the 4th, it is hard for me to narrow down the ones I want to share with you. So, here are some of the pictures taken each day and descriptions of the events as they unfolded.

July 2nd. We arrived in Utah around 2 pm. We quickly picked up our rental car and headed straight for Amy's (my sister) house. The cousins were so excited to meet Natalie for the first time. Later that night the rest of the family came over and we visited with each other while the cousins played in the back yard. Here's a picture of my sisters and my mom. Jenni wasn't able to come until the next day.Natalie quickly got used to the family so they were able to enjoy holding and kissing her.Shaun and Natalie had a lot in common...especially their love for putting things in their mouth.They actually loved to hug and kiss each other, but of course everytime they did I didn't have my camera ready. And when I got the camera to catch this adorable moment, they didn't want to do it anymore...go figure!

July 3rd. Today was filled with errands while we prepared for the big day ahead. I didn't take any pictures, unfortunately, but we still did a few things worth remembering. That evening we went to visit (Great) Grandma VanWagenen. Grandma adored Natalie, even though I didn't name Natalie after her, to her dismay.

July 4th. This is the day we all were waiting for! We left Amy's house around 10 am to head to the Provo Town Parade. We made it down there with plenty of parade left to see.After the parade, we went back to Amy's house for our picnic/lunch. All the adults stayed inside while the kids played outside. After the lunch, everyone wanted to go see Transformers but weren't able to go because it was sold out...bummer... A few hours later we went to Provo to my parents house to go see the fireworks on the Temple lawn.
Natalie feel asleep on the walk over, and stayed asleep through most of the fireworks.However, when she did wake up she wasn't scared at all to see the fireworks...until the finale, of course.Here's a video of part of the finale. I would have taken more footage but I didn't have enough memory on my camera. Of course, the fireworks got better after this was recorded. And Mike held Natalie up to the camera so everyone could hear her crying. Isn't he helpful.

After the professional fireworks were over, we had a show of our own on my parent's driveway.Natalie watched from the sidelines and enjoyed looking at the "light." This is one of the words she understands.At the end of the day we all decided we had a great time! We left my parents home around 1 am. I love this holiday and am so glad I was able to be here with my family to enjoy it!

July 5th. Today was Sasha's (Amy's daughter) birthday. She turned 6 today. For her party, at her request, we went to the Lehi Public Pool. It is an AWESOME pool for kids. We really enjoyed our time there.Here's the birthday girl!After the pool, we went to Carl's Jr. for lunch. Natalie and I went down the slide in the playroom. Natalie didn't like it as much as I thought she would.

The only other pictures I took on this vacation are of my sisters, mom and me with our hair slicked back for "virtual makeovers" we did at makeoversolutions.com. We had a BLAST spending hours on end changing our hair styles and makeup. I think we have all decided to all go darker in hair color. I think I'll do mine this week!