4th and 24th of July

4^th and 24^th of July

July is one of my favorite months of the year, it’s the 4^th of July, my birthday on the 18^th and in Utah, we celebrate a holiday on the 24^th.  So many fun things happening!

This year for the 4^th, we went to a Salt Lake Bees game.  I’ve been to several and often went growing up.  Layton has been to a couple but it was Wesley’s first time.  Normally we don’t let him stay up super late, but we had a tough time finding a sitter and we figured, it was his like one night a year to stay up late.  The Bees had an awesome game and won! Wesley enjoyed being a total ham in front of everyone (he is suuuuch a performer) and ate so much cotton candy and kettle corn.  The Bees games have some of the best fireworks and we were excited to see how Wesley would react.  Turns out, not well.  I thought he might be afraid, but he was scrambling over our shoulders like mad, trying to get away from them.  It was pretty sad.  Layton took him to the playground which is a bit further away, but he didn’t get to enjoy them.  Oh well, now we know. 

On my birthday this year, I decided to just take the day off of work and do a few errands. Layton and I went out to dinner at this cute café bakery downtown called Gourmandise.  I got the tri tip steak with fingerling potatoes and asparagus with this to die for cream sauce.  It was honestly one of my favorite meals I’ve ever had!  Layton go the beef brisket grilled cheese which I’ve had before and it was also delicious.  We got some baked goods to go and then walked around downtown for a little while.  We found this amazing little alleyway with tons and tons of graffiti art, it was amazing and I can’t believe I didn’t know about it before! We took lots of pictures and then headed home. 

I opened up my gift when we got home and it was an Instax Polaroid camera! I was super excited.  I’d been wanting one forever and Layton picked out the cutest aqua color.  We tried to take a few pictures but the lighting wasn’t as good as we thought so they turned out almost black haha.  But it was still really fun.

On the 24^th we went to the parade downtown which we had done last year.  We rode the train and Wesley was mesmerized by it.  He was more interested in running around than sitting and watching the parade, so after about 45 minutes, we walked over to the City Creek mall where they have this awesome enclosed indoor play place.  We let Wesley run around for a while and then rode the train back home.  He fell asleep and took a three hour nap!  That’s when you know we really wore him out. 

That evening we walked to Liberty Park which is about a mile from our house (last year we drove and finding a parking spot was nearly impossible) to have a picnic dinner and play games with some of Layton’s siblings.  We played Frisbee and ate and talked.  We now have a tradition of buying Wesley a light up sword/lightsaber/stick thing and this year we bought him a sword that makes swishing and clanging noises.  I don’t regret buying it, but the noise just goes on and on and on.  I wish it would stop after a little while but it doesn’t!

I love celebrating the freedom of our nation and recently I started listening to the musical Hamilton so I feel it even more strongly.  I am so thankful for our founding fathers and everyone who was alive at the time that helped fight and bring freedom to America.  They worked so incredibly hard and I feel so blessed to be a part of a nation where I am free, there are so so many around the world who cannot say it.  I am so blessed to be a part of choosing who leads and what we allow and what we don’t.  Of course often things don’t go the way I want, but what a blessing to even have a voice at all! It’s beautiful and inspiring and for that, I love America.