Provo 4th of July

Time to share our family 4th of July before July becomes history.  Glen and I and two thirds of the rest of the family gathered in Provo for the big day because Provo always does it BIG.  The day started with a parade, but even before that the parade route was a bit of an overnight party and part of a 10 K and 5 K run.

Parade route rules state that you can camp overnight on University Avenue but Center Street is off limits until 4:30 am.  This means that the wagons are circling before that time and then there is a territory land grab.

This year son Eric and Glen were the early risers and savers of a viewing space.

It was right across the street from a review stand and bleachers in front of the park just west of 700 East on Center.  This meant that there were also announcers with annoying loud music and the need to subdue anything which went "pop" including the kids favorite poppers.  What??!!??

But we carried on in spite of the restrictions.  Here are posed shots of the clan. N & N with OJ and Nana.

TJ, Tobes, and Heder.

Eric and Susan. (I couldn't think of any nicknames so  I will have to work on that!)

The big Kahuna and his new phone.

And the Ranes family.

There was a constant adjusting of seating.

And mixing up of cousins.

After a long wait, here are a few of our favorite things.

Barbershop heads that sang

Senior Senators

Multiple marching bands

Pretty girls on city floats

Horses and horse drawn conveyances

A reminder that BYU football is just around the corner

Floating dragons

Dancing brides for seven brothers (soon to be seen at Sundance Summer Theatre)

Helaman's warriors, AKA Mormon missionaries

TJ gives a high five.  Hard to believe that his time may be less than six years away.

More pretty girls on floats

More floating creatures

Disney princesses including Nana's favorite

Scottish bag pipers

Pink tractors

More pretty girls on floats

And the finale, a drum and bugle corp from back East shown here playing specifically for Utah Governor Herbert.

Then is was back to the townhouse for the popping of those supposedly illegal poppers, lunch, and naps.

The naps were important because we had tickets for the Stadium of Fire in the BYU Stadium that evening.  Why the beach ball?  Because the main performers were The Beach Boys!  Glen had been looking forward to sharing their live brand of music with the troops for months!

We were looking forward to a good time and were not disappointed!

The back of the tickets prohibited bringing anything into the stadium that couldn't fit in a 12 X12 inch bag.  My purse was selected to be the carrier of airless beach balls hidden under a contrived false bottom.  They assumed that I would be the least likely person to be suspected of carrying in contraband.

Well that was a fallacy.  As the man slowly worked his way to the bottom of my bag he asked, "And what are these mam?"  I honestly hesitated for a few seconds but it was obviously deflated beach balls so I said, "Why those are beach balls."

"Okay mam," and he waved me on through.  See, it pays to be honest and honestly there were many, many beach balls in that stadium along with many people our age with their families in tow.

It was a beautiful sky as the sun disappeared in the northwest.

Glen and I first went to a Beach Boys concert at the University of Utah as BYU students on one of our first dates so we have a history with the "boys."  Glen also feels a kinship with these musicians who grew up as he did in Hawthorne, California.

There were many things before The Beach Boys came out but they did present a fairly long and comprehensive concert.

Here is a shot of The Stadium of Fire dancers who also eventually had beach balls.

I was delighted that Scotty McCreery, American Idol winner, also sang.  What a voice for such a youngster.

And finally it was time.

The grand kids had a great time dancing and singing along, oh, and batting around those beach balls.

That's really them, I promise.  And they may be old like Glen and I but they sounded GREAT!

They were followed by fireworks set to James Bond movie theme songs.

Followed by patriotic songs sung by a choir.

It was impossible to catch a great shot of the fireworks.

But they really were awesome.  It took awhile for everyone to navigate traffic and make our way back to the townhouse.  Everyone slept in the next morning.