4th of July in Provo

We had quite the celebration yesterday. With all the usual entertainment: parade, swimming, barbeque, and fireworks, but we got it all at an upgraded level. We had VIP status at most everything thanks to generous donations of time and money by Fillmore Spencer. It was just Dad, me, Eric, and Ryan- Alicia is at EFY and loving it I'm sure.

At the parade, we sat in shaded bleachers on Center Street. Yes, if you can believe it, we had tickets to watch the parade in the important-people seats. Afterwards, we went to Deseret Towers pool for the annual swim fest with the cousins. The next adventure was at Nan's house for an incredible barbecue of rotisserie chicken, steak, and hamburgers all prepared in Carl's outdoor kitchen. We left the barbecue a little early because we had tickets for the Pre-Show Stadium of Fire Reception. We were a little late, but the food was great. Due to our slight lateness, we missed meeting the celebrities at the reception, but Brooks & Dunn did pass about 5 feet in front of us as they made their way around the stadium to their trailers. Although in truth, we didn't really need to meet them at the reception, we were pretty close to them just by way of our seats for the evening. We sat on the fourth row, on the east side, right in the middle of the action. And action it was-- skydivers, a man propelled by a rocket, Corbin Bleu from high school musical, a top-notch country concert, and of course fireworks that you wouldn't believe (I could swear they get bigger and better every year). The ashes rained all over our clothes throughout the show, but I thought the ash precipitation added a whole new realm to the show. We were right in the middle of it. The Post-Show reception fed us once again, but we didn't complain. The ice cream was delicious.

We made fantastic new memories, all of us singing along to Brooks & Dunn (thank you JJ for encouraging us to look up their songs), feeling bad that Alicia wasn't there to see Corbin Bleu do his "Push-It" dance, and dusting ashes off our clothes before going into the post-concert party. Yeah, we felt pretty special.