Happy Birthday America, Let's Party!

In true character for the past I don't know how many years, the Partridge's made the journey to Utah for the 4th of July celebrations. Now that we live in Arizona and we get to make the trek up North, I see the wisdom in this tradition. It's a little relief from the hot summer in AZ! We flew to Utah on Friday, July 2nd and got settled in. Then Saturday we got to relax in the morning and then had our famous BBQ at Bicentennial Park. Yummm...the kids played at the playground while the burgers and dogs cooked.

Adam loved helping push Megan on the swings. He would just laugh and laugh when we would push her.

Here's the traditional family shot at the BBQ. We were sadly missing Brett and Stephanie's family, but they were at a different family reunion.
After the BBQ we went to the Stadium of Fire to see the show and fireworks. It was wisely decided this year to not invite the smallest kids because it's just too long to sit and be stuck at something that they don't understand. Chris was very kind to let me go and he stayed back at the hotel with Adam. Katelyn, Megan, and I went on this fun adventure! This year is the Centennial Celebration for the Boy Scouts of America, so as part of the pre-show we got to be a part of the largest Eagle Scout Court of Honor ever. This was one of my favorite parts because we got to see all the Eagle Scouts in the audience stand. What an accomplishment for all those men out there. The main show was Carrie Underwood. I'm not really a country music fan, so I didn't know most of her songs. I'm not opposed to country music, I just don't get much beyond the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse credits these days. But, she puts on a really great show and the music was amazing. Megan was sitting next to me, and for a lot of it, on top of my lap. She is very fun to have at a concert! She was dancing on my lap through most of the show. Then to top it all off, the fireworks were spectacular. When the concert was done, we walked back to the shuttle stop for the hotel. Megan had fallen asleep in Uncle Chase's arms during the walk. She was tired after the wild dance party! When we got to the shuttle stop, one shuttle was full and about to pull out; they told us the next one was on the way. Well, after waiting for 10 minutes, we noticed that the shuttle that had just loaded up to leave had still not made it out of the parking lot! We then took a vote and decided we could just walk to the hotel faster than waiting for the next shuttle. It was so fun! For those who know Provo, we walked from the Stadium to Provo High School, where the shuttle was. Then we walked from Provo High School to the Marriott hotel on 1st North. It turned out being quite the walk, and the kids were all great sports even though it was so late, and a long walk for their short legs. We don't know the end result, but we like to think that we made it back before we would have if we had waited. :)

Sunday, we enjoyed church at Ryan and Jennifer's ward. Then after sacrament meeting, we went up to visit Chris' Grandma Partridge in Layton. It's always good to see her. Then we traveled back down to Provo for dinner at Ryan and Jennifer's house. It was of course amazing food and Jennifer even had everything "4th of July" themed. Everything was decked out in All-American Red, White and Blue. There was pasta with 2 choices for sauce: one red and one white. Then on the side we had a strawberry and blueberry fruit salad, watermelon, and blue jello in a star mold. But, if you thought it just couldn't get any better, we had the dessert. A full sized flag cake. Words cannot even describe it. It was layer and layers of yummy gooy-ness. Wow!

Then Monday, the "working crew" (Chris, Scott Grover, Kaley, and Chase) all flew back to AZ. Amy's oldest, Bradley, got to be in soccer camp at BYU for the week. Since they were staying longer I decided to stay too, and I took the opportunity to spend time with my family in SLC. We had a great week. We spent most of our days in SLC and the evenings back in Provo. I have no pictures of these days. I'm not great at remembering to take pictures! I spent one day with Missy and her kids, one day with my Grandma McFarlane and one day with Grandma Basta. All of the days were great, but in the end kinda felt mushed into one really long day! The week went really fast. I was a little worried staying without Chris, but his parents stayed and helped pick up the slack! Thank you! I feel so blessed for all the family around me, both Chris' and mine. It had been a while since I had been able to visit with just my sister and it was so nice to just be together with our kids. Then I feel any time I get to spend with Grandma McFarlane is a blessing because her health is not great these days. And of course, I can't go long without my special Grandma Basta. What wonderful people!