We always start with the Provo Parade and Einstein bagels, then a BBQ, neighborhood party and fire works. Though this year we decided to throw a couple of things for extra fun this year . ..

1. Addison threw up first thing, we thought it was too much junk from the neighborhood party the night before. But then when she threw up at the parade and later at Banana's house and we all took our turns being sick the next week we realized it wasn't just the party.

2. A little power struggle with Olivia to wear Red, White or Blue like the rest of the family. Come on it's the 4th! You'll see in the pictures I did win. You know as a parent you have to pick your battles and I couldn't let this one go.

3. We all got slightly different and mostly wrong directions to our location at the parade. We took an extra 2 block detour with a huge stroller and a sick Addison (we feel horrible we made her walk all over before we realized she was really sick). Lisa and Katie took a hour long route to the Parade carrying our large diet cokes (with ice at one point) and bagels all over Provo. The parade (company, food and tradition) was, as usual, worth the effort.

4. Our Aruba trip inspired Dad to become John Watkins:Gelatto Maker. His first batch he threw (or sprayed with the beaters) all over the kitchen including the ceiling. It finally froze after everyone had left the BBQ. Since then he's become VERY efficient at it, so next year is sure to be a treat.

5. I poured salad dressing all over my mom's fridge. The clean up necessitated pulling EVERYTHING out of the fridge. That was also a little fun twist to the afternoon.

6. And lastly, after mulling it over we finally did decide to watch the BYU fireworks (we were all exhausted and by this point we were aware that Addison really was sick). So a good 20 minutes later we finally found a place to park (mind you we drove one street over) and a good 10 minutes later we found a place for our chairs. We watched the last 3 fireworks and packed up. As we pulled out, the fireworks started up again, so we did catch a few quality moments of the grand finale.