Recipe for a fabulous 4th of July: Head North!!

I just love the 4th of July! You get to hang out with family & friends, picnic and watch parades... and you don't have to buy anyone a gift! How awesome is that!

This year we hit the traditional Riverton Town Days parade (and for the 1st time in 3 years, Jeff actually got to come with us!), then the boys and I headed up to my cousin's place in Plain City. All my life I've wanted to participate in the festivities in Plain City, but have never had a chance until now. It was awesome! Everything I'd hoped it would be and more!

Friday night we decorated the boys bikes so they could ride in the Children's Parade the next morning, then the kids all set up their sleeping bags with hopes of sleeping outside on the trampoline in my Aunt Julie's backyard (unfortunately they got rained out by midnight.)

Bright and early the next morning, nine cousins dressed in red, white & blue paraded down the street in the Children's parade each in their own special way... (my boys thought it was a race and sped down the route as quickly as they could.)
In this pic is Marley, Jake, Denim, Troy, Dakota, Drew, AJ, Will & Austin (Braxton was at the front of the pack... he too thought it was a race and wanted to be right on the starting line!)

This is what parade watching is supposed to be like... our group of family took up an entire block of space! The boys loved having so many cousins all around them. They all scored tons of candy!

After the parade we all regrouped at the Plain City park for all sorts of games and fun! (I wish I could figure out how to post more than 5 pics because I have lots of fun ones I couldn't fit on here.) The boys each caught a fish with their bare hands in the "Fish Scramble", they competed in a pie eating contest (a total joke seeing as my children are the SLOWEST eaters EVER!), dug for goodies in sawdust, bounced in bounce houses, dunked and got dunked in the dunking booth, had their faces painted, got balloon swords from a clown, watched the ATV Polo match, ate candy, hot dogs and ice cream and had an all around FANTASTIC day!

Seriously! This was the best 4th of July ever! We've had some fun 4ths before, but the combination of fun family members and all sorts of fun activities made this the best one yet! The boys will be planning on going to Plain City for the 4th from now on, I just know it!

Then after the fun died down in Plain City (when everyone else was settling in for afternoon naps), Jeff met back up with us (he'd just gotten off work) and we headed up to his Grandpa Evan's house in Pleasant View, just 15 minutes from Plain City. Jeff's cousin's were visiting from Illinois & Texas and we hadn't seen them in over 10 years! (His cousin Tyler I'd NEVER met and we've been married for 13 years!)

We had a fun visit and the boys met their cousins and before long they all grouped themselves up and began playing as if they'd know each other all their lives. I wish adults played as well as children do. We all just sit around and talk and it never fails that someone feels left out... if we were all kids, we'd just start playing a game together and everyone would feel part of the group!

Anyway, it was so good to see long lost family members and it was a great way to spend the evening. After our visit, Kelly & Dan and their boys joined us down at Weber High School where we all watched the fireworks display. It was a LONG day and we were so ready to head home! Will fell asleep in the car before we'd even gotten down the hill from the high school!

I hope you all had a great 4th of July as well. I just realized that I've officially been blogging for a year now... One of my first entries was about how we spent the 4th last year!

So Happy 4th of July, and Happy blogging! Thanks to all of you who read this, and to those who don't read it, it's your loss:~)

Memorial Weekend

Ta da! Here is the annual Memorial Day photo taken next to Grandpa Pilgrims' grave. Every year for as long as I can remember members of the Pilgrim family have been meeting up at Grandpa's grave to decorate it with flowers and take this pic. Then we all head to a park for a picnic. Sometimes the weather cooperates, sometimes it doesn't, but rain or shine, we meet up and then have a picnic. This year I decided to do a little something extra in order for my kids to learn a little bit about the people who are buried beneath these headstones we visit, so I made little info sheets with photos and a brief synopsis of the person's life... I tried to find info that my boys would find interesting. For example, how Grandpa Pilgrim came to become an ambulance driver in WWII, or how Jeff only had his haircut once a year when he was a boy and it was when his family would visit Grandpa Bergstrom, because he was a barber at the University of Utah. I think the boys enjoyed hearing the stories.

But their favorite part, of course, was playing with all their cousins that they rarely get a chance to see. There are so many boys! They are all in heaven when they get together! Climbing trees, playing ball, swinging from the jungle gym, ingesting glutenous amounts of licorice... it's just a great time for all!

Over the weekend we joined a group of Pilgrim's up at Grandpa Pilgrim's cabin. This too is another annual tradition, but usually Jeff & I stay home, while my mom takes up the boys. But this year we decided to join them for a day or two. The weather was BEAUTIFUL and there was no drama to speak of (as is usually the case when large amounts of strong personalities get together).

We rode 4-wheelers, did crafts, cooked s'mores over the fire pit, played games and ate way too much food! A typical cabin venture...

I'm just so thankful that my Grandpa Pilgrim had the foresight to build a cabin where we can all get together to spend time as a family. We all live so spread out and such separate lives, but when we come together at the cabin, we all feel at home. Just the way it should be!