July 4th

I hope that everyone had a nice fourth of July. Early AM here, Ralph ran the 10 K race in Sandy. He finished in one hour, 8 minutes. He was the only runner in his age category. I wonder where all the other 73 year old men were??? I went up to the top of Brighton Canyon with Ryan, Becky, and Rory for a breakfast that their old singles ward does every year. Rory was so cute, but a handful. She only wanted to run around and DID NOT want mom or daddy to follow her in the huge crowd. She was scowling at them and pushing them away. I have never seen this "approaching 2 behavior" in her before. Hmmmm it was really kind of cute, but then on the other hand...... :-/

Ralph spent quite a bit of time at the Sandy Center. We had cold salads for dinner and later, we went to the fireworks at the Sandy Center. I was trying to get some of those professional- looking fireworks shots. I browsed the internet for articles on how to do that. I followed their directions, but did not get the results that I wanted, although the pics I did capture, are beautiful and different, as you will see below. I will go with my own ideas next time. There were also some things I did not try. I would like to find a place with fireworks and a body of water to catch reflections. Any ideas anyone?
Robert’s were practically giving away decorations this past week and I have included some pictures of things that I got to liven up the yard and the house. I love this little berry garland and the metal wire and letters spelling out AMERICA!
These red white and blue star lights on the fence are my favorite decoration.

Thoughts have turned to the July’s of my youth. Those were care free days of playing outside with neighbors. Every fourth, Jerry and I could pretty much depend on three things. Those magical bubbles to blow, and caps for our cap guns, and water pistols. If we did not have cap guns, we improvised with hitting the caps with rocks to pop them. I loved the smell of those, and the little bit of burned paper around each one. Jerry and I always looked forward to sparklers which were the only fireworks we had. After dark, we could see the fireworks low in the sky, coming from Murray Park. It was so exciting to go outside in the back yard and watch for them. Many times we would sleep out on the grass in our back yard with our friends. Sometimes we were in a little pup tent, other times we were right out in the open. We would walk down to "Joe’s Stand" earlier in the day for some penny candy to eat outside before going to sleep. Those were such simple, happy days. If we were hot, we had home made popsicles made in the ice cube trays, with round toothpicks for sticks. Then we all ran through the sprinklers on the grass in our underwear!!! Only the older kids had swimming suits.
When I got into my teen years, I always went with my boyfriend and his large family to Liberty park for a picnic and the fireworks. Those are happy memories also.
Nothing matches the joy of taking our small children to fireworks on the 4th. We spread out a blanket and sat together. Sometimes we had a picnic right there before they started, other years, we went to the mountains or a park earlier in the day. Lot's of times we ate a BBQ with my parent's in their backyard. Mom's hamburgers were sooo Good. She put all kinds of goddies in the meat, and she grew the tomatoes and corn on the cob that went with the meal.
Now I look forward to reading everyone’s blogs, and looking at their photos and descriptions of the fun they have in their families.