The 4th of July has always been my favorite holiday. Something about the parades and fireworks (and hot dogs) make this day rock the house! All around the world, and even here in the good ol' USA, negative things are being said about America (some justifiable some erroneous), but on this day we set aside those negative feelings and celebrate a nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all! I love AMERICA!
This year I unfortunately am celebrating America's birthday alone.....but am trying to make the best of it. To make myself feel a little better I decided to list a few of my favorite past 4th of July memories (and no- going to the Miley Sirus concert is not one of them!). The list is in no particular order-seeing that I am thinking of them as I go!
4 July 2005-Soissons, France
-What an awesome experience to celebrate the 4th of July in France! We decided to do a zone activity, seeing that most of us missionaries were American. The one advantage of having a BBQ in France is the meat. Merguez, brawts, etc.=real hot dogs! One thing I remember distinctly about this day is the trouble we had lighting the grill. Elder Garfield and I decided to go buy some lighter fluid....let's just say we used the whole bottle! Without fireworks, it was the best we had.
4th of July 2008-Provo, UT
-Last year was an awesome 4th of July. Chelsea and I lived right by the parade route, so we didn't have to go far. Also my dad volunteers during the parade to help with regulating bleachers. Because he is in charge of bleachers, we get free seats-in the shade!! The only thing we had to do was "regulate" these bleachers meaning we got to wear sweet orange vests. Back in the day we would sleep out on the parade route, but this year we got to wake up right before the parade and walk about 100 meters to our bleachers. Pretty awesome!
4th of July 2003- Provo, UT
-This year I was going into my senior year in high school. I also had a sweet awesome scooter. A bunch of my friends decided to camp out on the parade route. One of the untold traditions of the Freedom Festival is the midnight parade of scooters. I was dating Chelsea at the time so we jumped on the scooter and flew up and down University Ave. honking and waving at the die hard Freedom Festival goers. It was a great moment of glory for me! And a foreshadow of all the fun scooter adventures Chelsea and I would have in the future!
There are other 4th of July memories I have that date in the 90's, but I can't think of their exact dates. Here's a list of a few of them.
4th of July 2008-Provo, UT-Last year was an awesome 4th of July. Chelsea and I lived right by the parade route, so we didn't have to go far. Also my dad volunteers during the parade to help with regulating bleachers. Because he is in charge of bleachers, we get free seats-in the shade!! The only thing we had to do was "regulate" these bleachers meaning we got to wear sweet orange vests. Back in the day we would sleep out on the parade route, but this year we got to wake up right before the parade and walk about 100 meters to our bleachers. Pretty awesome!
4th of July 2003- Provo, UT-This year I was going into my senior year in high school. I also had a sweet awesome scooter. A bunch of my friends decided to camp out on the parade route. One of the untold traditions of the Freedom Festival is the midnight parade of scooters. I was dating Chelsea at the time so we jumped on the scooter and flew up and down University Ave. honking and waving at the die hard Freedom Festival goers. It was a great moment of glory for me! And a foreshadow of all the fun scooter adventures Chelsea and I would have in the future!
There are other 4th of July memories I have that date in the 90's, but I can't think of their exact dates. Here's a list of a few of them.
- We always used to get together with our cousins in Orem (the Orem Nays) for BBQ and fireworks.
- Going to various spots in Provo to watch the stadium of fire fireworks.
- Throwing poppers at the parade and making those next to us mad.
- Drinking so much soda and eating so much junk that I would get sick (but if I could do it all over again I would!)
- Going to the see the balloons early in the morning at Fox Field. I didn't understand it was an actual competition till I was like 18...
- Pre and Post 4th of July being delinquent with fireworks...
7 comments:
I miss all the 4th of July celebrations in Provo. Don't get me wrong -- it's a fun holiday in NYC, too, but it's not the same. Your memories make me laugh. Good times we had, huh? Remember the year Scott stepped on a sparkler and burned a hole in his foot?
What a fun post! Thanks for the memories. We did have some fun times, didn't we.
This was our first year in a long time that we were not in Provo. It was different, but still good.
Still missing you and hope all is well in Green Bay
Opps, the last post was not her's but mine. I didn't realize she was still logged into my machine.
Love,
Dad
Riley, come home. Why don't you ever put my blog on your list of blogs? Here is the link:
http://itsashellything.blogspot.com/
we loooove you.
cant wait to see you.
-spencer.
ok this is really sara. but still.
To respond to the question you posted on my blog, I work in the Social Sciences part of the library at the reference desk. How did you know I worked there? Did Spencer tell you?
I apparently didn't check your blog back in July. What a great post—with words!! Those are some great memories. Next Fourth you'll get to be with Chelsea again! Yay! :)
Post a Comment