fourth of July 2013

First thing in the morning I dropped Bethany off at her final Stadium of Fire rehearsal.



 And as tradition states, we went to the Provo Freedom Festival parade with Granddad,

and passed out Red Vines to new friends.




 In the afternoon we went to the movies with Grandma Martha.

And in the evening we were grateful to be invited out to our home teacher's ranch for a BBQ.


Meanwhile, Bethany was getting ready to dance in the Stadium of Fire. I was so proud of her in this moment  as she walked in to the crowd all by herself. She worked hard out in the heat all week long and never complained.
 At home Ben and Kyle set off flowers and smoke bombs in the park, and helped the little ones with sparklers.
Bethany returned home after midnight. As you can see, she had a wonderful time.

independence

July Fourth.

Sam woke up early and left to hike up to the Y with a family from our ward. They were his Ma and Pa on the Pioneer Trek.

Grandad joined the rest of us for the parade.

 

I was grateful to have a visit from my good friend Alison from Beijing at lunchtime.

In the evening the kids and I drove to a town called Wallsburg between here and Heber where our hometeacher, who is also the boys' scout master, has a ranch.  He and his wife were hosting a Fourth of July party.

Our favorite dog was there.

 

This was were the boys went to scout camp too.  Sam got his canoeing merrit badge.  William was no less terrified.

The boys built this tower at camp too.

More smoke bombs.

fourth of july

The Fourth of July was the first holiday Rob and I spent together. There's been fifteen  Fourth's since then.  Monday morning I felt overwhelmed by what?  Change. I was driving down from Grandma's house to Provo,  thinking about Rob in China and me, on my own with the nine kids.  I drove past  the park where our ward waited to watch fireworks together fifteen years ago.  We had KFC that night Sam.  (Sam's always asking me to get KFC.)  Sam's first fourth of July we were living with Rob's parents (sound familiar) in Louisiana.  I remember opening up the door to peek out at the fireworks then shutting the door just as quick...too hot and humid to even step out. We spent one Fourth of July on the roof of the consulate in Guangzhou..was that when the fireworks made the consulate alarm go off? Or was that Chinese New Year? It made a terrifying kind of post 9/11 sound. We must have been in Riverside for one Fourth of July, went up to Santa Barbara that time.  And there was that kind of disappointing parade in Augusta, Maine, but it was nice to be with Grandma Martha...that was a hot summer. We spent at least one year in the D.C. area...not daring to go near the mall, though that would be fun sometime,  there was last year camping at the Great Wall... and several years at the Provo parade. That is our favorite place to be.  When I see the hot air balloons rising and descending in the blue summer sky, it feels like it is every year combined, like no time has past at all, since I was eighteen and first discovered the best place on earth to be on the Fourth.

Monday we met Granddad and headed downtown.  Grant is my parade man.  He loves anything that goes...cars, trucks, horses, airplanes.

Who knew Moses would make and appearance?

I love this house.

After the parade, its traditional, according to Sam, for us to go to the dollar theatre to see a movie.  The little kids' movie was sold out so I had to take all the kids to see Robin Hood....not a good idea.  Grant, and William only lasted a few minutes, Mary and Caitlin followed us out to the arcade where we spent two and a half hours.  I was glad when that was over.

Next stop: the park by Granddad's house....what a happy reunion.  We met up with Charlie, the best kind of pet in the world.  He comes regularly to the park with his ball and spends the day moving from family to family, playing fetch, smiling, just being pleasant company.

We had dinner at Granddad and Judith's house...barbecued hot dogs,my favorite broccoli and bacon salad. William loved Jennifer's wild rice salad.

camping faces

I was grateful to have enjoyed an adventure this weekend with my family. It's true that we all swore we would never spend another Fourth of July in Beijing (see my note in my last posting about last year's untimely cloud seeding.) But we humbled ourselves and now here we are with great memories. God knows best where we need to be.

Friday morning we packed and packed and packed a bit more for our one-night campout. Sam reminded me of the book we read when he was little about the lady that takes her piano to the beach, insuating that I was over-prepared. We met up with several other families from the embassy and church at McDonald's for lunch then started on our drive. We were following our friend/camping trip organizer to uncharted territory, a section of the Great Wall we had never visited (there are many.)

The adventure always begins when we try to drive our monster of a van through village streets.

I love it when the farmers spread their grain (in Ecuador they did this with cocao beans) out on one side of the street and expect the rest of traffic to go around them. I think it would have been a great element in a chase scene in Mission Impossible 3. This time, as we neared the wall, our caravan headed up a long, narrow street lined with dried fruit, nut, shoe, plastic water gun vendors, and met up with a big green gate. We had to wait for a half hour or more while the better Chinese speakers convinced the guards to let us drive our caravan through, if only because there would be no other way to turn it around. When our special permission was granted we drove up winding hills toward the wall. We reached a bridge. Our friend got out and said "okay so here's where we take the boat to the campground." Very romantic..but very daunting with nine children...and all the stuff.

The campground was beautiful and well-worth the effort. The kids had a great time catching frogs, swimming, cooking-out. I chased Grant around. Will was happy, as long as he had his bottle. Thanks, Will. Ben got out the guitar and played the The Clash songs he's been practicing. It was great to spend time with other embassy families too.

I absolutely love the idea of breakfast on a campfire. Pancakes are beautiful on a grill and taste extra good with a little ash. I couldn't find my camera to take a picture of the pancakes, but here are Rob's eggs and the hot-water pot for the hot-chocolate...that was my job.