4th of July Celebrations

4th of July celebrations in the Welling household are two days.

Day 1:

The day started with a trip to Kaysville to Grandpa and Grandma Welling's house. There was a delicious breakfast of waffles, bacon, fruit, juice, and milk. The bacon was cooked perfectly! When time came we went to the Kaysville parade. This was the coolest parade. We got lots of candy, a comb, sample of Big Sexy Hair gel, a toothbrush, a stuffed Build-a-Bear, pens, water bottles, hacky-sacks, t-shirt, and other cool stuff. When the parade is finished the water parade starts. Certain floats will go through "The Wet Zone" and the people in the parade and spectators will have a big water fight. Last year we were in the wet zone. It was really wet. This year we did not sit in the wet zone. When we got back from the parade, Grandpa Welling was trying to get a blow snake out of the garage. At first they wanted Mark to catch it with his bare hands! But thankfully he didn't have to!

After the parade we went back to the house and had lunch: Pizza, salad, fruit, and veggies. Once lunch was done we played a variety of games. The first game was called Iced T. Each team had to thaw a frozen t-shirt and put it on. The next game was creating sculptures out of chewed gum. This was gross and sticky. Once the gum went into your mouth, you could only touch it with a toothpick. My team made an ocean with a toothpick fish. The next game on the agenda was a GPS treasure hunt. It went well, except the coordinates that were on our clues were wrong. They were leading teams all over Kaysville and Fruit Heights. A member of my team got some insider information and knew where the clues were hidden. The next game was a rythmn clapping game called "Sevens." You hit your legs to keep the beat. Each person will say a number and if the number is a multiple of 7 or has a 7 in it, you are supposed to clap and not say the number; the direction then reverses. If you say the number or get out of rythmn, you are out. Our final game was homerun derby. We had a pitching machine and went to a local park and had a homerun derby. I was pretty good. For the girls, we just had to get the ball into the grass (3 points), and if it 1 hopped into the grass it was 1 point. If it was caught, you were out. I hit 4 one hoppers, but 3 of them were caught.

Later that night Mark and I drove down to Orem and watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks. We know of a spot above Timpview High where you can see all of the fireworks in the valley. It is really cool!

Day 2:

Mark and I went to see Hancock in the afternoon. The movie was really bad. I would tell people to wait until it is in the dollar theater or at a Redbox. It is not worth $8.00 to see. There are some funny parts, but as a whole it was a very big disappointment (and i even had low expectations going into it).

Later that night, Mark and I went to Cul-de-Sac of Fire. A bunch of Mark's parents' neighbors get together and celebrate the 4th of July (this is why it's a 2 day celebration). the people in the neighborhood go to one of the cul-de-sac's and we have a party. There is a big bbq. Everyone brings a dish and the burgers and hot dogs are provided. This year there was a Guitar Hero competition. They had a big blow up screen and projected Guitar Hero on it. There were a lot of really good people. I saw some do it on expert. I can only do it on easy.

In the middle of the cul-de-sac is a rope circle: The Ring of Fire. This is where you can light fireworks. It was really impressive. There were 2 hours of straight fireworks. towards the end of the night, there is high quality entertainment. Through the entire night there was a dj playing fun upbeat music. 2 years ago Neil Diamond made an appearance climbing over the roof and last year John "Cougar" Mellencamp showed up in a limo. This year, however, Elvis came and did The Evolution of Dance (it is this week's Youtube Video of the Week). To end the party, there was a great firework show!

This is not really one of my favorite holidays, but this was one of the funnest 4th of July's I can remember.