Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Sandy 4th of July celebration

Because we spent July 3 with my family celebrating the 4th of July we were able to spend the 4th with our little family celebrating the 4th of July. We got Hudson down for a nap and while he was napping Roman asked about a dozen times when we could go to the Sandy celebration. So I sat down with Roman and asked him if he knew why we celebrated the 4th of July. He asked what it meant to celebrate so we had a little time to explain what a celebration was and why we celebrate the 4th of July, and consequently the 24th of July. After I explained everything Roman sat contemplating everything then he asked "Well, do they paint faces there?"

As soon as Hudson woke up we headed over to the Sandy Promenade for their festivities. We found a great parking place and we were on our way to see what they had to do. Because Roman specifically asked if they had face painting we decided to check that out first. We found where they were doing face paintings and there was a bit of a line so Spencer stopped at an area that had sand (it was actually a vendor trying to sell their sandbox sand, but they had a play area set up for the kids to try it out so that the parents would be so impressed they would buy it.) While I was standing in line for the face painting Spencer called me and said "Did you see that Katelyn is over here?" One of Roman's friends was playing in the sand too. So her mom, Amy, came over and waited in line with me while the kids played in the sand.

Roman wanted a U painted on his face (For Utah). It's not really that Roman is a huge Utah fan, it's more that he has state pride. If you ask him why he likes Utah it's because that's where he lives. We would really be happy to have him go to BYU, but it is fun to feed the rivalry (especially with Spencer's cousins that currently attend BYU.) Katelyn had a butterfly painted on her eye.

After getting their faces painted there were a few other crafts that the kids could do. Roman wanted to do a cup that he was able to color a picture that went inside it. After he finished his cup he was ready to go play on the inflatables. So we went over and once again they let us buy a "toddler" wristband, so it was half price. Roman got his money worth (and more) out of his wristband. He would go down the slide run around and go down it again, and again, and again. Katelyn wasn't a huge fan of the slides so Roman bounced in the bounce houses with her until she had to leave. Her aunt was getting married that afternoon so they didn't have long to stay.

We let Roman play for about 2 hours then we needed to get lunch and Hudson really needed another nap. We went over to Chick-fil-a for lunch then we took Spencer and Hudson home so that Hudson could get a nap and Roman and I went back to play some more.

As we pulled back up to the Sandy Promenade it started to rain. I asked Roman if he wanted to wait in the car to see if it was going to stop and he didn't want to wait. So we got out of the car and went to play some more. He went through the obstacle course about 10 times then it started to rain really hard. So we went back to the craft area and made an animal mask.

By the time Roman was finished with his mask the rain was dying down a bit again so we went back over to the inflatables and he went up and down the slides over and over again, ran to the bounce house, back to the obstacle course, over to the other slide (you get the picture).


It started to rain hard again so we went over to the fire departments tent and colored a picture and got a fireman hat then back to the slides for one last slide before we went home to rest for a bit.

We had about 2 hours at home to slow down which was maybe a bad thing. We went back to the promenade for the parade. Spencer took Roman back to the inflatables (AGAIN) to play a little more while we waited for the parade to start. We were toward the end of the parade route, and by the time the parade got to us Roman was TIRED.


We were trying to teach him to wave to the floats and cars and they would throw him candy. One time we were trying to tell him just stand there and wave. So he did. Several people threw him candy. He just stood there waving and the other kids around us ran over and grabbed the candy and he didn't understand why he didn't get any. He didn't even see it on the ground all around him. He was THAT tired.

He liked most of the floats, bands, bagpipes, he especially liked the "cool cars." (We've taught him to appreciate old restored vehicles.)



He even liked the clowns that were walking around but he didn't like the clowns that were on these crazy tall bikes. He was afraid of them.

The parade even had an A military flyover it looked like a tanker plane. It flew over pretty low. I wish I had been able to get a better picture. It was so cool!

After the parade we went home, got the boys showered and to bed and they were OUT as soon as their heads hit the pillows. No fireworks for us that night, but it was okay, we had a great day celebrating together all day as a family.

2 comments:

Amy said...

Holy cow! You really did get your money's worth. LOLing at how Roman was so tired he didn't even see the candy at his feet. I know that kind of tired! Love the pic of Roman and Hudson sitting on the curb. For some reason I still think of Hudson (and Jason) as a baby but then to see him sitting on the curb like that makes him seem older! Looks like the parade was fun...maybe some year we'll actually make it to that part. Oh and I'd be afraid of those clowns, too. Clowns can be pretty freaky!

Reggs said...

If Roman and Katelyn don't get married I'm going to be seriously bummed out!!!