4th of July

Can I just say that Utah really knows how to celebrate the 4th of July, and Spokane really does not. In Utah, practically every town has at least some kind of 4th of July parade and festivities, my favorites being North Ogden's Cherry Days and Provo's Freedom Festival. The atmosphere is contagious, and there's something fun for even the littlest of littles. Spokane has nothing even close to that. Boring.

And there are no fireworks allowed in the county limits. I understand the safety issue and the fire hazard (even though this is the inland northwest, not exactly the desert), but I'm not asking for anything huge. Just little on the ground ones would suffice. Or even sparklers (nope, not even sparklers are allowed). Heck, Rich and I couldn't even find Pop-Its. The only fireworks option is the city show, which starts around 10 PM, and that was fun when we didn't have a baby. But you try taking a baby with a 7:30 bedtime along to something like that, and let me know how it goes.

So, our 4th of July was a little lame this year. We thought it would be fun to bring Norah to the splash pad again, but it was cooler this time, and breezy. She didn't last long until she was shivering.

We had our little BBQ, and that was delicious. Plus, there was watermelon. There is nothing quite as satisfying as that perfect bite of perfectly ripe, red watermelon. Mmmmmm. (Norah has inherited my love of watermelon. Atta girl!)

We did get to see some glimpses of the city firework show. We're up on a hill, so through a gap in the trees and buildings around us, we saw a little of the show (from far, far away). But since we didn't really get to see the show, we watch "The Sandlot" instead. Nothing much more American than that, right? I love that even though I've grown up watching that movie, it still makes me laugh.

Sorry, this post was more of a rant. But I'm just a little bummed about it. Moral of the story: Don't spend Independence Day in Spokane. Get to Utah if you can.

I made it through this least exciting of Independence Days knowing that soon I would be in Utah and eventually at my heaven on earth, Lake Powell.

But let's face it, you probably just wanted to see pictures of Norah, anyway. And, as I'm sure you've noticed, I love showing her off!

She's definitely got her Daddy's smile.

(She's picked up the glare again.)