4th of July 2013

We spent our 4th of July at the cabin – it’s one of my favorite times up there all year.

Sam got lucky this year and got a great holiday schedule so she didn’t have to come up late or leave early to work.  We decided to leave Thursday morning {4th of July} and have Sam come with us to start our holiday weekend and it worked out great.  Ryan loves it when Aunt Sam goes in to the gas station and comes out with root beer and donuts for the road trip.

Once we made it to the cabin, I put Ryan down for a nap and the rest of the clan went out on a boat on Panguitch Lake to do some fishing.  Wes caught one fish that Nate reeled in before Ryan and I showed up.  Within 2 minutes of getting on the boat – Ryan caught a fish on his first cast.  His first fish!  He was quite proud.  It’s so pretty being out on the lake – we love it.  It was stormy that day so when the lightning started my mom, of course, freaked out and made us come in even though the boat man said it was really far away!  It was a great 4th of July afternoon on the lake.

We ordered Hot Mama’s Pizza for dinner and had a little time to kill before we planned on going to Brian head to see the fireworks.  Wes took Nate & Ryan out on a 4-wheeler ride to see the horses and when he got there, there were about 8 horses out of the corral roaming around!  The guy in charge forgot to tie up the gate and there were horses everywhere.  Wes called the cabin and asked for reinforcements.  He left Ryan on the cabin car while he tried to corral them in and Nate started following Wes and then turned around to go back with Ryan because he thought he’d be scared out there alone.  The Park Rangers ended up showing up and between all of the adults we got all of the horses safely back in to the corral.  They were on Highway 14 . . . so glad one didn’t get hit by a car.  It was definitely an eventful 4th of July evening.  We tried to make it to Brian head for fireworks but missed it by probably 10 minutes.  But we didn’t care – just glad we could help someone out!

On Friday we decided to try a new joint in town called Yamadogs for lunch.  It’s a hot dog shack owned by our friend Steve.  Hot dogs & snow cones . . . can’t ask for more than that! 

We also decided to explore a little and did the Cascade Falls hike while Ryan took a snooze in the afternoon.  My mom was nice enough to stay back to watch tennis while he slept.  Once again, so pretty up there.  It was fun to do something new!  Nate loved it.

Saturday is when the festivities begin.  It starts with the fireman’s breakfast but we got there a little too late this year and the line was quite long.  So we walked around and enjoyed it for a minute before heading off.  We stopped at the horses on the way home and they gave each of the kids a pony ride as a thank you for saving the horses the night before.  The kids love the horses.

We also managed to squeeze in a little trip to play in the stream near Aspen Mirror Lake.  I’ve always wanted to take my boys to do that and we finally did! 

Saturday night is the annual 4th of July parade that my parents always take the grandkids in.  We spent the late afternoon giving the mule a good scrub down before we decorated it.  The kids have a great time throwing out candy and being in a parade.  And the rest of us enjoy acting like children on the side gathering candy!

It was a fun weekend at the cabin!  We love it up there.

A few other things from this trip . . .

If you go with Papa to the gas station to get ice, you’re bound to talk him in to a treat.  King-size Kit Kats.

Nate must have hurt himself doing something and as soon as we got back home he went to work making himself his own cast.

Lots of fortress building going on this trip.  Kids love the blocks and army men at the cabin!

Aunt Sam is a hot commodity.  Sometimes she is hard to share so they all just pile on in.