Down by the RIVER!!

I tried to embed a youtube video with Chris Farley as Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker, who always talks about a "van down by the RIVER," but I couldn't find a decent one. I found one that was kind of okay, but it wouldn't embed. Blah.

Anywho, we went with Beads and Spence to the river for the big city fireworks. I haven't been to those in years. I know Ben has never seen them. It's hard to go to those, because you have to camp out all day long and "save" your spot, and then all the cars are backed up when the show is over, so it takes hours to get home. And people yell at each other for encroaching upon their saved spot... the list goes on and on. Just a big headache.

But Spencer's family has the perfect solution to these problems - they walk. Their house isn't too far from downtown; a fifteen minute walk will put you right by the temple. I didn't go with Spence's family for the past two years, because I seriously felt like I had heatstroke from the parade that is on the morning of the fourth, but I felt fine this year, so we did it.

Sadie is the slowest walker in the history of the world, so Beads and Spence hefted her all the way downtown:

Micah hated being carried in this thing:

Look at what a cute picture this is:

These next two pictures make me laugh so hard. Dylan looks like I slipped him some heavy sedatives:

Another sedative-looking picture, especially because you can see two strings of drool coming from his mouth:

Dylan sometimes forgets to swallow his spit. It's pretty funny.

Those street vendors kept walking back and forth, selling those little glowey necklaces, and Dylan asked me about ten million times if we could buy one, but we didn't have any cash with us. And I told him that ten million times. Yet he kept asking. Grrrr. Brianna slipped away and bought two for the kids - maybe to make Dylan shut up about it!!!:

Beads is such a Spoiler:

I guess that's what aunts and grandmas are for, right? To buy things for our poor, deprived children.

Beads, Spence, and Sadie:

Ben was pretty impressed with the fireworks display. As long as I don't have to camp out all day, I'm all for it.

We sat in a little park downtown called Civitan Park, and whenever I go there or drive by it, I remember the fourth of July after my senior year. A bunch of friends and I played games there, and then we planned to watch the fireworks when it got dark. We were playing Kissing Rugby (which is a much more innocent game than it sounds), and it can get pretty violent. My friend David tackled me, and we both landed on my side, and CRUSH! - broke my collarbone. We weren't sure at the time what I had hurt, but I couldn't sit up, and I was having a hard time breathing, so some friends called an ambulance, and I spent that whole evening at the hospital. Which is why I never taught Kissing Rugby to my little kidlets when I was a camp counselor. I didn't want to get sued. I spent the next six weeks or so recovering, and it was so weird, because I just couldn't sit up. I had to kind of roll out of bed on my good shoulder. Not something I ever want to have happen again. :)

Yay, fourth of July! Boo, Kissing Rugby!