small town celebrations...with friends

What is it about living in a small town and celebrating our country's birthday that just seems to go together? Like a pb&j, chips and salsa, oreos and milk...maybe I need a snack?! I love living in this town, this state, and this country. And I love when you can share the good times with good friends--for the week leading up to the 4th of July, we had our friends-Steve, Natalie and their kids-from Texas staying with us.

Steve was a missionary in my mission who set me up with Daren after I got home from my mission, so really we owe him big time, and having them stay at our house was a small price to pay! He and Natalie have 4 kids: 3 boys (Sam, Ben, and John) and a little girl (Maggie--10 months old), so our boys were thrilled to death that they had built-in friends from the time they got up until the time they went to bed!! The first morning they were together they all set off to explore the neighborhood and just clicked as instant friends.

They were here for all of Riverton's annual Town Day's celebrations. First up was the dreaded carnival which makes its home in the park about a block and a half from our home. I have hated this carnival in the past (because it's a money pit), but we had so much fun this year that I take back all the bad stuff I said before.


Natalie and I took the boys over to the carnival on opening night, which is the best kept secret of all. Tickets were only .50 cents, and each ride was just one ticket--a far cry from the usual $1.50 per ticket with each ride charging 2-3 tickets per time. Shhh, don't tell anyone about it though!! It wasn't even that crowded and all the boys had a blast!!

Question is, what ride do you go on first?!?!

l to r, according to height: John, Will, Jake, Ben, Sam, and Ben

And what's a small town gathering without a BBQ? We hung out all day on Thursday with these guys (they do have family here too, so they were gone with them quite a bit). We were going to go hiking, but a nasty storm rolled in just when we got to the mountains, so we did what Daren and I always used to do when we got rained out of mowing lawns--went to a movie! Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs was the movie of choice, and of course they all loved it! After the movie we came home, made flank steak tacos (yummy!!), and played in the backyard. Sam and Ben especially had a fun time chasing after the football thingy.

It wasn't until this day that I found out what a heated rivalry Daren and Steve have had going all these years when it comes to basketball. They stayed out way past dark playing...I wonder if their golf games cause as much rivalry?! I'm not sure how many times they golfed, but there has to be something about it when they are willing to get up at 5am to go golfing!!

Donut Friday--I'm not sure if Steve and Natalie love us or hate us for introducing their kids to our wonderful weekly tradition!

Later that day...parade on the 3rd. Every year Riverton does their parade on the evening of the 3rd. Natalie was cracking up because we started seeing chairs out to reserve seats along the parade route on Tuesday. We live a block away from that too, so we just ate our dinner until we heard the sirens of the fire engines roar. We weren't fast enough this year, so we missed all the fire engines, but we did get to see the army tanker!!

Fun Run???? NOT! I'm not going to sugar coat it, and don't let the smiles fool you--this so called "fun run" of about 2 miles (at 7am), was anything but fun! Within the first block all I heard was, "my tummy hurts," or "I have a side-ache!" By the time we finally made it to the chute, we were so far in last place it wasn't even funny!! I didn't really care about the last place, it was just all the compaining I had to go through to get there. 2 years ago we had a great fun run, but for some reason they just weren't into it this year. Photos of the fun run courtesy of my cell phone--not bad!

After the fun run, we bypassed the pancake breakfast cooked by the mayor at the park in lieu of a pancake breakfast at home with our "guests" (the boys always referred to them with this term). Then we waited...and waited...and waited some more for the fly-by by the Hill Air Force Base f-16's. They were only an hour late, according to the schedule. It was worth it though.

cute little maggie

More BBQ-ing

The annual Mortenson 4th of July BBQ in our backyard. K, we got the idea for these burgers from Gma Train, who had one like it at some restaurant in New York City. Try this next time--bleu cheese crumbles on the burger, topped with sliced avocados and other condiments you like. Ya, it's a little slice of heaven!!

How do you like your "crabby patty?"

Ben and Sydney ate their dinner in the playhouse.

the main event--bring on the fireworks!! The glow sticks were a huge hit this year.

The fireworks are absolutely spectacular from our backyard. I still don't know how to take a great picture of fireworks, but I'm working on it. It was a good time, had by all.

Just like that, a week had come and gone and it was time for Steve, Natalie, and crew to leave. We had to get a picture by the "Barry Cruiser." This is a term that was used for a van Daren's family had back when Daren and Steve were in high school, so it became a term of endearment for this latest van of Barry and Susans that we are housing here at our home for now. All kids think this is the coolest ride EVER--John, who is 3, ALWAYS wanted to ride in the Barry Cruiser--"Mom, did you know that the Barry Cruiser even has CURTAINS in it?!" Thanks for the fun times guys. We had a great time!

The final "small town" activity was the demolition derby the next Saturday after the 4th. This had been postponed from the middle of June because of all the rainy weather, but it was a beautiful evening this night. It is a boy's dream-come-true show!

Backs of heads as proof we were there!! Oh yea, that's Danielle in the red hair with us.

After a round of smashing and crashing, it was time to haul the cars off and get ready for the next round.

All lined up and ready to go again.

It was such a gorgeous evening!

This is the funniest picture--if anyone knows Ben, knows he is a picky eater. Well, the twins were begging for a "snowie," and so was Ben. Daren took them all to get one, and this is what Ben came back with--a true snowie. All he wanted was the "snow" and couldn't care less about any flavoring, and he was in heaven. We love you, small town!!