UT: 4th Of July Weekend

We had a crazy-packed Fourth of July weekend!

It began like all great adventures do - on Pinterest!  I found a bunch of recipes for mini-pies.  My mom and I made mini-blueberry pies, mini-cherry pies, mini-apple pies, and mini-chocolate caramel pies.  We took the mini-pies to the Seaver family BBQ in honor of Grandpa Seaver (remember, he only likes 2 kinds of pie: hot pie and cold pie).  Both my cousin Liz and my cousin Jenn were excited to see the pies cause they saw me pinning them earlier in the week!  haha!

The family BBQ was a ton of fun!  It's wonderful to see all those relatives in one big, happy gathering.  Plus my Uncle's backyard is perfect for these events!

Side note: my mom brought these blow up serving stations that you fill with ice!  How cool is that!  (pun intended!)

They had a bunch of sprinklers set up to help us all cool down.

Look at this crazy jumping toy!!!

It was my cousin JC's bday, we all surprised him by singing Happy Bday when he walked outside.

We had a fun time reminiscing and listening to stories about Grandma and Grandpa. 

I snuggled with my cousin's little girl (she got a HUGE goose-egg on her forehead, hence the ice) while Scarlett snuggled with Aunt Jami.

On the way home from the BBQ we were planning on going to the Orem Scera park to watch the Candy Bomber drop candy for the crowd.  But while we were passing the crossroads, traffic was WAY backed up.  So we went home and put the twirls down for a nap.  While we were hanging out inside we heard loud planes flying.  We all ran outside and we saw the Candy Bomber and two extra planes right overhead!!!!!!  Scarlett yelled "drop the candy, gumdrop boys!"  The Candy Bomber was the last plane to fly over us and the guy in the back saw us waving and dropped a single parachute down to us!

James chased it a few houses away on the hot pavement in his bare feet.  He returned with the parachute!!!!  

Way to go James!  We stood in the front yard and we got the entire Candy Bomber experience!  What a lucky day!!!

Scarlett's stuffed puppy, Oliver, may or may not have experienced the full candy-parachute experience...

Later that night we took all the girls to see their first movie in a theater.  We saw "Inside Out".  They all did so well (don't let this photo fool you)!  Toward the end the twirls wanted to stand but they were quiet.

After the movie the girls found a little area to play, which happened to be next to a trampoline ride.  Scarlett was dying to try it out.

I told her she should try and do a flip - I was sooo impressed that she actually tried it.  She just wasn't heavy enough to make it spin.  But she had a blast jumping!

The twirls were really upset that they couldn't jump - luckily I found this cool car ride.

The morning of the 4th we woke up at an unidentifiable hour, loaded the girls, drove to Provo, and watched the hot air balloon show.  The girls were so excited at the whole unique morning that they rode with wide eyes and quiet lips.

We set up on a blanket and ate a healthy, balanced breakfast.

Scarlett kept singing "I love America!" and "Happy Birthday America!"

The winds were so high that morning that the hot air balloons weren't able to take off.  Luckily they blew up the balloons for all of us to see.  I think they girls enjoyed the ground show more than they would have enjoyed an air show.

The girls reached their exhaustion limit and fell apart, so we loaded up and headed home.  Siena snuggled into Jaide the whole ride home.

Later that night we went to Pleasant Grove to watch the fireworks.  The Daniels went earlier in the day and saved us awesome seats.  The PG fireworks are amazing and not nearly as crowded as Stadium of Fire.

We got to hang out with the extended Daniels family and the Meadows family (Hailey's clan).

Turns out my girls do NOT like loud noises.  The twirls spent the entire show with their faces buried in someone's chest.  I tried to get them to at least look but they would squeeze their eyes shut and turn away.

Braxtyn spent most of the show plugging Scarlett's ears.  But Scarlett liked watching the show; she said, "good job, Fourth of July!"  After such an early morning and a late night, the girls were exhausted!

Jami had a pretty big seizure while we were watching the fireworks.  It was pretty scary for all of us.  Turns out some of the "unique" things she does are actually seizures.  Sometimes she'll get stuck on a word (kind of like stuttering) or she'll just look up at the ceiling and blink really fast for a min (I call that one "sparking").  She had a seizure study after this and she has seizure activity in 3 of the 4 sections of her brain.  She exhibits all the types except grand mal, which is the easiest to diagnose.  The doctor that's treating her is wonderful and she said that Jami's been having these for a really long time, but probably went unnoticed with her Cushing's symptoms being in the spotlight.  But now that her tumor is removed and she's recovering from Cushing's, the seizures have come to the forefront.  She'll begin a treatment plan to eliminate them and figure out the root cause.  Poor Jami.  I think she embodies the term "long suffering."  She has rare disease after rare disease.  I often think of the Book of Job and all the afflictions that befell such a righteous man.  After this event, I reread the book.  And I was so inspired by Job's testimony.  After he's lost everything and in his lowest point, he testifies: "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God" (Job 19:25-26).  I think it's so beautiful that he understood that this earth life is just a small moment and he still trusted in the Lord after suffering so much.  He testified of the Lord without thinking that he would ever be free from his suffering, but a at the end of the book we learn that Job was blessed for his faith.  "...also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.... So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning" (Job 42:10,12).  I feel like Jami has been a great example to me, just like Job.  She often bears her own testimony about how she knows that the Lord is with her and strengthening her in her afflictions.  I see her as a warrior and I have faith that the Lord is going to bless the latter end of her life more than her beginning.