Every 4th of July, my family goes over to Allred's house for food, fun, and fireworks. This year it rained, then cleared up enough to watch the fireworks. Usually we eat outside, but this year the adults ate upstairs while the kids (ie those under the age of 31) ate downstairs. My niece, who is five, came over and had fun with the digital camera. The following pictures were taken by her. For a little kid, I think she is pretty good. Of course, I included some of the bad ones for laughs. One includes a lovely shot of carpet and my feet. Good thing I painted my toenails :) I apologize for anyone who is looking at this with dial-up since there are a lot of pictures in this blog entry.
The carpet; along with my foot in the top of the screen.
Gracie, a cute, hyper dog.
Three of the Allred girls: Tiffany, Treena, and Taryn. They are all really cool. Trisha was missing. (She may have already been proposed to when this picture was taken :)
This is a picture of me. I really was smiling, but my niece is a lot shorter than me. I guess she forgot to angle the camera up.
This is my mom and her best friend, Missy. When the two of them get together, either tears or laughter usually follows.
Fireworks
I actually took the last two pictures. The fireworks were pretty good although I, along with the Allred girls, was confused by the music. Only half the songs were patriotic. The others must have been chosen because they were the favorite songs of a member of the city council or another reason as equally important as that. All in all, a fun night was had by all. The only thing missing was someone to snuggle with during the fireworks. Oh well, maybe next year.
To prevent not being able to find a place to park, Sarah took her car down to the stadium early and got a great parking place. I then drove us to a barbecue put on by Heather's parents. I left my car there to be picked up later. Uncle Larry then dropped the three of us off at the stadium. We met up with a bunch of people from the ward and had a great time. Brooks and Dunn, the country duo, were the performers. Corbon Bleu, from High School Musical, was also there. They had a couple of skydivers, a flyby by jets, dancers, cheerleaders, and moving tributes to the troops. The fireworks were amazing. It went well into the night and we were all tired and covered by ash by the end of the night. We separated from the group and were walking to the car when Sarah realized that she hadn't brought her keys. We immediately called another member of the ward for a ride. Cassie had already gotten to her car but said she would come pick us up if we could get to a certain intersection. We arrived at the intersection and stayed there on the grass nearby for an hour. We talked, laughed, and waited. Finally we met up with Cassie and were taken to my car. Sarah and I then went home, got her keys, and drove back for her car. When we returned home I took a shower because I was still covered in ash and smelled a little like smoke. At 2:30am I went to bed, then got up at 6:45am to go to a doctor's office. 
I had to get some blood drawn for a physical that I will be taking on Monday. I then worked almost 10 hours. To say I was tired on Thursday is an understatement. But, overall, it was a fun 4th of July. It was strange to not be up in Kaysville with the folks and the Allred family.
