La Familia Coles: Fourth of July Festivities!

Well Fourth of July was amazing once again here in Provo. It was definitely different than last years in Jordan. But it was just as fun! Ryan's family came up from California and got a cabin up in Heber. We had a blast on the holiday!

We started off our Fourth of July in Provo and walked around the Freedom Festival in town and rode some rides, ate some good food and held some reptiles. Yes I held an 18 foot long reticulated python! Pictures are below. It was great. Pictures and captions are below.

Then we went to Stadium of Fire at the BYU football stadium. Needless to say, the Beach Boys are amazing! We absolutely loved them! It was awesome to see old men simply have to sing on stage to make the stands go crazy. Scotty McCreary opened for them and he was great. We had so much fun singing and dancing along to the music that we all know and love.

Next came the fireworks. The first set of fireworks was to celebrate fifty years of James Bond and the show was set to the music of the best of 007. It was really fun. Then the second part of the fireworks was the patriotic section. No one does better at patriotism than Utah. That's for sure. It was great! Definitely recommend going to one of these shows if you are ever in town.

The next day Ryan and I went into work for a half day and then headed back to Provo to meet up with Ryan's family to go and see Spiderman and to check out the activities at the Provo Beach Club.

However, the sad moment of the holiday happened when Ryan and I had to go and see our amazing friend Sean for the last time before he leaves for his grown-up job in DC. Sean and Ryan have been friends for a while as they were the same major and roomed together on their study abroad to Egypt. Needless to say, Sean is very near and dear to us and we are definitely going to miss that adorable face of his...

Well Friday we had an adventure floating down the Provo River. We nearly drowned, got eaten by spiders, attacked by boulders and lost/destroyed many valuable items. We nearly died going under the bridge that we were told to go around but of course we were too lazy to actually follow those directions and we learned our lesson the very hard way when I had to rescue my mother-in-law from an untimely death from the rapids on the bridge. Ryan's dad lost a sandal and also one of the lenses in his sunglasses. So he looked like a pirate for the rest of the trip. We had some awesome burgers and milkshakes in Heber after that and then it was time to freshen up and change into non dirt-encrusted clothes and headed down to Salt Lake.

We walked around Temple Square and met some great missionaries and saw some of the new exhibits there in the visitor's center. Then we ate at Texas de Brazil for a late dinner and headed back to the cabin for some well deserved sleep.

Our last adventure was on Saturday when we went to the Olympic Park in Park City and conquered the bobsled. It is so worth the ride! Definitely need to try it sometime if you haven't. We tried to do the other activities there but once we got up the mountain and were waiting in line for the alpine slide, of course it started to thunder and lightning and had to be brought back down the mountain. Well that led us to then go and take refuge at the outlets (great idea) and they had some nice sales (equally awesome). Well then the little boys needed to be able to have some fun so once the rain stopped we headed over to the Park City resort and did the alpine slide and coaster there. Really fun and then it was finally time for a great dinner at Bandits BBQ on main street. Delicious!

Well all in all, our Fourth of July adventures were great fun and we thoroughly enjoyed having family and friends around us. I always love celebrating the wondrous aspects of our country and it was great to give thanks for all our blessings that we enjoy.

Below are some pictures. There were way too many to organize completely so just enjoy!