Our 4th of July

Our original plans for the 4th of July were to go out to Lake Tahoe and spend the weekend watching fireworks and playing on the beach.  Unfortunately, when we did calculations with our respite hours, we just didn't have enough to make the trip out to Tahoe and move at the end of the month, so we scrapped the Tahoe plan and stayed in Utah instead.



We tried getting some pictures with Kai and Zuri in their 4th of July outfits, but they just weren't cooperating.  I was able to get this really cute one of a spontaneous hug from Zuri to Kai.  It was really cute.

We went out to Thanksgiving Point and watched the fireworks.  I counted nine different displays at one time, completing a 360 degree circle around us.  It was fabulous.  We brought Kai with us, who was content as long as he was either being held or pushed along in the stroller.  When we would stop, he would start to get fussy.  He enjoyed the first five to ten minutes of the fireworks, but soon the novelty wore off and he fell asleep.








Zuri was watching one of the fireworks shows in the distance.





Zuri was enthralled with the fireworks.  After each one she would exclaim; "do it again!"  She didn't like the noise however, and kept her ears plugged the entire time.  She did the same thing when we saw Brave--she really doesn't like things loud.  Funny kid.

About three-quarters of the way through the main fireworks show, I realized that I had my camera on the wrong mode.  I thought I had switched it to the fireworks mode just before the show started, but apparently I had it in landscape mode, so most of my firework pictures didn't come out.

Our location also gave us a great view of the Alpine fire raging across the mountain.  The mild winter was nice, but we are really paying for it with the many wildfires across the state (and the country).  We have had nurses who have had to evacuate their homes because of their proximity to the fires.  

The hotel is blocking a good portion of the fire, but the bright red-orange glow behind is the fire.

We had a fun, relaxing day, and it was a blast with the fireworks.  The strangest part to me was not staking out our spot early in the day and spending all day romping around on the beach.  Traffic was a killer though, and we didn't end up making it home until almost midnight!