Our Fourth

The older we get, the more laid back our holidays have become.   This 4th of July was no different.   We started off the day by going to the ward holiday breakfast, where Ellie quickly realized she was one of the few teens there, where approximately one person initiated conversation with us, and where there was very little I could actually eat, but the kids with their decorated bikes were adorable, so that was awesome. 

I also enjoyed the opportunity to wear my cheesy patriotic clothes out of the house.  Also, we didn't get to see Lucie in person, but I was happy to see that she was following in her Gigi's holiday fashion sense. 

I was disappointed to not be able to partake much in the 4th of July breakfast, so I made my own version on the 5th of July.  It was bursting with fresh fruit, free of refined sugar, gluten, and dairy, and had a hearty whole-grain (oat) based pancake.  It was frankly quite delicious and we've been enjoying the leftovers all week long! 

And then, we did what we almost always do for fun these days...we went on a hike.  We thought it was a 4-mile hike.  It turned out to be 8-miles to our destination though (stupid All Trails lied to us).  We made it 6 and turned around in hopes to come back another day when we're better prepared for 8-miles.  The scenery was lovely and we are excited to come back when there are even more wildflowers, since it seemed that we were just ahead of peak time. 

Then we stopped for Costa Vida on the way home, talked to our missionary, Glen went back to Saint George, and  Ellie, Spence, and I watched fireworks from our deck.   People here are hardcore with their personal fireworks, so it was actually a pretty good show for not leaving the house. 

As I drifted off to sleep (with our noise machine going to drown out the lingering firework noise),  it was hard not to feel a little like we've morphed  into old people.   Next thing you know, we'll have little people calling us Gigi and Papa and we'll be empty nesters or something.   Oh wait. 

I guess we're already there.