4th of July

A couple of weeks before the 4th of July, my mom told me that my grandpa had been asked to be the grand marshal of the Centerville parade. He turned 95 years old in April, and was the oldest living World War II vet they were able to find. Paul was supposed to work the weekend of the 4th, and he also had a couple other commitments that we were pretty sure he wouldn't be able to get out of. But somehow we were able to rearrange schedules so that we could make a last-minute short trip to Utah. And we decided to keep it a surprise!

As we got close, the kids practiced saying "surprise!" 

Addie got car sick twice, so we finally stopped dressing her. 

We pulled the surprise off perfectly. Lots of screaming and hugging when they opened the front door and saw the three kids there.

Centerville did their fireworks the night we got there (the 3rd) so we went to those. 

On the 4th we went to the parade and to a barbecue at my aunt and uncles house. 

The morning kind of wiped us out so we just stayed home that night and did sparklers. 

Saturday morning we went to the downtown SLC farmers market.

And that afternoon we had lunch with my Auntie and Uncle John. And Charlie was tired. 

My cousin Sara made a surprise visit to Utah as well. She lives in New York, and is about to open her own hair salon in Brooklyn. We never get to see each other anymore and she's my fave, so when I found out she was in town I had to see her. She owns a condo in Logan that needs to be painted and she needed pictures of it for the painters. So I went with her to Logan on Sunday. Just as we got to Logan she remembered that she didn't have a key to the condo and she couldn't get in touch with her realtor. But that wasn't about to stop us. We found a ladder on the top of someone's storage unit. Snuck through the back of the condo complex with the gigantic ladder, tried our best to secure it, and climbed up three stories and broke in her condo through the balcony. 

Never a dull moment with us two! I miss her so much.

Sunday night we saw my grandpa again, but only for a few minutes. I felt bad not getting to spend more time with him so we met Monday morning before we left and had breakfast together.

Charlie was born just six days before my grandpa's 95th birthday. She is his 52nd great-grandchild, there have been two more born since her, and three more coming before the end of the year.

It was a short trip, but a really good one.