Each July we make our annual pilgramage to beautiful Utah to spend the 4th with our family and friends. Summer in Utah has become something our family always looks forward to: the mountains, the trails that our kids run on, late summer night movie watching, family BBQ’s, trips to the rec center, many many dirty Diet Coke’s at Swig, catching up with friends, late night talks with family, meals at our favorite Utah locations (Kneaders, Cafe Rio, Kneaders, Guru Cafe, Cubbys, Thai Land to name just a few), summer camp at BYU for the older two, races – honestly, there are too many things to list. We are a family that is nostalgic for tradition and we are able to make great memories in Utah each time we come. We usually stay somewhere between 10-14 days and it never fails that we are not able to see everyone or do everything we want to do; there is never enough time.

This year Sam, Simon and Sophie raced the Provo Freedom Run 5K on the Fourth of July; Sadie and Sebastian raced the 1 mile. Yours truly tried to be in two places at once photographing and cheering as I went.

Simon came in 5th overall out of 2500+ 5K racers; he did incredible with a 16:38 coming in behind the fastest high schooler in the state (and running for BYU this fall) and two members of the BYU XC team. He also took 2nd in age group. Sophie had a big PR with a 22:48! This was a fantastic 5K for her! Sam came in with a 20:45 (fastest 5K for him!) and a 2nd in age group. We were so proud of these three!

Seb had a fantastic PR on his mile with a 6:48 and his best race in a long time. Sadie pulled in a 8:10, enough for a 2nd place in age group! They both did great.

We were able to finally meet Brooklyn and spend a little time with her and with her family. She had an incredible race too! I can confirm that Simon and Brooklyn are an awesome pair and it was great to finally see them together in Utah.

We took in the Downtown Provo parade which kind of blew our minds. Like, this parade is LEGIT and huge and so much fun. It’s like a city wide party. We have decided that next year we are just going to start our 4th of July celebrations with this parade. We also ran into some of our favorite boys: Smiles, Kyle and Thomas on our way back to our car.

After a full morning (and an INCREDIBLY long walk back to our car at the football stadium) we headed back to grandma’s house for pancakes and bacon and well deserved naps. Later in the day we headed over to cousins Rachel and Ben’s house with some more of our family and a bunch of friends for a backyard BBQ followed by fireworks. The weather was the coolest I have ever experienced during a Utah July (it was a high of 72 degrees and felt downright cold as the sun went down); add to that some lightening and rain and it was a crazy Fourth weather-wise. But oh man, we had a really good time!

Simon and Joel lit off a bunch of fireworks in the street and I have no photos of that because we were too busy screaming/laughing but trust, it was awesome. It’s kind of awesome having a teenage son who loves setting off fireworks. Once it got dark enough we headed up the street with the rest of the neighborhood for the main event. Utah really does fireworks and the Fourth of July RIGHT.

I have no idea what time we eventually made it back to Grandma’s house or how long we slept in the next day but we slept hard. I think this was probably my most favorite Fourth of July in recent memory. SO. MUCH. FUN. I love our family and all of our extended groups of friends we are able to spend time with when we are out in Utah. I also love that my kids have been making memories with Utah summers for over 15 years now and LOVE it. We all look forward to our time in Utah and all of the adventures we are able to have.