The Skiby Family: What's more American than a Rodeo, Parades, BBQ's and Fireworks?

I love the 4th of July. It is a great holiday filled with family activities, patriotism and BBQ's with none of the stress of all the other holidays. We added a few new things to our already busy weekend this year. First, we signed Cole up for Mutton Bustin' at the West Jordan Rodeo. We signed him up with his little friend, Ryker. I am sure this is the only reason that he actually went through with it....peer pressure. Anyway, we Carnival-ed, then headed to the Rodeo.

Pre-Rodeo Smiles

Hands over your hearts for the National Anthem.

Love, love, love this picture. Look how cute this it is. They are so happy to be with the Rodeo Queens. Ryker said if he had won the Mutton Bustin', he would have given them a kiss. Cole had no comment. Although his smile speaks volumes.

Sizing up the competition and the sheep.

Ready to ride. I CANNOT believe he didn't chicken out.

These are the only two picture we have. Three seconds doesn't buy you much time for pictures.

Look at these two. Seriously, hugging all night. Sometimes you need a buddy to get you through the evening, glad they had each other.

Mutton Bustin' was so great. I was really proud of Cole, getting so big and brave. He seemed to love it. He got kicked in the cheek by the sheep and has two little scratches to show for it. Just a few tears were shed but he shook it off almost immediately. The trophy at the end made it all worth while. As you can see, he thought that was pretty awesome.

These two, Cy and his friend Jace, were totally robbed of the best dancer contest for concert tickets. Obviously, this is the best "Sprinkler" anyone has ever thrown down.

Saturday was a big, BUSY day. First we dropped Nolan and Cy off to get ready for the West Jordan Parade. Cy's All-Star team was in the parade. We had to fashion our best "float" in about 3 days. Nothing like hearing about something at the very last minute. So we decorated a flat bed trailer for the boys to ride on. Nolan was worried about them falling off so he built rails for it. Cole and I got to join Granny and Papa Skiby along with Aunt Mel for some parade watching and candy catching. We anxiously awaited Cy and Nolan's big debut.

Granny spoiled Cole with lots of fun Fourth accessories; snaps, confetti guns and loud things.

Yeah!! There he is. Cole spotted Cy, who had kindly saved me my favorite kind of taffy (blue raspberry). He also brought Cole some balloons off of the float. Such a nice brother.

Cole was excited to see Nolan too. Apparently, Nolan kicked the boys off of the trailer because he was afraid they would get hurt. They were jumping off and on while the truck was moving. All of our hard work was all for not...oh, well, the boys had a great time regardless.

After the parade, we headed to a BBQ and swimming hosted by some friends for Cy's All-Star team. Crazy boys! The pool was in a community with mostly retired people. They never saw what was coming.

After swimming, we headed out to Uncle Dave and Aunt Bev's house. This is a tradition that has gone on for many, many years. I personally made my first appearance 21 years ago!!!! It is a wonderful day and we have met many new friends because of it. This year it was at the park behind Dave and Bev's house because of some deck repairs. The kids loved all the open space.

Here is a picture of Nolan and Cy hitting some balls, but they weren't the only ones. The big boys had to get in on it too, trying to out shine each other.

Oh my gosh, isn't he SO cute. This is Nolan's cousin, Megan's son Bryce. He is truly the happiest baby I have ever been around. He has the easiest disposition and is squeezably delicious. I would take him home in a heart beat. I tried to get someone to distract Meg while I ran away with him, but she was on to me. Too bad, because I need someone, other than me, to have knees that look like those in our house. Adorable.

All the little cousins. Cole, Landon, Cohen, Cy, Jace, Sylee and Baby Bryce.

We headed back to WJ for fireworks that night. I am not sure why we even bothered. We were so tired it was ridiculous. Too much activity that day. Nolan feel asleep twice at the park. Once before the fireworks started and once while they were going off, I was at the verge of tears, I don't do tired gracefully. I had the WORST allergies that day and the sitting on the grass brought them back on. I was disappointed in our fatigue because I love fireworks, but we stuck it out and they were, of course, beautiful. We all ended up sleeping until 10:30 the next day. I couldn't believe it. Thank goodness, we all really needed it.

Sunday morning we headed up the canyon for a picnic. The canyon became the canyons and finally we found what Nolan deemed an appropriate site to stop up by Strawberry Reservoir. We were not prepared for the weather. It was an unusually cool Independence Day. We shoved food in our mouth, let the boys shoot the BB gun and then took a quick hike. It was too cold up there for shorts and t-shirts.

We headed home for fireworks in the driveway. The boys loved it. I invited the neighbors over, they declined. Huh, Darn it! Oh well, we had fun anyway. I captured some cool pictures with my camera while the boys played with Sparklers.