Happy 4th of July!!!

I know I'm a day early, but since the 4th is on Sunday this year, our town had their celebration today because God forbid anything be done on Sunday.LOL

Last year, as we drove into North Ogden for the first time, we saw chairs all lined up along the main drag in our town. It was obvious that people were saving spots to be able to view the parade that was to happen the next day. Unfortunately, we were buried in boxes so we were unable to make it.

This year, we did as the locals did and dropped off our 5 chairs yesterday morning to an area that looked like a good spot to sit. And I am glad we did since this morning on our way to the parade, there was not a spot left on either side of the road that was not taken up by chairs, ropes or blankets.

One benefit of living so close to an AFB is the fact that we got a really cool flyover. Nothing like four F-16's to kick off the festivities:

Me and the kids waiting for it to start:

Imagine our surprise when they made a large orange "X" in the road and set off a smoke flare:

Skydivers started dropping RIGHT in front of us:

The flag:

The lifeguards from our pool with Splash the Duck:

Our Fire Dept and their clown who was spraying the crowd:

Forrest and me:

The weather was absolutely beautiful--80's and sunny with a nice breeze. It was a perfect day for a parade!

One year ago...

One year ago today, we arrived in Utah for the biggest life-changing event I have ever experienced. Bigger than having kids, in fact. I never thought that I would ever leave IL. I never wanted to leave IL. It was where I grew up, got married, raised my kids and had the best memories of. And then things took a turn and we decided that a move across country was going to be the best thing for our family.

So, Utah it was.

I was terrified of leaving everything and everyone I had ever known and moving to an area of the country I had never even seen. To a state I had no desire to ever visit. I was nervous about how we would all adapt. I was panicked over having to put the kids in a large public school-something I had absolutely no experience with. Would they make friends, especially since we aren't LDS? Would I be able to find my way around, especially since I am not comfortable driving in unfamiliar areas? I was worried about too many things to even list.

One year later I can look back and see that I had absolutely nothing to worry about. Moving to UT has been the best thing to have happened to our family. We have never had as much time to spend together as we do here and Forrest isn't stressed out all of the time. We don't have the pressures surrounding us that we had back in IL and it is such a freeing feeling.

Moving was the best thing we could have ever done.