America, America....

So - it's been a long time since I actually wrote a post. But - school is over tomorrow!!! I only have one class today and two tomorrow, one of which is bowling. Finally my summer can begin! I know, I know, it's almost August, but I'll take what I can get.

Mollie came up for the 4th of July. She got here Thursday night. On Friday, we did Mollie's laundry (we know how to party) and then went to Idaho Falls. We went to a kitchen supply store where I bought myself a music note cookie cutter, and then to the mall. When we got back to Rexburg, we went to the Farmer's Market they started in the Tabernacle parking lot. There were lots of vendors, and we bought some kettle corn. Yum! Then we went to a movie at the (comparatively) cheap theaters. We saw 17 Again which actually wasn't terrible. But it did start with a basketball/dance number with Zac Efron, and for a minute there we were afraid it was going to be another High School Musical. We cleaned out Mollie's purse which conveniently converted into a Kettle Corn carrying case. After the movie, we went to Craigo's and got the buffet. We didn't get a cookie monster because we were stuffed. At some point during the evening, we got sno-cones from the little shack on Main Street.

The next morning was the Fourth of July! I had to be up and at the local high school by 8:30 so I could march in the town parade with the "community marching band".

(Long story - I'm taking a class called "Band Practicum" this semester. The point of the class is to get experience teaching a band. That didn't happen, (since public school is not in session and there was no band to teach) so we got to participate in the community marching band instead. Oh, wasn't it a ball to feel like a 14 year old all over again? No, no it wasn't. I got put in the Color Guard since I have marched in the band before. Anyways, so the final event for this part of the class was to march in the 4th of July parade. An event which 1/2 of the class (there are only 4 of us, but still) didn't feel like doing, and as far as we know were never marked down for. So - I marched in the parade.)

We were fourth in line for the parade, so by the time we finished the parade, we were able to go back and watch most of it. And, I found out later, they held the "Madison High School Marching Band" banner for the parade, so everyone who saw me wondered since when I was in the high school marching band. Oh well. It's over and I never have to do it again.


As I said, when I got done marching, I walked back to our apartment and found Mollie and Chad and watched the rest of the parade with them. A Cream O'Weber truck came by and gave everyone a free pint of chocolate milk! It was sooooooooo good!



We had to go back to the park where the parade ended so I could hold the American flag while the band played some patriotic songs.

After the parade, we went to a hot dog place near our apartment. We had heard they were selling $1 hot dogs. When we got there, we got 3 hot dogs, and two sides of coleslaw for $1.25. We went over to the parking lot to get the Subaru to go back to the high school and get the van, which I had parked there that morning. We found a coupon on the Subaru for a 99 cent smoothie (of sorts). We went and took a couple coupons off the other cars, and then went to the bagel place near our apartment to get our 99 cent smoothies. They came with "tapioca pearls" in the bottom of the cup, that felt very much like eating fish eggs through a straw. We ate our smoothies on the drive to Idaho Falls to scope out a spot for the fireworks.

We parked in a park on the other side of the freeway from the riverfront where they set off the fireworks. We took a nice walk along the river walk and found a rock chair and a giant dandelion thing.





But once we got to the highway overpass, the trail (a floating bridge-ish thing across the river itself) was closed because the water level was too high to connect it to the sidewalk on the other side, leaving about a 3 foot gap which I was too chicken to try to jump over. So, we had to find a way across the highway. We were just going to run across when no one was coming, but we chickened out of that idea too, and walked down to the onramp and used the sidewalk under the overpass. We scoped out a spot on the Snake River so we could see the fireworks they shoot off from the other side of the river. We laid down our blanket and took turns saving our spot. We got there about 3:00 and the fireworks didn't start until almost 10:00. First Chad and I took a walk about a mile down the river to where all the food vendors and carnival-ish things were. We bought some food and then walked it back the mile to Mollie. After that, Mollie and I walked down to the vendors, and bought sno-cones on the way back. Chad bought some homemade rootbeer which ended up being disgusting.
At some point, I walked away, and Chad almost introduced Mollie to someone as his wife (she had her back to him and was wearing my jacket) She goes - No! No I'm not!

We conveniently picked a plot right next to somebody Chad was in band with a few years ago. Therefore, she felt like her children could be all over our space and we wouldn't care, even though Chad and her were apparently only acquaintances. Not to mention, they had spray painted out their square (the police went around and pulled up any stakes which is how people usually pick their spots the night before) and that still wasn't enough room, and they invaded our space. So we put up with her two kids all afternoon because we had such a good spot!
We played Phase 10 and as soon as we got out the cards, we hear the boy ask "Mom- can I play with them?"
We all just look at each other.
The mom says "well, you have to ask them".
NO! That is not the answer! The answer is no, let them play their own game! GRR!
The 5-6 year old boy came over and kept saying "Can I play now?" Can I play now?"
... No - it's a long game.
Apparently Chad pulled out the cards while Mollie and I were gone, and the boy came over and helped himself to the game. Anyways.
He started touching our cards and stuff while his mom paid no attention.
Finally she looks over and goes "Hey _____ come back here" as she laughs.
We all just sit there playing our game. She says "Hey guys, is he okay there?"
None of us says anything. You think that might be your cue.
"No really - is he okay there?"
Still nobody says anything. What do you want us to say? "No! Your kid's being a brat - it's not our job to babysit him".

We fended off Mexicans and children, and wind, and rain, other little children, teenagers, and later in the evening, cold, so we could have our perfect view of the fireworks. It was finally getting dark, and we were getting excited! They put on a concert across the river, outside at the hotel that hosted the fireworks. We kept watching to see when they would stop, turn out their lights, and start the fireworks.
The lights went out!
The fireworks were about to begin!
We heard the first sound of the fireworks and craned our necks to see where they were.

BEHIND A BIG BUSH!!!

Are you kidding me?!!! We sat here for 6+ hours only to find out that the fireworks are BEHIND A BIG BUSH?! We moved down right on the river bank to see if that improved our view, and then over a few feet, but no, we were not anywhere close to seeing the fireworks. We grabbed up our stuff, and ran down the street, closer to where they were setting off the fireworks. We ended up sitting in the middle of the street that they closed off around 6:00pm. But we had a good enough spot and we got to see most of the fireworks. It was fun. After that, we began the great exodus back to Rexburg. We got back around midnight (?). We went out on the sidewalks and lit some sparklers, and then went to bed. The next morning, we made breakfast, and then Mollie left for Provo.

At some point in our boredom during the 7 hours we spent on the riverbank, we took some pictures.









We also took these pictures trying to re-create a picture Mollie has from when we were babies. (She'll have to post the original)





We also took some pictures of the fireworks.