This 4th of July was pretty great! We woke everyone up and headed out around 5:30 that morning so that we could drop the kids off with my friend Harmony who so graciously offered to tend them for us that morning. From Harmony’s, Bryce and I drove over to the Freedom Run race in Provo. It was a beautiful morning and the race was early enough that we managed to precede the heat that hit later in the day. Bryce, Brad, Brock and I ran the 10k race (a little over 6.2 miles) and Mark and Brenda did the 5k race. It was so fun to participate as a family! And I finished! I truly never thought I would be able to say that I could run over 6 miles, but I did.

Just after I crossed the finish line. Brock and Brad finished a while earlier, but Brock was sweet enough to run back up the race course to meet up with me and Bryce and then run the last bit of the race with us. It was a great morale booster and I so appreciate his support!

My sweetheart ran the whole race with me, even though he could have gone much faster. It was wonderful having him beside me the whole time, encouraging me and keeping me going. Thank you, Bryce!

Those crazy brothers are going to run a half marathon tomorrow. I will be happily watching from the finish line.

After the race, we headed over to the big parade. Amelie and Calder got to sit with Grandma and Grandpa Haymond the whole time and were in heaven!

There were lots of exciting floats and balloons and bands!

This guy did pretty well considering we had to wake him up so early!

All the excitement and the lack of sleep caught up to him as soon as we got in the car.

All in all, it was a pretty great day! To top it all off, it rained and rained the next day. A blessing indeed considering the insane fire season we’ve been having here.