Last year Mason and Rachel Faye had so much fun doing the Freedom run that we decided to do it again, only this year Brynn joined in the fun, too. Mason, along with Rachel Faye, ran the entire mile without walking at all. They set a new PR of 12:07 which was 5 minutes faster than last year. Way to go guys! Brynn has been so excited to run and is actually a very good runner, but the hundreds of people in the race made her a little apprehensive and she clung to my hand the entire way. She had to take some breaks to walk, but never complained and finished in around 18 minutes. This is such a great family event. I hope we will still be around Provo in future years so we can continue this tradition.
Next we hit the parade with the Parker clan. The big boys (Scott and Beetle) had more fun camping out to save our spot the night before then they did during the actual parade, but the kids had fun.
And we got to cheer for these guys.
My dad made his Freedom Festival Parade debut as the President/CEO of the Utah County Chamber of Commerce. My mom was thrilled she got to fulfill her lifelong dream of driving in a fancy car in a parade...okay maybe not, but as always she was there to support my dad.
The rest of our day was filled with the Hale family BBQ/candy drop/waterfight. I really need to do a separate post about that tradition that dates back some 30+ years some time, but for now I will say that Mason was totally into the water fight this year. We let Brynn seek refuge in the house with my mom and Miles since we decided strangers dumping buckets of water on her probably wouldn't help her stranger anxiety.
Later that night we went up by the temple to watch the fireworks. The kids all loved them...even Miles.
I love the 4th of July. It honestly is my favorite holiday. I am so grateful to being raising my family in this free country.
