The Best Time of the Year.

Forget Christmas, July is the best time of the year. It seems like every time my favorite holiday rolls around we get to celebrate in a different state.

In 2009 we watched fireworks from Florida, in 2010- NYC, in 2011- Indiana and 2012- Nebraska.

Why Nebraska you ask? Yeah I asked that too. Jason's aunt and uncle live in Bennington and we stop by everytime we trek across the country, but J's family hadn't been there before so we planned a small Tippetts family reunion over the 4th of awesome July.

Once everyone arrived- six cars and two flights later- we went to the Winter Quarters visitor center.

This was my favorite part of the exhibit- Brigham Young's cane, the same one he was using when he stopped at City Creek and said "this is the place!"

I think the kids favorite part was dressing up like little pioneers.

After the exhibit we crossed the street to the cemetery where the pioneers were buried. I was surprised there weren't more headstones like a traditional cemetery, but the plaque below shows the names of those buried there.

We found some of J's ancestors.

Families are forever.

Being there, imagining the devastating Nebraska winters, you could almost feel the faith of the Saints that passed through there.

Do you think as they stopped there, mourning over their loved ones, that they would have ever imagined a place so painful to them at the time to one day become a place of hope and happiness? Did they know that one day we would do work for the dead and seal families together in that very spot?

I bet some of them did.

 

Later that day we beat the 100+ degree weather and super-hot-humidity with a trip to a waterpark!

J and I realized this was only the second waterpark we've been to together in the four years we've known each other!

We quickly implemented a mid-year resolution. Visit more waterparks!

J got a workout on a pogo stick!

At some point during the vacay we celebrated Sammy's birthday. Me and my sister-in-laws hit Target for Brave-anything and threw her a pretty good little party.

Someone found this awesome lake in the middle of (seemingly) nowhere, so we went out onto the boardwalk to take pictures and wish we were waterskiing. While we're dreaming, though, I wouldn't mind going home to that house!

Amber's dog made me miss my own so bad!

Look at Poppy's little scowl. Haha. She's growing up so fast! Before we know it she'll be Lexy's size!

In the meantime though we'll enjoy her just as she is!

This picture cracks me up. The kids loved the kiddie pool.

And the adults loved the slip n' slide. :)

At one point Ben and Jace started throwing kids down the slide.

It was all fun and games until they surprise attacked me and dropped me on my freakin head. Jace feels like he needs to force me to have fun. But look at me don't I look perfectly happy in dry clothes without a headache??  Just kidding babe I love ya! ;)

When the 4th of July rolled around we headed into "town" where we hit the firework jackpot. I've never seen so many fireworks!

Natural pyromaniacs, Jason's brothers all gathered a collection and we proceeded to the checkout with baskets and baskets of fountains, sparklers, tanks, asteroids, stingers and well...frankly whatever else they could get their hands on.

Collectively, we spent over $500. This was just the beginning.

We started early, setting up camp chairs in rows in the front yard to wait for the show to begin. And boy was it a show. That night I saw more fireworks along the horizon than I've ever seen at one time.

I also saw fireworks I didn't know existed, like these laterns straight out of Disney's Tangled. They were so neat, floating magically across the sky like little hot-air balloons so J bought one just for me and we proceeded to launch it up into the heavens.

Unfortunately my hubby gets a little anxious and the instructions weren't fully followed. What did follow, however, was a bunch of laughs as my 'magical' lantern tumbled down the street nearly catching itself on fire. I've never heard Ben laugh so hard!

Without mountains to catch fire Nebraska gave us a show worth seeing. I never got a justifying picture, but the horizon was littered with fire and color.

The kids stayed occupied with a gigantic box of glow sticks. They sat on the lawn creating light sabers and hats. Look how rad Sam looks!

With half the family moving to Colorado and J hard at work in Chicago it was great to get everyone together for a fun-filled old-fashioned family vacation. Course it's hard to mess up the greatest holiday of the year. It's magical all on its own!