Fun on the Fourth

I've always loved this holiday. I love the fireworks, BBQ's, family, friends, traditions, and all that goes along with it. I especially love what we celebrate at this time of year! We're so blessed by the freedoms we enjoy and sometimes take for granted everyday. Here's a run down of how we spent the holiday: We spent Saturday with my sister Emily and her family. We started with a great lunch at the Oasis Cafe then headed to the dollar store to buy toy boats for the kids. Then we went to Liberty park where we floated the boats down the little rivers that the kids love to play in. Then we went on a ferris wheel ride and Tay and Abrie rode on a little airplane ride. It was lots of fun and Abrie was not happy when it came time to leave the park. On Sunday we just relaxed and spent the day together. A woman in our ward offered to let us rent her house for a year for a really good deal so we went and looked through it and talked with her a while. We live in such a great ward and would love to stay in it as long as we can so all the members are constantly trying to find us homes to rent or buy. It's really nice! We have a month or so to decide if we're going to take her up on her offer. On Monday we had our annual 4th of July neighborhood breakfast. The Primary was in charge of decorating the tables so I gave the assignment to the Valiant girls. I picked them up all at 7:30am and we went to the church and decorated everything in red, white, and blue. The girls really had a good time doing it. Later that day we went over to momma cox's for a family BBQ, followed by a Real Salt Lake soccer game. Jake and Chantelle made it back from their trip to Idaho just in time to join us. Jeremy couldn't come because he had to work and right before the BBQ it started to rain like crazy so we ate indoors. The food was great, the company was great, and only Alisa and JJ made it to the soccer game. I ended up going home and waiting for Jeremy to get off work. He made it home just in time to watch all the fireworks from our living room window. We could see them all across the city. It was nothing spectacular, but it was a fun, and relaxing holiday weekend! I can't wait until we have children of our own and can start some fun family traditions! What are some of the fun family July 4th traditions you guys remember from when we were kids? I remember making homeade ice cream at Grandma's and of course BBQ's and fireworks at the Ice Plant. What else?