Happy 4th Jetlag Style

I randomly chose July 1st as my fly back date, but in retrospect that wasn't really the best choice.  Having death jet lag while trying to be festive and patriotic just wasn't really ideal :)

I hadn't been home for the 4th of July since the summer before we moved to China the first time, 6 years ago, and I LOVE the 4th in Provo.  I REALLY, REALLYwanted to go to the hot air balloons.  This is seriously how dedicated I was to going:  I went to bed at 12:00 am on Friday night after a 30 hour journey from China, and woke up at 6:15 am on Saturday to go to the balloons!  Seriously insane, but I am so happy that I did.  There is just something magical about them.  Oli liked them but the poor kid was so stinking tired and his body was telling him that it was night time, so he looked a little stoned most of the time.

Let's just start with a picture of what for sure looks like home, Timpanogos!  Love the mountains and the BLUE sky (fyi, China, this is what sky is supposed to look like).

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And this should have been in the last post, but I hadn't imported it yet.  Reuniting with Nonni and Papa was so fabulous.  I love my family.

The Balloons:

Reuniting with the nieces and nephews at the balloons. 

They were so excited to see Oli.  And Oli, is LOVING his cousins.  The other night when they were leaving he cried and wanted to go with them and said, "I yuv my cousins!"

Poor Oli, he did A LOT of yawning that morning and the next few days.  

I am pretty sure this face says, "I would rather be asleep."

Oli thought this Darth Vader balloon was the cats meow.  I guess being a boy he somehow just knows he should know about these things.  He has never seen Star Wars, but he knows about Darth Vader and Storm Troopers, and he thinks they are pretty cool.

Oli pointing at Darth.

Me trying to get Oli to smile about Darth.  Not happening.

We loved seeing the sun come up over the mountains.

Proof I was actually there!

There was this whole crew of Storm Troopers and even Darth himself there.  I am not totally sure what they were doing, they were part of the parade on the 4th too.  I thought Oli would think they were groovy, but he was terrified!  He did not want to get close to them.

Cousin Love!  I love that the only good shot we got with all of them is in front of the port-a-potties.  Awesome.

Even though it was death to wake up that early in the morning after only sleeping 6 hours I was so glad that we did.  We used to go to the balloons nearly every year when I was little, and I loved taking my own child to make the same memories.

Hooray for the Balloons!