There's no place like home for the Holidays...

The 4th of July is my very favorite holiday and the one that I'm the most homesick for if I'm not with my family. I got to be home this weekend because my sister was getting married. She had pretty good timing :)  The holiday is all about patriotism, family, parades, and sunshine.  To me this is the life that so many have shed blood sweat and tears for. This is the life that lives have been laid down for. A life of freedom, a life of happiness and sunshine. Our bravest and finest have fought and still fight each day to protect our way of life. I can't not tear up over a grand fireworks display accompanied by the tones of a patriotic melody. I've shared my feelings on my most favorite of holidays here and of course, here. Rather than share more sentimentality, I thought I'd share a bit of what makes Logan my favorite home to be in for the holiday.  First the sunshine. Pools, family, picnics, etc. And oh, those mountains. My beautiful mountains.

 Me, Chelsea, Boston, and Heidi soakin' up the sun

Yours Truly 

I've been a lot of places and seen a lot of fireworks for a few different occasions. But to me the greatest fireworks will always be the ones at Romney Stadium in Logan UT done by Fireworks West. I think part of it is the sentimentality, but in all honesty, they do a GREAT job!!!  Some of my greatest summer memories from my childhood involve laying on the football field with my family watching the fireworks overhead. They were so close that I was sure they were going to fall in my lap.  If we weren't in the stadium we were all huddled on a piece of grass somewhere nearby. Laughing playing, then silenced when the skies lit up. We'd have our car door open and the program was broadcast over local radio.  We'd ooh and aah and occasionally sing along to the instrumental accompaniment of the songs we knew.  As I got older I'd even torture my family with talk of the chemical composition of the fireworks and the different ions that made the different colors. I'm sure they were grateful :) But the fireworks were still an occasion looked forward to, the days counted down. Some things never change.

 Me and my Papa ...clearly the one I get my good looks from :)

My momma, her cousin Bonnie and Duane

The other thing that means Logan on the first weekend of July is the Cruise-In. It's a giant car show filled with amazing restored vintage cars. They're on display at the fairgrounds all weekends and there's bands, sno-cones,  food, and all sorts of fair-type fun. This year the Beach Boys were even in concert! Saturday night they have a parade where all the vintage cars drive up and down main street. Awesome.

 '67 Mustang

 The original Batmobile!  Complete with .50 cal WWII vintage machine guns!

 '54 Corvette

 '54 Porsche 1600s --same as the car on Top Gun :)

'65 GTO

The rest of my weekend was engrossed in wedding-ness. That will be another post later. I also still have more family-fun-parade-and-picnic pictures for later, but this folks, is Logan on the first weekend of July. The only place to be :)