the 4th in Fotos

It was a fancy-free 4th for us—mostly involving waterfalls, pool-toy river rafting, snow cones, backyard BBQ, and friends and fam. It was a great day to be an American in Provo, Utah.

jacob and I enjoying the cool mists of bridal veil falls

I dared him.

the falls gang

So we had originally planned to hike to a place called Silver Lake. And in preparation for easy-going lake-lounging, we bought some cheapo-pool-floatie toys to use in the water ($3 at Wal-mart). Unfortunately, the road to the Silver Lake trailhead was blocked off because of those good-for-nuthin wildfires. Thus, we had to drastically change our plans for the day, which left no option for lake-lounging.

But what were we to do with our floatie toys? Raft down the Provo River, obviously—or die trying.

Jacob was the bravest and the first one to attempt rafting with a pool toy.

Mind you, the Provo River isn't exactly your "lazy river" relaxation experience. It's quite swift with some rapids. We found a place that was somewhat shallow and not too crazy-looking, but still—I wasn't so sure about this idea. The water was moving pretty fast. However, Jacob was determined to go for it. We stood by and watched, both nervous and amused.

HONEY!? WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?!?

This video doesn't really capture it—but as soon as Jacob jumped on the little pink raft, it seemed like the waters just rushed him away. Kali and I were screaming and laughing and Brent ran to see where he went. As a wife, I think this was one of the first times that I was legitimately scared that something was going to happen to my husband. I dunno, like, get swept away from me forever? I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but my eyes were wet and I was in some state of hysteria.

He was FINE. In fact, he convinced me to do it with him the next go-round, and it was fun! A little wild, but fun.

We drew a bit of an audience.

Later, we met up with Megan and Adam for a picnic and got to chase this little guy around...

Jacob + Elijah, our nephew.

Then it was BBQ time! These guys manned the grill and the rest of us played on the trampoline and enjoyed the amateur firework shows going on in the neighborhoods. 

Baby Mia thought the people jumping on the trampoline were SO FUNNY. Tons of baby laughter. Ummm... precious?

We topped the night off by going up to Wymount and listening to sound of the Beach Boys echoing from the stadium and, of course, watching the fireworks.