My Favorite Holiday

    4th of July has been hard for me since I've moved to Idaho. Its my favorite holiday to spend with my family (with Thanksgiving as a close second) and I'm miss them so much when we're not together. Of course, Chad and I have made our own traditions that have really brought the holiday back to life for me but I miss my sisters and our red white and blue attire, I miss going to the Tenneys to watch the Heber fireworks and feeling the earth shake around us as we watched from the beautifully colorful Arizona canyons, I miss going to the "bad lands" and riding cardboard boxes down the black sands while the boy played with fire and got a little too close to blowing off their hands with the not so legal fireworks. I miss cuddling on the lawn and falling asleep in the car on the way home through all the traffic. And the food, the delicious food! I miss my grandpa who gave me my passion for this great country and who still believes in its founding freedoms. I miss the stump speeches at the local churches. I miss grandmas Texas sheet cake and celebrating Danis and Grandmas birthday the day before! I miss all the cute little cousins in their 4th of July gear and watching them marvel at sparklers. I miss the Holbrook bike parade and watching my goofy family ride their unicycles through the streets of downtown Holbrook AZ. I miss the volleyball tournaments at Pioneer park in Jo City that we would totally crush each year! I miss watching grandpa Hatch and Dad win their horseshoe championship T-Shirts. I miss grandpas holey cowboy hat. I miss the homemade ice cream. I miss the family card games and the dominos.

You see...favorite holiday! I mainly just miss my sweet family.

          But this year was wonderful! While I missed all the past 4th traditions. We made a few new ones that I think will really stick.

     It wouldn't be a our Merrell family 4th of July without the Rexburg Parade. The past 3 years we have set up chairs the night before to get the prime spot at the parade. Perfect shadeing and close enough to walk to! It was an awesome morning and the whole family was there! Liam loved watching everything ...except the racing tractors (only in Idaho) they were too loud for him but he cheered up as soon as they were out of sight.
    We enjoyed an awesome BBQ the night before with family and played cornhole, we all took turns keeping score and switching up the teams. Chad caught a sparrow...or more accurately a sparrow jumoed on his finger and we all died laughing at how odd and awesome it was.

Preston and I grillin up the chicken and kabobs 

  

 The bird whisperer

 

 Sam painted the girls nails for the 4th of July and they all looks so awesome!

 

    We wanted to avoid the traffic of Idaho Falls (even though its one of our favorite shows) so we decided to stick around Rexburg and see what the fair grounds show had to offer us. On the way to our watching spot we played a hilarious game which involved a few dares that had us all laughing. The fireworks were less than thrilling the the company couldn't be beat. We had a good laugh at the tiny show and had a short show of our own back at the complex. Liam was amazed! I thought he'd be scared but he sat wide eyes and happy the whole time! Even though he was extremely tired, he stayed up the whole night!
  Oh, and TRENT AND CHELSEA HAD THEIR BABY! on the 4th! That blessed all-american boy is already my favorite.
Haha! I love Trent in this picture, it's like he knew he was going to be a dad in a few hours!

   The next morning Chad and Madi and I did the color run! a fun forth of July tradition that we started last year. Chad wasnt quite as trained as myself or madi so I hung back with him since we wonted to cross the line together but next year we'll easily beat our time. It was a blast and we had the best cheerleaders.

 

 The day wouldnt be complete without a trip to the splash pad

      We had fun at the caves, exploring the civil defense area just outside of Rexburg and the boys talked guns on the way home. Darren loved it and I had to laugh a little as his cute little shoulders shot back with each kick of Chads AR-15.

 The whole gang down in the civil defense cave

 

 Liam looks hilarious, I cant wait to tease him about this in 10 years.

 

 Preston saved the day when he and his super arms reached the Ipod that was dropped down a deep crack in the cave.

 We tore open over 100 light sticks and spread them all over the ceiling of the cave and when we turned out our lights, it looked like we were in space!

 We survived!

 The Oyler kids exploring the caves

 

 Liams face all night long, he was so tired but he didn't want to miss a thing!

 

 The Oyler Crew!

 Enjoying the fireworks (not enjoying the flash )

 Preston, Sam, Aaron and Brigham!

     Chad and I were able to sneak away for a minute and meet little Porter at the hospital. He was so sweet and Liam was so fascinated with him.
     That night we all just hung out and played games.Its always so fun having family in town! We loved every minute and while i miss my AZ family traditions, it's been a blast making our own and having family that's willing to come see us in ID.