Instead of the typical friend or family filled 4th with BBQ and waterfights, Mark and I spent the day in a car….very exciting! We were on our way to Lake Powell for a long weekend with the Tate side of my family. Coming from Los Angeles, and going to the Utah side of the lake–not Page, Ariz. makes for a long drive.

One highlight–We stopped in Cedar City so I could see my adorable “niece” Kaylee who was wearing the cutest red and white striped dress–very patriotic. She seemed to like Mark too, especially when he held her in his arms and bounced his knee like he always does–annoys other people, but aparently babies like it.

Driving through small Southern Utah towns is interesting. You can’t help but marvel at how they live these simple lives of farming, ranching and running little stores or motels. The country is beautiful, however, with meandering streams and green meadows laid out for cows to eat at their leisure.

We made pretty good time and reached the Lake in the early evening. The rest of the family was there, gathered in front of the lodge sitting in camp chairs. After catching up, and eating at the little restaurant looking overthe lake at sunset, we were ready for the fireworks to begin. Interestingly, there is a sign when you enter the park nothing that fireworks are illegal. But, I guess if you’re a park employee that doesn’t apply because they do a “fireworks show” just up from the marina. It started slowly with one guy lighting them all. It was really exciting. But, it gained momentum and there were a couple of spots where there were a lot of fireworks at once. The best was after the “finale” they had a few left and one exploded near the ground. It started a small fire that got bigger and bigger. It was far enough away that we couldn’t really see how many people were down there and what they were doing, but it didn’t look like they were trying to put it out at all. It just kept getting bigger. This was more exciting than the fireworks show had been! But, finally, we saw them dousing the flames, averting a potential governmental embarrassment.

Unfortunately, I think I’ve been ruined in the fireworks show department…after years of over stimulation and amazing displays it takes a lot of fireworks in a good show to get me worked up…maybe after years of therapy I’ll be able to be content with a small show of patriotism again.

Here are some photos of our trip:
http://kirstenandmark.smugmug.com/gallery/3125052#P-1-15