4th of July

I love the 4th of July and barely got my firecrackers made to be able to display them this year before the 4th was over!  At least I will have them for years to come!:)

This year for the 4th, we waited for Tyson to sleep a couple of hours after he got home from work and then headed down to Bear Lake to meet up with his whole family!  We were so excited that we were able to spend the day together with everybody there and that we could all celebrate Tyson's 30th birthday together!  It ended up being a birthday that I don't think any of us will forget!!

We got down to Bear Lake around 2:00pm.  There was a little bit of cloud coverage but for the most part it was sunny and super hot!  Perfect day to be playing in the water.  We met everybody over at the other beach so that the kids could go play on a floating trampoline that they had reserved for an hour.  The tramp ended up being way far out in the water so Bronx, Rebel and I just waited on the shore and played in the sand.  Tyson attempted to take Teague out to it, but the water was too deep for him to be able to keep Teague afloat without them getting fully submerged from the neck down. They turned around and played with us in the sand while we waited for everybody else. 

After the hour was up, we all headed back over to the North shore where everything was set up so that the kids could play in the sand with their cousins and get rides on the jet skis.  We started to notice that some dark clouds were rolling in but didn't think too much of it!  Within 5 minutes, the weather completely changed! It was raining and hailing and the wind was blowing terribly.  Haley and I grabbed onto one of the canopies that was about ready to blow away. We then realized that things were getting worse, with the rain and hail getting stronger and the wind getting extremely fierce.  It was such a weird feeling knowing that there wasn't anywhere to go to get under cover!  I started looking around trying to find my kids.  Bronx was playing in the sand and I was yelling at him to come over to me! I didn't want to let go of the canopy because I didn't want it to flip and hit somebody.  Bronx was crying and couldn't see because of all the sand blowing and he was about getting knocked over because of the powerful wind.  It was also painful getting pelted with the hail. It was so strong and painful that some of us even had cuts on us because of it.  My back was stinging from getting hit but I knew I had to keep hold of the canopy. Luckily, I made eye contact with Nichole and yelled at her to grab Bronx.  She did and was helping shelter him the best she could under the canopy, along with all of the other kids who were screaming and crying because they were so scared.  Tyson was over helping hold the other canopy up and luckily Rebel was with him and was still in his car seat so he was being mostly protected.  I started to panic when I realized that Teague had left only minutes before the storm to go on a jet ski ride with Randy.  My mind started to think the worst when all of a sudden I saw them running in and under the canopy for shelter.

The storm lasted a good 20 minutes and then things let up!  We all looked around and the whole beach was a disaster.  Any and all canopies that were out there were completely mangled. People couldn't find their towels, bags, life jackets.  Cameras, phones, etc. were ruined because they were completely soaked.  It was a scary mess.  The patrol people were driving down on the beach and just told everybody to make piles of all of their stuff that was ruined and that they would clean it up later.

We were all kind of in shock and stunned by everything and felt so grateful and blessed that we were all safe and that everybody was accounted for.  It made me think about those that have to go through natural disasters.  What an awful feeling it would be to wonder if your family members were ok and if you would have any belongings left after all was said and done!  I know that we were being watched over that afternoon! 

We spent over an hour trying to find things and get everything cleaned up and then went back to the condo where they were staying, to lay everything out and figure out which stuff belonged to who.  So much for the nice, fun day playing in the water!:)  It was quite the day!

After everybody had cleaned up, we all went outside where Brittany had planned a little pirate party for the kids! 

We ended the day by going out to eat, for dinner and shakes!  It am sure it wasn't quite what Tyson had in mind for his 30th, but it was definitely a memorable one!