Happy 4th

I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed the 4th this year--I honestly cannot say that every year. I woke up, dropped by the grand parade to watch Christian, snapped a few photos while being drowned out by rain (yet the sun was still shining), and headed home--and only in half an hour. That's my kind of parade. We didn't have to bother with crowds and annoying people and the heat or anything--it was glorious.Isn't he just dashing???

Family BBQ out back--just a relaxed afternoon--followed by a wonderful visit from the sandman--beautiful day. Woke up, fixed hair and makeup, then walked down the street for the Stadium of Fire with the fam--the best of company to be sure. Spectacle, fireworks, music, Nick Jonas, patriotism, hanging out with my best friends--who could ask for more? What a great night.

Probably the best part of the 4th of July, and definitely the best part of The Stadium of Fire: the jets!!!

SHeDAISY--a worthy performance, and they're from Utah!

This is my favorite of their songs--and possibly in my top favorite songs of all time. It always makes me smile when I'm feeling down.

Okay, now the fire-dancers were AWESOME. Obviously, as you can tell by my amazing photography skills, we didn't have the best view, but they looked pretty sweet up on the screen. If you look close here (at the squiggly line of fire), you can see a flaming jump rope--tell me that's not cool.


And of course, the main event... JONAS BROTHERS!!! This is just the hype before they even came out--seriously? At this point I wondered if there were any males left in the stadium, or if it was merely populated by the shrieks of crazed girls.


And again, you can see how close we were to the actual Jonas Brothers--amazing, right? ;) I really wasn't a fan until I started watching JONAS on Disney Channel with my little brothers--HILARIOUS show. Ever since I've been crushing a little bit on Nick (ugh, and he's the youngest one! I need serious therapy)--but in my defense, he's the most talented one!

And then... it began. A night I will always remember: the night I lost the majority of my hearing. On the bright side, Paranoid is one of my favorite songs... ROCK ON! (the tone-deaf singing and the ultimate screeching may or may not have been me...)

Yeah, Mother dear and I were pretty dang excited.

Unlike some of our other so-called family...

You know, secretly Sean and Christian are closet Jonas fans--they're just too cool to show it.

Yep, I think I was by far the most excited one there. But you know, a football stadium full of screaming teenage girls--whacha gonna do? You can't beat 'em, so why not join them?! It's always fun to be a screaming, dancing maniac of a kid again, right???

Nick serenading us on the piano--in a psychodelic rendition, but trust me, he's there, the blob right in the middle (again, I have AMAZING camera skills)--piano... sigh... tell me that's not hot. What can Joe do? All he does is jump around and sing every couple lines. Nick writes all the songs, plays all the instruments, is diabetic yet still a rock star... ah...


Joe does have his moments though...


Yep, Happy Happy 4th.