4th of July & Poor Abby

We always go to my hometown, Annabella, Utah for the 4th of July. It's a small town with a big-time 4th of July celebration. This year though, it was proving to be difficult for everyone to get down there, so we decided to stay here and see what Provo has to offer.

We got up super early and headed over to my cousin's house to watch the parade. We have lived in Provo for almost 6 years, and I did not know that the 4th of July parade here is the largest in the nation. We had great seats, and the kids enjoyed it. I asked Micah which one he liked best and he said, "The one at MaMa and PaPA's house." When I asked him why, his reply did not surprise me, "Because they throw lots of candy there."

After the parade, we had breakfast with about 45 relatives on my dad's side of the family. Lynda made some of the best scrambled eggs I have ever tasted. Not sure what she did to them, other than tons of fresh herbs, but they were to-die-for. :)

After breakfast we took the kids to the park. They got super excited about the bounce houses. After watching Abby "almost" get trampled by bigger kids one too many times, we decided to end that part of our day early. So, we headed to McDonald's and ate lunch while Micah and Abby played on the Play Land.

To end the day, we headed to the Gateway to meet more cousins and play in the fountains. To say Micah loved it would be an understatement. He ran around, splashed, jumped, to his little hearts content. Abby was a bit more restrained in her enthusiasm. She held back and just ventured in when the fountains were low. It was tons of fun though and we all returned home exhausted.

This is the only picture I got of the entire day. I had my camera with me, but wasn't able to snap any shots.

Abby has been sick the last couple weeks. She's been coughing on and off, had a runny nose, and had a fever a few nights in a row. We actually thought she had a UTI, but the symptoms went away, so we thought she was fine. Last night, she woke up screaming in pain. This morning, she was still in pain so I took her to the doctor. Come to find out, she had a severe ear infection and her ear drum had ruptured. No sign of that, so I was pretty surprised. To make it worse, yesterday, she reached up and touched the hot stove with her bare hand and burned all of her little fingers. So, the poor girl has been laying on the couch, or my lap, all day long with a sore ear and fingers wrapped up in gauze.

There is nothing worse as a mom knowing that you missed the signs of an ear infection, which led to a rupture, and didn't protect your child from a hot stove. Mother of the Year award potential, I am not.