Let Freedom Ring!

Josh and I had an incredible 4th of July week! It all kicked off when Lindsey, Nick, and Makenzie came in town to visit. They were here for a Bell family reunion, so we didn't get to see them too much during the day, but it was so fun to get to hang out for a little while every night! We haven't seen them since they moved to Arizona at the end of April, so we were really excited. But, as seems to be the motif lately, tragedy stuck. Lindsey was sick with the flu when they first got here. Then Nick was hit with strep throat and Makenzie got strep throat and a double ear infection (guess maybe I should have cleaned up what looks like black mold growing up our wall?...kidding). The saddest thing ever was that poor little Makenzie would be so thirsty and ask for water, but would scream after one sip because it hurt her to swallow.

Since the 4th of July fell on a Sunday this year, we celebrated on the 3rd. I had to go into work for about an hour and then we headed over to LDS Hospital to see our new nephew, Liam! He's so cute and tiny! Poor Janalynne had to have an emergency C-Section. This is making for a slower recovery, but she is doing well.

After leaving the hospital, we headed down to Provo. We grabbed a bite to eat at Taco Bell and then had some frozen yogurt.

Then we parked at Josh's Grandma's house and walked over to BYU's football Stadium for the Stadium of Fire! Our seats were on the opposite end of the stadium from the stage, so it was great that we got to see the stage head-on and not from a weird angle.

It was PACKED!

They had Carrie Underwood come out and sing the national anthem. Everyone was going crazy because we weren't expecting to see her until later in the show. It was the BEST I have ever heard the national anthem sung. And when she sang "the rockets red glare" they shot off red fireworks. Then, right when she finished the last note, 4 fighter jets flew over the stadium. How do they time that???

They did a lot of fun things for the program. A bunch of local young dancers came out on the field dressed in red, white, and blue and put on a pretty good show.

Then, they did the world's largest Eagle's Nest for the Boy Scouts. They had all the Eagle Scouts in the crowd stand up and hold a picture of the eagle symbol that was in the center-fold of the program.

Next was the moment Josh and I had been waiting for: the Carrie Underwood concert! She is my all-time favorite singer; this was the second time I have seen her in concert, and her voice has blown me away both times. She really does sound just as good live as she does on her CD! She kicked it off with one of her current hits, "Cowboy Casanova." She sang a lot of my favorites, like "All-American Girl", "Wasted", and "Temporary Home." I can't even express how fun it was to be there! Here is a picture of me and Josh with Carrie (she's the little dot way in the back drowning in bright lights...)

Carrie wrapped up the concert by singing "Before He Cheats" and then (though we all begged for an encore) it was time for the Stadium of Fire fireworks, which were unbelievable! Seriously as good as Disney World.

And while they were shooting off, the dancers came back out onto the field and made a giant outline of the USA. This looked awesome, but it got scary because they shot some fireworks out of the side of the stadium and some stray ones bolted right for the crowd of girls, which was terrifying.

When it was all over, Josh and I began the long walk back to our car. We were really lucky, because it didn't get cold when it got dark. Perfect weather! When we made it to Josh's Grandma's house, some of his cousins, his aunt, uncle, and sister were there, so we stayed and talked for a little while before making the drive back to Salt Lake.

The next morning (which was the actual 4th of July) was church, so we tried to dress a little festive.

While we were at church, the Bell's had to leave. But they left us behind a "thank you" in the form of a ColdStone gift card!

Thanks, Lindsey, Nick, and Makenzie! The ice cream was delicious.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, my brother, Jordan, proposed to his girlfriend, Kaitlyn! She came to South Carolina to visit, and he popped the question while they were out walking on the beach. She was completely surprised, because Jordan had convinced her that he didn't want to get engaged until after the summer was over. They will be getting married in December of this year!

The week following the 4th of July, I went over to Janalynne's a couple of times to help out with the kids. Because of the C-section, she's not supposed to go up stairs, lift anything heavy, bend over too much, etc...which is pretty much impossible when you have 3 kids and are trying to keep a household going. Then Josh had a great idea...we were supposed to move into their basement apartment at the end of July anyway...why not just move in now so we could help Janalynne out while she recovers? She readily agreed, and now our apartment looks like this:

We took a load of stuff over yesterday, and we'll be taking over another load today when Josh gets back from work. Hopefully, we will be in by the end of the week. We are so excited to be in our new place!