Stadium of Fire

We kicked off our patriotic weekend with some slip n sliding and swimming. Sav broke out the St. Patricks Day bubbles, too for added fun. I thought Sav had already used hers up because I very clearly remember throwing the bottle away after she had greenified our front porch. As it turned out, Cade was bartering for legos. He has run out of legos for his continued construction of Lego City and wanted hers. So, he gave her his bubbles if she would give him her legos. Not a bad idea. My sister Melody didn't know it washed out at first and was silently horrified at the green stains all over her swim suit when she arrived with her crew.

Last year at the last minute I snagged some tickets to the Stadium of Fire off craigslist and Kyle pulled into our driveway after his cross-country drive literally 20 minutes before it was time to leave for the event. Having celebrated the 4th of July many-a-time on the mall in Washington, D.C. I had my doubts that this experience could top that. Boy was I mistaken! You can't really compare the two, in all fairness, because they are both entertaining in their own right. The D.C. experience is more of the atmospheric and people-watching type entertainment. The Stadium of Fire is a full-on amazing showcase of talent in many forms, culminating with an amazing display fireworks. This year Kyle would be in DC (ironic, huh?) for the 4th so I hummed and hahed if I should take the kids on my own to the Stadium of Fire. After all, David Archuletta would be performing! I toyed briefly with the idea of taking all 3 kids, but knowing the show starts at 8 and Ruby is in bed by 6:30 most nights, I figured it would be quite a struggle juggling her and the other two. So I crossed my fingers that I'd be able to find a sitter and we got lucky. Sweet Samie was available so I went ahead and purchased 3 tickets.

All ready to go!!!!

STADIUM OF FIRE OR BUST! :) We had to do a sunglasses shot, per Sav's request.

The first part of the Stadium of Fire adventure is parking. I parked in the neighborhood of our old ward when Kyle and I were students at BYU. We paid a family 10 bucks to park on their lawn. It was really close to the stadium and it's always fun passing by families we knew back when Cade was just a wee thing.

Of course as soon as we got inside the stadium all three of us had to use the rest room, even though all 3 of us used it right before we left. I think that's called Murphy's Potty Law or something. The line to the ladies room was at least 15 mintues long, but we survived. Of course the men's line was really short and Cade was in and out of there before I could fill up our empty Gatorade bottle at the water fountain.


We ran to find our seats as the show was starting. The entire night was incredible!

Did you know there was a fire at the stadium of fire? I took a picture:

See those three men at the top of the stadium? These guys booked it up those stadium stairs as soon as they saw the flames. Considering how many fireworks there were set out up there, I considered that to be a very heroic feat. The fourth guy had to lug a fire extinguisher up there. It didn't seem to affect the show at all and I'd consider it a miracle that nothing else was set off as a result of the fire. Many people didn't even know it was going on, in fact. This is my proof though! :)

I love when the fighter jets fly overhead. It's so powerful and makes me feel so patriotic. There were so many moments during that evening that my heart swelled with love and gratitude for God, veterans and all those serving our country now. {want a patriotic read? Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is a read that will fill your soul with gratitude for the horrors and atrocities the service men and women in WWII went through}. We all thoroughly enjoyed David Archuletta's performance and I wish he had more time on the stage. I know he wasn't the headline performer, but he totally could have been and we all would have LOVED it. Only I wasn't so sure about his skinny jeans. I think he could have done without those. I mean, I know he's an "artist" and all, but I just have a hard time with guys in skinny jeans.... Cade and Savvy had a blast waving their flags to his music, and were not distracted in the least by his wardrobe. Sometimes they got a little carried away and almost poked people behind, next to or in front of us. I apologized to a gentleman in front of us when Sav's flag got waved in his face. His response, "I spent 12 years in the National Guard. She can wave that flag all she wants." That really touched me.

We love David Archuletta!!!!

The fireworks were incredible this year. I thought we were in the middle of the grand finale about 3 times. I love how they "choreograph" the fireworks to music. Getting out of the stadium wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The kids did a great job of holding hands and staying close to me. We stopped in front of the stadium and danced at the Street Dance for about 20 minutes, which sadly was just fun for Sav and I. Cade was miserable! Savannah was boogying the night away and had a little group of college girls surrounding her, being entertained by her energetic bouncing to the music at such a young age. I tried to explain to Cade we would have more fun in the street dancing than we would waiting in the car for an hour in traffic. Later that night when he saw the line of cars we were waiting behind, I heard him grumble, "You were right. We should have stayed at the street dance." I reeeeeallllly hope he remembers that for next year.

On our walk back to the car we visited with our former bishop and his wife and kids. It was fun to catch up. When we finally got to our car, it didn't take us too long to get home. I really enjoyed myself and I know the kids did, too. I'm already excited about next year's Stadium of Fire! It will be a blast.

Sunday morning all of the kids slept in (Sav and Ruby 7:15, Cade 8:45) so we were able to reasonably recover from our extremely late night. It was a nice day and although the kids were dressed cute and patriotic, I only got these shots of them on our Sunday walk which don't do them justice.