4th of July in Heber, Arizona!

 The fourth of July has ALWAYS been one of my favorite holidays.  I love my Country and feel so blessed to be in such a great land.  Utah always did the 4th BIG....so each summer I'm away, I always feel a little homesick.  It's especially hard to be in MESA, AZ for the 4th cuz it's so dang hot!  I'm not bagging on AZ...I actually LOVE it here, it's just not your ideal place to spend the 4th.  That being said, there are some places 2 or 3 hours North which are FUN to be at.....and we happen to have some GREAT friends that have a cabin there.  My friend Katie invited our family to come up to Heber to be a part of the town's fun!  

The Allen family has it all figured out.  They go and set up chairs the night before....I guess you have to do that when you have such a HUGE family.  I love being a part of something big!  

Another Allen tradition is to play catch behind the cars while waiting for the parade.  Of course it's just the boys...

I think Bob Allen is one of the coolest guys I know.  He is very happy.....a fun grandpa....awesome dad to his kids....and really generous.  He bought Dilly Bars for everyone that wanted one.  I would say he got 30 or so.  He just kept opening boxes and handing them to all of his grand kids and kids that wanted them.  Maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal to him, but I thought it was so nice of him!
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I will say this is NOT the best parade I've been too.  Not to compare, but Utah's parade is better.  Maybe I"m used to floats, and bands and horses, and dancers, etc.....This seems to be a big advertising special with a little bit of decoration added to it.  Trucks would drive down the street advertising their business.  But the highlight of the parade for the kids was the amount of water being sprayed on the on lookers.  Our kids were soaked, but had such a great time!

At one point a bunch of Allens and Abbie went out into the street linking arms to be a part of the parade.

Mark and Debbie Allen have a cabin a short ways from Bob and Sue.  This weekend was also a family reunion ....so we ended up eating at this cabin a few times.  This is our friend Brian and Tawni's parents'  cabin.  We love that we know both sides of the family...so felt right at home!  Can't imagine having money like this to build a house to live in, let alone a little weekend get-away like this!  Mercy~!

On our down time, there was plenty to do over at the Bob and Sue cabin.  The kids played house and dress up.  They had a fun time playing with Katie's kids and Dave's kids....

Pool and foos ball were a fun thing to pass time also.  The boys thought they were in heaven!

This is more like a LUXURY LODGE.  I'ts 7500 sq ft.  We didn't even want to come home!  Such a fun place to be!

The weather was beautiful and the company was fun!  Couldn't ask for a better 4th in Arizona!

By now, Mason was feeling sick and had thrown up once.  But when David said he was going to out with Dave for a ride on the 4 wheelers, he felt better for that 1/2 hour and went for a ride and then came back feeling sick again.

We miss Dave and Jessica and their family so much!  They moved away from us a couple of years ago, but we are so glad that we still get together from time to time...

So Dave and Jessica used to live by us, and then his sister Katie ( in the white shirt) met us and started coming to me to do her hair.   Katie invited us to come up while I was doing her hair last time!  This brother/sister duo is one of my favorite!  I love to hang out with them!

Abbie said the girls needed to go out for a ride.  Needless to say, I had a hard time getting it into a gear.  But then I got the hang of it and it was really fun!  I could get used to a 4 wheeler very easily!!!

Abbie and Allie buddied around the whole weekend.  It was really cute watching the 2 of them together!

Bob and Sue Allen.  Such wonderful people.  Very giving and generous.  We love your family!

Mark and Debbie had several little quads to ride.  The kids thought they had died and gone to heaven!

                                              The kids look cute riding these little things

David looks good, but I have to admit, I look like a fool on a mini quad.  It sure was fun though!

                 This looks much better!  Me and my honey riding off into the sunset!  Hahaha....

I will say that Heber put on a really great firework show.  It's so close that you can just feel them in your chest!  Quite a show!  Hopefully we will get to do this again!!! hint hint....