4th of July

We had a very full 4th of July weekend. I started it with a twelve mile run Saturday. I meant to do more, but my legs were tired from a squat session that I did the day before. We cleaned the house for a while and then I went to work the Stadium of Fire. That was more fun than I was expecting for sure. I enjoyed both performers, David Archuletta and Brad Paisley, even though neither of their music was really my thing, they put on good shows. It was funny how nervous Archuletta seemed to be. I was on one of the corners of the field giving wristbands to those who had tickets to sit on the field. Cait took Theodore to the Freedom Days celebration on Center Street and then came up and saw the fireworks that were shot off from the Stadium. Then we met up at home and went to bed late.

Sunday was a fairly normal day. I did bear my testimony in Elder's Quorum, where the men my age meet for an hour on Sunday, about how being an American fits with my faith. This for me is a little more difficult blend than it is for many Mormons in the US, but I'll save that for another post. We then ate lunch with the Nueenschwander family. Cait is visit taught by the matriarch of the family while Casey Lee and I are assigned to home teach them (non-Mormons can try to make sense of that, but basically it means we are not only friends of choice, but also assigned to be friends by the church [okay, that's a little cynical]). We actually invited them over for dinner first, but then we realized that we didn't have any food, and since we had them over for dinner last month, they invited us over for delicious chicken and salad and pudding pie. We set off a few little fireworks, which Theodore loved at first and then hated. He really enjoyed playing with their two kids who are more energetic than he is, which is rare.

On the fourth, I got up early for the Freedom Run 10k. It was a fun race with a ton of people (1272 to be exact). It was my first 10k, which always seemed a little long for a fast race and short for a slow race. I enjoyed it for sure, but it was tough. The course wound around Provo and ran along the parade route, which was nice because there was a lot of people there watching. I ended up taking 14th overall (13th among the men) and second in my age group. Here are the full results. It was a little slower than I wanted, but it was a tough course so I'll take it. Cait tried to come out and watch me but was just a few minutes late.

I then hopped on my bike and rode down to join Cait at the ward breakfast, which was good, if a little heavy for after a race. We then stepped out to Center Street to watch the parade, which was kind of boring to be honest. Then back home for naps.

After naps we went with the Lee's up to Casey's mom's house, where we played on a 100 foot slip and slide and ate a very good dinner. The videos of the slide are the only evidence we have of the weekend, and they are kind of lame because neither of us had a particularly good slide when the camera was rolling, even though we had some good ones besides. We captured Casey having a good one, though.

Casey's family is super big and super close, so we felt a little like we were intruding, but they were very welcoming. We watched some more fireworks with the Lees and then came home very tired after a very full and enjoyable 4th of July weekend.