OUR FABULOUS HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Anyone who knows me very well, knows that I LOVE the fourth of July! It's almost like Christmas for me, I mean as far as anticipation & excitement surrounding the holiday. I love the BBQs that accompany the fourth of July celebrations, the fireworks, the parades. You name it, I love it! This year was different however. We started our regular 4th activities by going to the Lehi Fire Departments annual 4th of July breakfast @ 7:30. We left there to head to the Freedom Festival Parade in Provo. My family has been going to the parade for as long as can remember. My Great Grandma owned a house on the parade route when I was a kid, so the parade was a kind of family reunion time. Well, when she passed away, one of my Dads cousins bought the house on center street & there is an open invitation to come & watch the parade without having to go the night before to find seating. It's quite a nice arrangement. We even have access to a bathroom if needed (rather than use one of the lovely outhouses provided by Provo City). So anywho... we were running a little late for the parade. & I mean only about 10 minutes late. We would have been early enough to see the opening cannon or whatever it was this year. Traffic was pretty bad once we got to BYU campus & my husband & I were debating which route to take. We finally decided on our route, had our game plan in place & were stopped in traffic when... WHAMMMMM! This guy behind us rammed into my beautiful, lovely, paid off, perfectly running Maxima! He admitted to me (albeit after I chewed him out) that he simply "was not looking up at the moment" so he didn't see that we were stopped for parade traffic. How much do you wanna bet he was texting?! He must have "looked up" at the last minute & tried to swerve to miss us, but no such luck. He hit us pretty darn hard! My husband was driving, my 3 1/2 yr old son was in the back passenger side & my 5 month old daughter the driver side. (I was in the passenger seat). Fortunately, we were all OK. Some bruising, mild concussions & whip lash, but otherwise fine. Here are some photos.

You can see the traffic ahead of the car in this photo. That was not traffic caused by us, it was the traffic we were stopped in.

My brand new Sit-n-Stand stroller was in the trunk. It came out of the accident pretty much unscathed. A small scratch to the manufacturer sticker & some scratches to the front foot rest, but otherwise fine.

So, you know how I said the stroller was fine? Well the Fire Department had to take the back seat out to get the stroller out of the trunk. I think they were pretty happy I gave them permission to tear out the seat!

My Mom & Dad were only about a block & a half in front of us when the accident occurred. They came back to pick us up. My Dad was pretty T.O.'d at the guy for hitting us with his two grand kids in the car! Here is my car being towed off. My husband was talking with my mom & sister (who happened to drive past the accident on her way to the parade & stopped) & apparently said "watch, she's gonna start crying when the tow truck drives away." He was right. I am such a sentimental fool. But I LOVED that car!

Here's the damage that occurred to the truck that hit us. Not much. He drove off & apparently went to the parade, cuz my mom saw him walk past my Dad's cousins house.

We also went to parade anyway. We only got to see about the last 30 minutes of it. But my son had fun playing with his cousins! What a cute kid!
My mom with my daughter! My daughter was so mellow. It was kinda funny, hence my moms expression.
The painting in the back is my Great-Great-Great Grandmothers picture. When a was kid & we would go visit my Great Grandma & she would tell me stories of her. She was a very strong willed woman & I always admired her. My daughter is named after her!

That my friends, was my 4th of July! We had a BBQ after the parade & watched some fireworks in Pleasant Grove that night with my in-laws. It was good other than the whole, wrecked my car crap. The insurance company has since declared the car totalled & so we are in the market for a new car. Probably gonna move up to a minivan. Hope others had a better 4th than us!! :)