We went a little unconventional this year for our fourth of July festivities. Instead of our typical Idaho Falls firework show, we decided to spend the evening in Jackpot, Nevada. If any of you know where Jackpot is, you might snicker a little, perhaps even roll your eyes. There is only one thing there.
Cactus Pete's.
It's the most north, legal casino in the state of Nevada, right before you border hop to Idaho.
The Population there... it's as big as the casino is.
Our ward and stake encouraged us to spend our evening in this ant sized town, because the little branch there, was hosting a get together for the community and our LDS stake. So we thought, meh.... might as well.
You guys.
It was our FAVORITE 4th of July, ever!
You get the small town, friend/family firework watching environment, without the crazy drunk hooligans like you would have in Idaho Falls. They had bouncy houses, a train, cotton candy, candy apples, and corn dogs the size of your face! I could honestly spend a whole 'nother blog post on the corn dogs. Those things were the size of an actual wiener dog.
INSANE.
But I digress.
No corn dogs were injured in the making of this picture >>>>>
We spent the evening laughing and playing games with Spenser's fam and some of our very favorite ward family members. There is something so uplifting and inspiring about laughing with people you love.
We laughed hard,
and played a game or two of Princess old maid.
I may have gotten my booty kicked at Speed (the card game- not the drug. Come on).
We learned our Presidents and their occupations (thank you Target dollar bin),
and we learned how far an individual was willing to go- to win at an epic battle of UNO.
Those are priceless- simple memories.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'd say my favorite part of the evening, was when miss Aria disappeared.
(oh my... that sounds bad. I am not a bad parent- promise!)
She went off with some friends and I thought nothing of it. Remember we are in Jackpot. Population- 12 (okay... maybe a little bigger).
Well, it was about the second that my mommy sensors went off that I started to worry, and it was at that moment that one of my young women, showed up with my SOAKING WET, miss Aria.
She had gone down the craziest water slide, all by herself. Clothes and all. Her piggy tails and glasses were dripping, and she was shivering her way out of her skin.
That brave. CRAZY. free-hearted soul of hers...
Then.... I realized we hadn't brought a change of clothes for her (I am an awesome parent- remember?). Before i could panic- two of my young women took their hoodies off, and put them on her. Selfless. I am AMAZED at the kindness and generosity of the youth of the church. They didn't think twice, they didn't care that it was an $80 hoodie, they just acted in the most Christ-like way they knew how. So with an arm full of hoodies and blankets I changed my little sardine into some warmer attire.
I realized later that I DID have some things the little miss could change into. We had a bag of the kids clothes that we were going to take to the D.I. and we never got around to it.
I suppose it was a tender blessing.
{let's be honest. It was a HUGE blessing}.
I suppose it was a tender blessing.
{let's be honest. It was a HUGE blessing}.
We changed her back up, and we were back to watching fireworks and shoving our pie holes full of popcorn and cherries.
It's little things like this that remind you of God's love.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
We spent our fourth of July morning at the Buhl parade.
Everyone knows it's the happening place,
and the kids know that it's the place to get candy.
Huge floats, with gallon buckets of sweet tootsie rolls and double bubble!
If it has tootsie rolls your know... it's legit.
My kids are small though.
They aren't aggressive little minions, and running out to grab morsels of asphalt candy was just so difficult. They were never quite quick enough to beat the hands of the 10-12 year olds- some of which aren't afraid to steal the candy from your 2 year old's hands.
When their little hearts started to break because little Juan next to us had a HUGE bag of candy, and they had 5 pieces-- mom mode kicked in. I started to throw elbows! Okay... maybe that's not what happened, but I wanted to
...a little.
A little old lady next to us, dug through her purse, and she pulled out what she had, two hard candies and she gave them to my kids. They had probably been in there since the great depression.
Then a man in front of us, threw some dollar bills in front of my littles, and said,
"Go get yourself a big bag of candy."
It was $2 and a couple of coffee flavored candies, but it was a lot more than that.
It was love.
Kindness.
Evidence that there are good people in this world.
They are beautiful souls who are still willing to reach out to a stranger.
It's little things like this that remind you of God's love.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
0 comments:
Post a Comment