The Tangrens

As we walked up a band was playing. It was a fun atmosphere. We were impressed already. We walked around and the boys immediately saw the playground. So the boys played (and ran cars down the slides ) while Derek went to find a spot to get settled.

Around 7 o'clock the call was made for all the kids 4-7 to make their way to the soccer field.

No parents were allowed to be on the field with them so Derek braved the crowds of parents while Noah and I hung back and observed what we could from afar. When we registered they put a green ping pong ball in a bag, then they would drop them from a helicopter.

When they dropped the balls, the bag got caught up and not all of the balls landed in the field. Which meant that not every one of the kids in the 4-7 group got a ball. Hyrum was one of them. :( He was so bummed. When they were giving the bikes away they made sure to mention that if you didn't win you still could redeem your ball in for a prize... but not if you didn't have a ball though. So sad. And yes they gave away probably 25 bikes that night! We didn't have room in the car anyway.

After all the bikes were awarded, the main entertainment began.

Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband. A pretty well known band in the state. They weren't bad. Noah particularly liked it.

While they played we tried our own fireworks. We brought along some sparklers for the boys to do while they waited.

Hyrum is a little more wary of them this year. He kept talking about how it was going to burn him. We didn't attempt more than one. Hope he enjoys them more next year.

We also got some glow sticks out to share. And it's a good thing we did because our neighbor's daughter wandered off after the fireworks and had she not had a glowy necklace on she might have not been found so quickly.

The firworks started around 10:30 but we were none the wiser. We were having fun and the boys were champs. And when they started we were in awe. We had been worried about getting a good spot and which way to face since we didn't know which direction they'd be coming from. As it turned out we had nothing to worry about...they were directly over our heads. This is the way Noah watched them.

There's nothing that can really let you know how it was. I tried to capture a visual with a video clip starting with Noah and panning up to where they were

Not sure if you can really tell. They were soo close. You felt every explosion and at one point I looked down and saw ash on the white shirt I was wearing. Pretty intense.

The music wasn't as coordinated to the fireworks as the Idaho Falls ones but there is no comparing the small venue and close proximity. At the end of the finale sparkling golden ash hung in the air for seriously two full minutes. It was amazing.

Best of all it took us probably 15 minutes to get home. And that was probably only four or five minutes more than it took us to get there. We are definitely going back next year.

What was funny is that a couple of days later ( the day after Pioneer day ) we heard noises and went outside to see this

This year aerial fireworks are legal in Utah and our neighbors have been taking full advantage of the opportunity. Not too bad! That's Noah screaming from excitement at the end. I was surprised that there were relatively few wild fires. The law might just stay. :)