Independence Day!

We started our day bright and early at the Pancake Breakfast, hosted by the Lds church at Fort Missoula.

After we had our yummy pancakes, bacon and eggs outside on this beautiful morning, we looked around Fort Missoula. There was this art thing that we thought was cool. I wish there was more info on it but, instead it just said it was art and who it was by... o well.

The steam engine train was pretty neat to be near. If we stood until the late afternoon, we would've seen the demonstrations of the steam engines.

We then went on a drive and found ourselves at the mall. I picked up this bad-boy! And I know it looks like some kind of crazy contraption but, it's my new BEST FRIEND! I have been soooo achey and feeling pretty tortured by this pregnancy(and I still have 15 wks left!) so, when I found this and the sales woman highly recommended it, i just had to get it. I put it on right away and was so thrilled to feel pretty comfortable! I haven't been sleeping right, walking right and don't even get me started on bending down to pick stuff up! I didn't feel this way with my last 2 pregnancies so, it's been a bit of a challenge for me. The 3rd pregnancy has been no joke...haha But, this has made it a little more manageable and I'm even getting a better nights rest now.

Missoula does things a little funny. Even though there seems to be tons of grassy land in lots of places, they have their big fireworks show at that mall parking lot. They blocked off the Bed Bath and Beyond parking area and you can sit in there and listen to live music while you wait for it to get dark (10pm). The boys waved their flags,

Threw and stomped on poppers,

and ate tons of junk, including ring pops!

Will was so funny when the show started because he jumped up and down and cheered with his arms up in the air. He looked back at us and asked, "hey, why aren't you yelling?!".

A very excited cute boy(and his massive mosquito bite on his left arm. Poor Guy!).

Ben and I cuddled since Ben didn't really like to be on his own when the fireworks were going off.

Pretty fireworks.

The finale was really good. We were pretty impressed especially since we weren't expecting much. The only crappy part of the whole day was trying to get out of the mall parking lot and how it took us an hour to get home when it should've been about 15 minutes tops!

All in all, it was a fun day. Happy Independence Day all!

Oh and, here's a quote I found from lds.org:

The United States Constitution was the first written constitution in the world. It has served Americans well, enhancing freedom and prosperity during the changed conditions of more than two hundred years. Frequently copied, it has become the United States’ most important export. After two centuries, every nation in the world except six have adopted written constitutions, ² and the U.S. Constitution was a model for all of them. No wonder modern revelation says that God established the U.S. Constitution and that it “should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles.” (D&C 101:77.)

(Elder Dallen H. Oaks, Feb 1992)