Fire Work Baby

Recently I got my first smartphone and subsequently was able to join many of the fun apps floating around. One of my new favorites is Instagram. On Instagram you get to pick a username to represent you and I always have the hardest time with this. I want something fun to represent me but not too crazy, or boring... like just my name (not saying there's anything wrong with that, I just wanted something more fun). So after playing around with a few ideas I finally settled on kari7fireworkbaby. My husband thinks it's silly, other family thinks it's way too long, and others think it's too teenager-y. But I like it. After all, it says my name so you can identify who I am, it has the month of my birthday to break things up, and then something fun to represent me.

Because I was born on the Fourth of July people. Coolest birthday ever.

This year my birthday was pretty fantastic. My sister came the night before and stayed over. First thing, we woke up and went to our ward's pancake breakfast. The weather was beautiful and it was great to sit and eat and talk We also found the most adorable kitten. I wanted to keep it for forever.

After we enjoyed breakfast, I skyped with my family and opened presents.

I got some pretty great stuff, including, and in no particular order: Stadium of Fire tickets, a foot thing that gets off all the dead skin, Utah chocolate truffles, flowers, a new Wii (ours broke), new Wii games, and lots of love. As you can tell I was completely, completely spoiled this year.

After our chat session we hopped off to lunch with Brigham's side at Pizza Pie Cafe. It was pretty fantastically delicious. Especially the dessert pizza. Can't get enough of that stuff.

Brigham and I were also pretty matchy-matchy that day. Adorable huh? We're so patriotic.

After lunch we crashed from so much good company and good food and napped at home. After our recovery period we left the babies at home with Grandma Sue and left for Provo and the Stadium of Fire. I didn't think I would mind leaving the kids since I spent all day with them, but I was tinged with sadness not to spend the night with them.

However, it wasn't enough to keep me back and we had a great night! First we killed some time with french-fries and ice cream at the BYU Creamery. Yes, that day we ate like obese people. Then we found our seats at the stadium.

I had asked for tickets to the Stadium of Fire for my birthday because it's hard for me to be away from my family and I didn't want to mope around all night with them in Seattle and me here. Usually I'm in Washington for the summer, but this year I knew I wouldn't be so I took preventative measures. My mom got us FANTASTIC tickets. We were even in the section that had backs on the chairs. And Kelly Clarkson was going to be there! Hello, I LOVE her. And i wanted to see Cirque Du Soleil as well. Carly Rae Jepsen- eh didn't care either way.

And the Stadium of Fire did not disappoint. We had fun dancers to watch.

Men skydiving with parachutes and flags.

A stadium full of people waving their cell phones like lighters to the music (It looked really cool).

Carly Rae Jepsen was much better than I expected. She was really cute and fun to listen to. I thought of Lydia the whole time because she would have loved it!

Cirque Du Soliel was amazing to watch - they do some crazy stuff. I didn't want it to end. I would definitely travel to Vegas to see one of their shows.

And of course Kelly Clarkson delivered quite the show. That women has a set of pipes. Such power song after song after song. And live she sounds just like her soundtracks (sometimes I think even better); they must not have to do much editing in the studio. She's so down to earth and fills her songs with emotion - I could have listened to her all night. I'm a huge fan if you couldn't tell.

After Kelly we had a fantastic, patriotic firework show.

It was just as great as I hoped it would be. My whole birthday was nice, spent with family, food, and fireworks. Perfect :)

Not only did I love July 4th for my birthday, but I love Independence Day as well. It's hard for me to not get emotional during the Star Spangled Banner, or fireworks, or anytime that I'm thinking about this country, all I have, and those that have paved the way and sacrificed so I can have all that I do. I love honoring it every year.

So Happy Birthday America, we're both firework babies and this year's celebration was a great way to honor all that.