Meet Me On The 3rd Of July

So, you can waste weeks just trying to figure out how to best post an unbelievable story that most of you have already heard and then suddenly you're two months in and the baby has ceased to look like a swollen sea monkey/gummy child hybrid and you're not sure whether to post the early pictures or just jump ahead to the more recent, more decent ones, and you don't really post anything because, well, lots of things. My Uncle Dave calls it the Paralysis of Analysis. And we've had our share.

So let's just jump in and pretend we'll get back to The Big Story later.

July 3. Mormon American Independence Day. The only time Mormons are ever early for anything and other jokes.

We went to Sugarhouse Park for the fireworks for the first time ever. Our friends have been going every year since they (swoon) first kissed on the Sugarhouse lawn years ago. Yes, that's very romantic and helps you get an even clearer view of why the Tanners (and Ryan's songs) are so dreamy. We were lucky to meet up with them, Sarah Sample and the adorable June, and a whole bunch of the Tanner Network of Fine People.

Leo barrelled down the hill, drank giant swigs of Henry Weinhart's, watched Jack & Cash with awe & admiration, and basically wore me out. But it was all worth it, watching how he just worshipped the firecrackers, alternately reeling back in awe and shaking his hand at the sky. The kid smiles an awful lot, but it lets us see a whole, broad range of Smile Subgenres. This one was: Thrilled Internal Implosion About Explosions, or something. Penny just gazed intently, furthering her campaign for Best Baby In The History. No offense to Leo, of course, but sleeping through the night before he turned two could've helped his cause.

Modern Renaissance Man Ryan took a few pictures with this stuff called film.