Fourth of July Extravaganza!!!

After visiting our new niece last week we headed up north for the Fourth of July weekend. My best friend Houston and his wife Rachael came with Whitney and I to Taylor, AZ for the festivities. As you can see the trip down there was exciting.... Every year my family goes there for the annual firing of the anvil, and the fourth of July rodeo. When we got there Friday afternoon we met the rest of my family and had some barbecue and played games. The next morning was the lighting of the anvil, a Taylor Arizona tradition. Basically the entire town gets together at 5am and creates their own parade. You follow the truck carrying the anvil around to different spots in the town and people are chosen to light it. The explosion is huge and the anvil launches about 6 feet in the air. (There is a video of it but it doesn't do it justice).

My favorite part of the trip was driving up....while everyone else slept...

I spy just isn't as fun when you play it by yourself.

...like i said, they light the anvil at 5am...

After the anvil we went back to my aunts house, took a LONG nap, and ate some indian fry bread before getting ready for the rodeo. The rodeo was great! I snapped some pics of the riders and thought some of them were cool enough to share. The fireworks after the rodeo were awesome! After that it was more games with my family and overall the trip was great. We had tons of fun and can't wait for next year to do it all over again!