Happy Fourth of July! This was a really great Fourth of July. It is one of my favorite holidays. I have so many great memories of Fourth of July's. There is the memory of lighting sparklers on my nana's trampoline. The summer my mom made a bunch of fourth of July crowns and we went around door to door selling them. The Fourth of July in Lompoc with my extended family, watching the fireworks display and playing at the carnival. And then the many Fourth of July's where I like to ride my bike, no matter how hot it gets. Here in Vegas, July is the hottest month, and so it is usually blistering hot outside. But no matter how hot it is, I realized that it has kind of become a tradition for me to ride my bike of the Fourth of July. I haven't done it every year, but I have several memories of doing it when I was younger. I liked to ride my bike around my neighborhood, just smelling the barbecue and other smells of summer.
Today I realized that I kind of picked up that tradition again. Our stake was having a Fourth of July 5K run/bike ride early this morning. My mom, dad, and me were planning on riding our bikes for the 10K. So we headed out at 6:30 following all the other bikers. Little did we realize that we weren't in the race for the 10K, we were doing the 25 miles. I got ahead of my parents and was by myself, so I didn't have anybody to ask, but I kept thinking, surely we should be turning around soon. And then I passed the turn-off to Mt. Charleston. That's when I realized I had to have gone more than 10 miles and I STILL wasn't to the half-way point yet. And I hadn't eaten breakfast that morning...or drunken any water...and I didn't have any water with me...
I prayed that I would stay hydrated and I would reach the half-way point soon. I stayed in good spirits though. I kept giving myself a pep-talk the entire time and felt really great when I finally reached the half-way point. Thank goodness some other kids had stopped there too and so they gave me some Gatorade and water. Took a breather, and then I was on my way back. I met up with my dad and then he led me through a short-cut so I ended up only riding a little less than 23 1/2 miles instead of the full 25. It was the best work out ever! I really felt great afterwords. Sore, but so energized.
And then we went on a hike. Haha I sure got in my exercise today. We hiked big falls, but we didn't make it to the top because a boulder had fallen in the path. But it looked like the river and waterfall were dried up anyways, or at least only trickling, so it didn't matter and we had already had a pretty good hike, so we headed down. It was perfect timing too, because it started sprinkling on us, and just as we reached the bottom and got in our car was when it really started to rain. It's a shame it's raining here and not in Utah or Colorado where they really need it. The rain water will just sit on top of the ground and then evaporate and do us no good here.
Anyways, we got home and it was raining at home too, so I decided to go swimming in the rain. It was such a magical feeling. Then my family barbecued and ate lots of good food and then watched fireworks in the park. My nephew Hyrum was so cute running around flapping his arms in excitement at the fireworks. Later, we did sparklers, and my brother and I ran around in the park grass with the sparklers, spinning and jumping and yelling "Hurray for the Red, White, and Blue! Hurray for the Fourth of July!" just like little kids. I probably looked so silly, but I didn't care what people thought of me. We had fun and it's the Fourth of July so you are supposed to celebrate.
So basically, this was an awesome Fourth of July. Much better than last years which I spent at work as a lifeguard, wondering why in the world anybody would want to go swimming at night in an indoor pool when they could be watching fireworks outside. This year's was spent with family, fireworks, good food, good exercise, swimming in the rain, cool air, and overall just a magical feeling in the air.
And now I'm off to bed because I teach swim lessons in the morning. Happy Independence Day!
No comments:
Post a Comment