Happy 4th of July!

This 4th of July was one of the better ones I've had. I'm so sick of the "mid-singles social scene" and trying to pretend like watching the fireworks with a bunch of single friends is still really fun at 32 (note....it isn't). Thankfully this year my new employer, MonaVie, sponsored the Stadium of Fire and they gave us each tickets. With Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) as the headliner I found the perfect "date" for the evening.....7 yr old Madison.

To begin let's just say that Madi was OVERLY excited for this event. Earlier in the week she came to Jenny & my softball game & couldn't stop talking about it. It made me happy that she was so excited. When I picked her up I could hear her excitement before the door opened. She had also been working on her "You Rock" sign she planned to give to Hannah Montana (obviously this was her first concert).

First we went to the MonaVie BBQ where Madi entertained everyone with her charming personality & super excitement to see Hannah Montana. She would tell everyone who we were going to see & showed them each the sign she had made. Once we finished eating it was off to the BYU baseball field for our instructions. Since our seats were on the field, we were also part of the pre-show. We walked on the field with a lot of military troops.....but first we could make a poster if we would like. Since Madi had already made a "sign" to give to Hannah Montana entitled "You Rock" it was obviously assumed that we would just make it bigger and better. I think the signs were supposed to be for the troops....however, I suppose "You Rock" could be for them too although Madi informed me several times she wanted to give the sign to Hannah Montana.

So here are some pictures of Madi coloring the poster (note the original she made in the upper right hand corner, we were copying it as she had put a lot of thought into it, especially the music notes & the star)

I was in charge of coloring red..... (note all pictures taken of just me were taken by Madi....she did a way better job then I thought she would).


The final product (complete with a rainbow AND a rainbow exclamation point...Madi's extra touches). I also saw many, many "You Rock" signs so this must be an important sign to Hannah Montana. Miss Madi knows what she's talking about :)


Here we are waiting to be cheered onto the field as part of the show...LOL! They told us we may be on TV (big screen) to which Madi said "I'm nervous, what if I forget to smile?" Not to worry.....when she saw how many people there were cheering for "her" she was all smiles and informed me that she "can't count how many people are here!"


Here is Madi with the crowd behind her (we had pretty good seats compared to them). Also note the "corralled" kid dancers behind the blue barricades. They were seriously squished in there like a mosh pit and all freaking out the entire time Miley Cyrus was performing.

Here is a video of Madi dancing. There were better "dancing" times during the night, but this one you can see her better as the spotlight keeps hitting her. It isn't the best video as it is dark and sometimes has some focus issues....but it is cute (about 1 1/2 min long)



When Miley Cyrus left the stage for the first time I told Madi if she held up her poster Miley just might come back out and sing again. Here she is....cheering for an encore. She was thrilled that her sign persuaded Miley come back out for a few more songs (he he!)



This last video I post only because it shows a bit of the chaos that was going on with all the little girls (and some adults). You will also see the mosh pit of the corralled dance girls I talked about earlier. If you listen closely (or not so closely) you will hear 50,000 little girls that know every word to the song "See you Again!"

Also, if you listen extra closely you may also hear one "hip" adult named Jen that knows some of the words (the only song I know and only because we do aerobics to it....LOL!). I'm up with the times!!!



And finally it was time for fireworks. Madi really enjoyed how big and loud they were....that was until a bit of ash fell in her eye. Then she was scared and kept shielding her eyes from the big fireworks. Luckily she got tired about 2 minutes after the show ended......it was a slow walk to the car (especially when stupid Jen parked far, far away to avoid traffic!).


It was the best 4th of July I have had in a long time. It is a family holiday and I loved having family to share it with instead of lame "mid-singles." Especially someone as sweet as Madison. She seriously told me thank you about 10 times throughout the night. Really, does it get better or sweeter than that?

Oh and one more thing.....as I drove home I was also pleased that my house was NOT on fire since when I drove up my street there were 8 (yes 8) firetrucks (some were the smaller trucks), 3 ambulances & I don't know how many police cars (barricading the road). The park behind my house had caught fire and the trees were shooting flames everywhere. They even had the big ladder out on the trucks and were fighting the fire from above the trees. Cool to watch from my deck (until 1am), but glad it didn't jump the street to the townhomes right there. Luckily they got it under control in about an hour. Sadly now the park has some partially burned trees....stupid fireworks!!