land of the free

stadium of fire

baker family portrait 4th of july edition // sibling couples
We flew back to Utah on June 30 (only after spending 400 hours in Atlanta but we got to see Maren for 2 of those hours which ruled). July 1-4 was spent in Provo packing and shipping our belongings and spending as much time as possible with our friends. Preston and I made a point to leave after the 4th of July because there is truly nothing like the 4th in Provo. Celebrations began the night before at 7-11 where every creature comes crawling out of the Provo woodwork. Thursday morning we biked to the parade. My little orange bike, which I have no pictures of, died the night before, but Molly was kind enough to lend me her cute cruiser. After the parade we went to the Morley family BBQ with Grady and his entire family from all over the country. It is/was the most American part of our 4th. Later that night we had the last supper at Slab. Our good friend Deb was leaving that night for New York so we said our first goodbyes after dinner. That's when the tears started. After dinner we biked to the Freedom Festival and finally took our places on the street to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks.
last provo bike ride
I'm not sure when during the display I started crying, but I pretty much wept on and off the entire night.  My eyes still water thinking about that night and the next morning. Provo and BYU were such an enormous part of my and Preston's life. It's where we met our best friends, had our most fun times and met each other. I did not expect our last night to be so sad and happy and sad. But I guess our difficult goodbye just proves that's it's not where you are, but who you're with. Provo is like, an okay town and probably not that cool to 99% of America, but it will forever be one of my favorite places because of the memories associated with it. It has never been harder for me to leave a place. Thank you to all of our sweet friends for making our last week so memorable. We miss you terribly, love you dearly and are looking forward to our reunions.