fireworks are fun

after a fantastic day of climbing down in maple canyon, 

a few of us headed over to the orem summerfest to partake in the summer fun. 

i have lived in orem all my life. 

except for my time in provo as a co-ed, which, provo is basically the same place in as orem so maybe that doesn't count as leaving orem.and then there was that mission of mine for my lovely church 

where i actually packed up and left the state and lived more than 20 minutes away from my parents for a year and a half in the great southern state of georgia. that totals up to being about 18 months, out of 25 years, of living away from home. 

so, needless to say, i have lived in orem/provo, utah for a very long, long time.

because of all that time in utah valley, i have been able to attend the orem summerfest carnival and firework show on many occasions. i must say that i love things like this. unfortunately, andy hates them... too many people he says. but oh well, i'm still going to go anyways. people watching is one of my favorite pastimes. and somehow i convinced him of tagging along with me to the fireworks this year.

he didn't want to go, and to be frank, not too many of my friends were super pumped on it, but there really wasn't too much else to do besides going to a dollar movie. 

i convinced them that fireworks were much more entertaining.

we grabbed our blankets and parked forever away from the park and made the trek through millions of people to the park and met up with my mom and sister. somehow we ended up in the v.i.p. section with plenty of room to spread out and lounge and get a front row viewing of the show. we're just cool like that.before the show started a friend on mine said something to the affect, "it amazes me that all firework shows are basically the same. you'd think after all these years that they'd invent something really great."

boy was he eating his words by the end of the extravaganza! 

(notice i used the word "extravaganza" instead of "show." that's because "show" does not describe what ensued shortly after my friend's comment and "extravaganza" seems to suffice a little better.)

we just couldn't contain how stoked we were on what had just occured

so, to sum this up right quick, it was insanely awesome. 

the beginning of the extravaganza was like any other firework show.

then the magic happened. in fact, there was so much magic that i would venture to say that it was even better than the show disneyland somehow has the funds to put on EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. 

words cannot even begin to describe the pure joy that exuded from my face as the finale started. i had the biggest, goofiest, grin slathered all over my visage. i just couldn't contain it and i was not the only person who was freaking out about it! the whole crowd of hundreds, maybe a thousands, were out of control cheering for how awesome it suddenly became. the pictures above are merely trying to recreate the happiness that we experienced. it doesn't do it justice. 

so, my friend ate his words. in fact, after the extravaganza, i did hear him say, 

"that was legit."