4th of July

My family has had a fun day filled with family and friends.

We got up this morning and went to my sisters house. We ate bbq pork, shredded turkey, hot dogs, potato salad, potato chips, baked beans, salad, berry (strawberry, raspberry and blueberry) shortcake and cherry pie.

The kids (13, 8, 6, 6, 5, 4, 2) played in the sandbox, the pool, had a water fun fight, a water balloon fight, chased each other around the yard and in general were wild.

The adults sat around a fire (not because it was cool or anything, but because who doesn't like a fire) and talked and laughed (and got sunburnt).

We watched all the dogs (Shasta, a chocolate lab, Sammi, a golden retriever, Mouse, a daushchund, and Reggie, a beagle) play together. We also watched all the kids play with the dogs and the farm cats.

In general we enjoyed each other's company, the ability to sit back and let the kids play with different playmates and\or a different surrounding, and the beautiful weather.

We try to do this once a month. It is a group consisting of my sister Jessica, her husband Shane, her daughters (Araya, 6, Nevaeh 4) and son (Carter, 2), our good fried Sam and TJ and their boys (Craige, 13, Mason, 8, and Quintyn, 6), my younger sister Katrina. Occasionally her friend Sam will come, sometimes my brother Frank, and his friend Jake. Today Sam and Jake came but Frank was staying at a friend's house. Last month it was at my new house over memorial day weekend, as a housewarming party. Yes I know that is May and this is July but with our wedding last month we were too busy to do the bbq.

We figured out the next few bbqs. The 23rd we are going to Sam and TJs house and Labor day weekend we are going to jessicas. If we get together in August we will come to my  house. It just depends on our schedules. With all our children and different schedules it's hard sometimes to get together, but when we do its nice to hang out, relax and enjoy some different company.


Now we are back home. We walked up to the babysitter's house because she invited us to sit in her yard to watch fireworks. They put on a decent fireworks show and we all had fun. Alexis was asleep within 5 minutes of laying her down. It was a fun day.