Oh my. Here we are at almost the end of July, and I just found all these pictures that reminded me what we did on Independence Day.
The ideas started swirling about a year ago. My siblings and I grew up around a group of friends that we have tried to stay close to since adolescence. They were neighbors and friends of our parents, so we spent lots of time together back in the day. I may have been the oldest, okay, so I was, and everyone else fell into about a 9-10 year span. We spent hours, no kidding, hours, on the trampoline, in the swimming pools, and on skateboards. The braver, that word doesn't seem right, maybe more reckless of the group (boys) have had stitches and scars to prove it. You could start about 3 houses up the street, and get some real speed up, while skateboarding down the sidewalk, making a pretty sharp curve and down my folks' driveway, ending in deep green grass that made whatever stop you chose, a soft one. My brother always tried to be the wildest. He would end with a flip in the air, never landing on his feet, or a tuck and roll to see if he could make it a triple. But we girls would do it, too. We just tried to be somewhat graceful -- landing in a round-off, high toe touch jump, or maybe the splits.
Anyway, we haven't seen each other, all in one place, in forever, so we thought the Fourth of July would be a perfect opportunity. We have some memories of previous July 4th's so long ago, mostly including explosions and near-trips to the emergency room, and last year we started planning it for this year. We discussed songs we sang in the motor home while traveling to a camping and fishing site. They all revolved around Mac Davis, Freddie Fender, Charlie Rich, Helen Reddy, Roger Miller, Tony Orlando and Dawn, and of course, Johnny Cash. It was karaoke before there was karaoke. We harmonized and everything. J & R were the real performers. Back in the day, they sang on stage at public events with a microphone and everything. Oddly enough, they are not in these pictures. But they were here.
Of course, when an event is at your house, you never get all the pictures taken that you wish you did... so I don't have pics of everyone, but I am sharing the ones I have...
First, that beautiful punkin, O. Little sugar. My sweet DIL got this picture of her in front of a flag in memory of her maternal great grandfather.
This would be kinda cool to do every year. :)
But she was here and looking all darling and firecracker-ish.
I just love having Baby O's mom and dad around. They are so much fun!
And then we have Baby O's aunt and uncle, we love having them around, too!
They just got back from grad school abroad. Yay!
Of course, my cute and busy folks were here. They are always in for some fun, too! I had to crop this picture in as much as I could because there is stuff all around them that would require too much explanation. Even then I wasn't able to crop them closer and eliminate the unusual PVC pipe behind Dad and the can of deodorant on the window sill behind them both. It's a long story. More later.
Unnamed person in my kitchen -- mission unknown.
My brother, playing it cool.
My precious sister-in-love and sweet niece, and my brother --
playing it how he really is.
Here's Charlie, one of my loving grand-puppies, celebrating like the good sport he is.
All I ask, when I have all the kids together, is for one nice picture.
It seems an impossible task.
But I just keep the camera going, because it is always so much fun.
Eventually, I give up. We'll try again at Christmas.
This was such a fun day, we have pictures too many to count. I'll have to tell you more about it tomorrow. I didn't even get to the PVC pipe and deodorant contraption.
