I Love Living in the Middle

So it turned out that all my family living in the West came to stay with us over the Fourth of July. I LOVE IT! I love being surrounded by family and that doesn't happen very often. We are all quite spread out geographically but who could resist the urge to get together before the cost of fuel rises even higher.

We mostly just "chilled" at home so that little ones could maintain their nap and sleeping schedules. There was no lack of entertainment though.

We had the Wednesday night dance contest that Maren won hands down based on fan voting. Bridget was a close second with her retro style. Nathan was lucky he didn't rupture anything.



Then there was the attack Ben festival. Ben laughed so hard his face hurt and the kids were laughing almost as hard. It is great to see the big kids loving to be with the little kids.



We spent some time outside at the park having a picnic and playing in the water. It was a beautiful day to be outside. The park was a bit crowded and some of the "views" were less than wonderful but, oh well.

The fireworks "contest" got started with the neighbors parading down the street with the Grand Marshal wearing a patriotic striped hat and sitting atop his four wheeler. The rest of the reunion folks marched behind waving flags. We shot off illegal fireworks but these aren't the ones.

And we just basically had a blast being together. I live for these times.