Fourth of July Looooong Weekend Fun

Fourth of July weekend celebrations started early, with the Kramers getting in town from Dallas the week before the Fourth. It was great to see them – we got to eat a few meals together and the kids got to enjoy time together – like in this picture from our outing to Deanna Rose Farmstead. It was good to see Martie and Bob and Rylei again, and I’m really glad that my leg didn’t keep me from dinner at Jack Stack while Greg was in town too. (I managed to get a pretty nasty scrape on my leg when I fell – twice – in the garage, courtesy of a big oil slick next to my car. Thankfully, the oil was from a couple of bottles of oil I’d managed to run over, and not from the car itself).

The 4th of July itself meant pool party at the Rooks’. As usual, the kids had a blast in the pool and playing in the basement with friends that they don’t get to see all that often. And the adults even got to have some normal adult conversation. The food and drink was also excellent, as usual. Though next time Miriam makes a Pina Colada, I suspect she’ll do a more thorough job of checking the provenance of the maraschino cherries.

We closed out the holiday weekend by taking advantage of Sunday’s beautiful weather and gathering the cousins together in the park for a little photo shoot. I think we got some nice shots of Rylei, Mikaela, Samantha and Jonathan together, as well as a few of just the girls, and even some of Samantha solo. After we finished taking pictures, the kids took a little walk in the park with Miriam, Grandma Marcia and Aunt Martie – and found a treasure trove of seashells on the ground. They had a ball collecting, and then later sorting and cleaning their new “collections”