4th of July!

First, we'll start with the food. I mean I have priorities in life. Since this was not actually my party, it was my seester, Angie's, she had to get the photos of the food, and since I am such a great guest at said party, I had to get a photo of Ang getting a photo of her delicious food. With me? Doesn't matter, what does matter is that you get a good look of this oh-so-great meal. We had gourmet hot dogs. Which were really just regular ol' hot dogs but with a gourmet twist. Bacon, Gruyere, some-kinda-fancy-sauce (Ang...name of sauce?), avocado, corn relish, and for you plain jane's... ketchup and mustard. My sister Susan made this delicious and surprisingly calorie free grape salad. Right Sue...calorie free? I'm pretty sure that's what you said. My contribution was this spinach summer salad.Hot dog creation by my Brother-in-law, Randy. Great photo Randy, sorry it's the only one of you. I'll try harder next time. The I-just-had-so-much-sugar-I'm-pretty-sure-I'll-be-in-a-coma-soon beverage. Lime Ricky. It has some sugar in it, which is one of the food groups I need to function, so it was OK by me!Next, comes family. Awwww, family. I love my family. I regretfully didn't get photos of all my family members, sorry y'all. Actually after seeing these you may be thankful.Here's Parker, He's Susan's oldest boy. You can't see from this photo, but he had just come home from Scout Camp and had approximately 8,595, 348 bug bites all over him. Looks pretty happy for having all those bites, I'd say.This is Max. He's my brother Eric's middle kid. He's so darn cute, I have to really try not to rub my hand all over his noggin every time I see him. Although, I don't try THAT hard, because I DO in fact rub my hand all over his noggin every time I see him.This is The Bug Man (and a good attempt with the Steve-o face, but not the best effort I've seen from him). Pretty Sexy, eh? Oh, and wonder baby extraordinaire. Wonder baby may or may not have a nose picking fetish. This is my brother Eric. It's so great to see my brother smile. He's been through a lot, so seeing him smile makes me smile.This is Eliza. We'll check up on her a little later in this post.Coleman and Max, two of Eric's three boys. Where in the heck was Andrew all day? Not one picture of Mubby Jubby. What gives? "Boy's... DO NOT SMILE. What ever you do, don't smile."Never worked on me either. I always end up smiling. Enter Ben, who is Angie's oldest and Preston, Susan's youngest. Preston, on the far right is the youngest of all these boys, yet the tallest. Must have some Andersen in him.Ben's pretty cute. And dangdarn smart too. Plays the guitar and just cut about 43 pounds of hair off his melon.Here's Maddy, she too just lost about 43 lbs. of hair.


Which brings me to FUN. Here's my husband on the trampoline thinking he's 16 again. Weeeee, this is funnnnnn...I can go back, I can go forward, I can...Ooooo...wait...a...second...gotta...catch...breath.... (He may be realizing now that he in fact is not 16 anymore.)Wonder baby got lots of attention. Here he is on a wagon ride, compliments of Emily. She even gave him his very own steering wheel. He was in HEAVEN.He played with Nana, outside.He melted hearts. Mine especially.Remember that little darling, Eliza that I introduced you to earlier? Well, to say she has personality would be a huge understatement. She's Angie's youngest. "Lizey...smile for a picture." This is what you get...and this...and this...Ang, remind you of anyone? Ahhh(you)Choo. 'Scuse me, allergies.How did this get in there? I didn't allow anyone else to handle my precious Canon. "What's that? Smile? Ok, I'll smile, but only for one.""I'm sorry, what? Turn a little? Ok.""Huh? You still didn't get it? Does this help?" GOSH, I'm sorry about those. Don't know how that happened.





AND...work. Wait a minute. (Counting on fingers) Food, family, fun...work? How did that happen on a holiday, at a family party? Hmmm... Jack must have been there. Yup, that's Jack. There's not a whole lot of sitting around with him, as evident from my father's day post. He's a worker. A hard worker. Angie got some new furniture that needed assembling, so who better than to do the job? That's right, Jack and his project sidekick, Eric.


While we're on the subject of work...here's Emily. She's Angie's middle child. She worked her little hiney off. And believe me, I am thankful for that. I actually got to eat (with both hands), play (chit-chat), and snap a million-plus pictures. She watched Anthony the entire time. She's the best. Thanks Em, I owe ya!They did this...and this...and this...and this...and some of this...and lots of this...and LOTS of this... then they shared a moment doing this.Whew, I'm exhausted! And I wasn't even the one doing all the work. Thanks Emily. Your favorite cousin had so much fun with you :)!

After all the Food, Family and Fun, we walked about a mile or two to Sugarhouse Park to watch the Fireworks. Awesome, awesome, awesome. I loved it and I'm so thankful we got to see them. Sugarhouse has done fireworks for as long as I can remember. Because of the recent downturn in the economy, they won't be doing their fireworks for the 4th anymore. Hopefully once things get a little better, that will change. Understandable, but still a bummer.

And, this last part has not one darnit thing to do with the 4th of July, but I had to take a few photos of Angie's flowers in her yard, because they sure are purty.
Flowers make me smile. And me taking a SUPERCLOSEUPPHOTO of Ben makes him smile! The End.