The Annual Party We Can't Wait For!

Because of the traditional family commitments many of our buddies have on the actual Fourth of July, we've made a tradition of gathering together on the third of July. I guess I should have made the sign say that - but, I figured it could stick around with that written on a little bit longer. In contrast to the ribs and corn on the cob of years past - this year we opted for foods that would be easier to prepare and could be made ahead of time - as we wanted to spend our time prior to the party on the lake vs. in the kitchen. That being said, I had a fun time going all "Martha Stewart" in trying to make things look festive....


The menu was hamburgers/hot dogs, raspberry pretzel "salad", fruit kabobs and coconut dip, baked beans, chips, and for dessert: s'mores, rice krispie treats, and s'mores brownies. We dished up the kids first and they dined on the trampoline:





Next up, the adults got to indulge:


Wait....Ellie's not an adult - how did she escape the cage, er, I mean netting around the trampoline?

Onto some looks of adoration:


And, the annual twin pose - given this day - and then again, our hot tub reading at Christmastime in Sunriver, our two of our favorite days of the year.

Now, on to our injured crew of invitees. Travis, with the beginning of that shiner below his right eye:

And Lisa. Poor Lisa. Notice the hospital bracelet on her wrist? Yes, less than an hour before this picture was taken, Lisa was in Urgent Care due to a case of extreme vertigo (brought on by an ongoing sinus infection). Normally, that would confine a person to home for the rest of the evening, but Lisa, like Michele and I, loves this annual gathering - and refused to miss it. When I first greeted her, the only thing she wanted was a serving of her beloved raspberry pretzel salad, and to stay stationary and keeping her head facing the same direction. As the evening wore on, it was great to see her health improve dramatically - between the prescription and getting some food into her stomach, she had done a 180 by the time she left.

A few more shots of the evening:





And as the evening wore on, the fire produced more of those perfect s'mores making coals, and the sun set (giving us the beautiful post-parting picture)....indicating time had nearly come to start our spectacular street-side fireworks extravaganza. (This is said with sarcasm, fyi). Pictures and details of that are on their way in the next post.*







* Fellow bloggers, as you can imagine, all these pictures: downloading from John's camera, sorting, sending to my computer, downloading again, and uploading to my blog - well, it's taking all of my Independence Day morning. It's giving me good "spurts" of time (while my 5 pictures at a time upload onto the blog) to get the house cleaned up, stuff set out, and our family prepared for our actual day-of "The Fourth of July" activities. Ahh, the cost of preserving memories....but, oh so worth it!