4th of July 2009

It may be over a month late, but I couldn't not post about the best family holiday of the year! And this year was better than ever because everyone was together (except for Joel) for the first time in years! The cousins played all day long, we ate tons of yummy food including homemade root beer, we had a great patriotic devotional, our traditional tank wars were a hit, young and old played steal the flag for hours and hours (and kept playing until sprained ankles, blistered feet, and a broken nose finally forced a cease fire), stadium of fire fireworks were enjoyed up on the hill across the street, but had nothing on the 2 hour non stop cul-de-sac of fire that all the family pyro boys put on to end the day. Since pictures are worth a thousand words, enjoy the millions of words that are about to follow. Thanks to everyone for all the fabulous memories!

Allison loves her cousins little and big. Pictured here with Lynlee, Solei, & Kate.

Brendan and Jordan doing their GQ model photo shoot.

Allison and I don't mind sharing our Prince Charming.

Most of the cute girlies. ............All 21 cousins with 1 on the way. You gotta love Cannon's face! I wish I would have taken a photo when Jordan got desperate and held him upside down to see if that would help. No luck.

Brothers and Sisters Forever: Sarah, Jessica, Pam, Debbie, Chris, Brian, Brendan and Joe. Yep, that's all of us minus Joel and minus Dan and Pam's baby coming to our family in just a few more weeks!

You know Tank Wars is serious stuff when boys use Glue Guns! After hours of planning, plotting, and glueing, the boys headedout back to crown the 2009 Tank War Champion. This year Brian had the ultimate tank, but all the smaller battles were just as fun. Next year, the competition won't include Jordan as he will be on his mission, which will be really weird to not have him with us.

After hours and hours of watching everyone play steal the flag, this is the only measely picture that I came up with? Shame on me. We'll have to remember the fun in our memories I guess.

How lucky are we that we get to walk across the street to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks fom one of the best spots in town...the hills by Timpview High School. How lucky are we to live in this wonderful land of freedom and prosperity? How blessed are we to be surrounded by so much family where we can create such great memories? How truly blessed we all are indeed.