Independence Day!

Sure was a wonderful Fourth of July! This was our 12th year of hosting our family picnic, and we just love it so much. Its amazing to see how all the children are growing and changing, and its important to me that they get together with their cousins and just have plain old good fashioned FUN. It tickles me to no end to think that someday when they are all grown up, they will have fond memories of picnics at our house, the same way I have terrific memories of yearly picnics at my aunt's house when I was a little girl.
We had volleyball, a sawdust money pit, egg hunts for the toddlers, waterballoon tosses and fights, sack races, guess-the-watermelon-weight contest, pie-eating (and smashing all over your face) contests, basketball games, wild rollercoastering, our personal petting zoo, and much more! It was so much fun to run around from one thing to the next, with my camera clicking like crazy, all the while making sure everything was running smoothly. Its worth all my organizing each year, because when it all goes off as planned its such a huge blessing to just be with my fantastic family and friends year after year at this event. I absolutely love it.
I wanted to get pictures up right away, as we have so many relatives in the states who cannot make it to all the picnics, and so guys.......this is for you! I would label each picture but it would take forever, so if you want to know who somebody is, just email me or leave it in your comments. I *think* I know everybody who was here!! LOL. Don't quote me! The little ones change so much, I spend lots of time connecting faces to their parents, and trying to remember each adorable smile!
So there you go. Sorry you missed it, my dear ones who may be reading this blog and feeling homesick for Alaska....we missed YOU TOO! Sorry you could not be here to see the whip-cream-covered toddler faces as they battled for pie eating victory, or cousins tackling cousins as payback for a shocking waterballoon full in the face, or babies falling asleep in the hammock in the shade, or little girls in matching skirts giggling wildly when a mini horse licked their sticky fingers, or a kiddo finding a dirty candy-containing egg from LAST year's hunt, or Sammi's cute new Jack Russel puppy, or "sparkler" decorated pretzels, or camera wars, or parent-child waterballoon teams, or the most adorable flower-smelling (no picking, mama said!) one year old, or the smoky face of Uncle Beaver as he managed three grills at a time, or all the sawdust-covered kiddos looking for shiny change, or the sack-racers tumbling over the finish line, or the whirlygigs on top of the cupcakes, or the shower cap on Mom's head as she fought like crazy but lost in the pie-eating contest! So there you go, world's longest sentence but hopefully it made you want to fly up and join us next year. We miss each and everyone of you.