Celebrating Country and Family

In a few posts I'm going to try to catch up on the last several months.  Sounds easy, right?

For the Fourth of July weekend we went to Utah for my family reunion.  On the morning of the Fourth all the kids decorated their bikes, scooters and wagons and we had a family parade:

Mom helps the kids decorate

Kate decorates her bike

Parade gets ready to roll out

The self-appointed parade queens

The parade moves up the hill

The kids all had a great time.  We were pleased to discover later that day that my mom's pre-holiday craft shopping earned her a lifetime Golden Craft Card from Michael's craft store for her efforts at helping the sales staff meet their summer sales quotas.

We all went camping up Big Cottonwood Canyon on Tuesday night and had a great time despite the rain.  When it came time for the family talent show, however, Kate totally let us down when she refused to perform her choreographed routine to Beyonce's All the Single Ladies.  Too bad, 'cause I was sure we were going to take home the gold for that one.

I tried snapping a few family photos - some turned out pretty well, but unfortunately the best shot of all of the grandkids is the shot where Davis is trying to take a bite out of his cousin's neck:

Who knew that Davis was part vampire?

It was a great trip, and made me wish that there was less distance between me and my family members.  (Who wants to move to California?)