Weekend of Food, Fireworks and Family

It was another wonderful Fireworks weekend in Santa Monica.  I don't know how many of you made a comment about how much work this is for me.  I wouldn't trade it for the world!  I love it.  As I went through the pictures I realized there weren't any of Mom or me, but we were there... really!  In addition my friends, Mark, Tracy and Rob and their 2 kids and 2 friends of Jeff's kids joined us as well.  

I must comment on Jeff and Michele's kids.  They are so wonderful with the little ones and treat all new-comers like they're part of the clan.  You'll see proof of it in the pictures.  Even though Madison was graduated to the adult group this year -she wasn't sure she was happy with that- she's a wonderful babysitter and keeps an eye on them all.  And Jeffrey is so patient... I think being the taller cousin the little ones all like to climb on him, tackle him and on and on.  He's so remarkably patient and kind with them, I never cease to be amazed.   Sydney, 

Logan and Devon  are just plain kind, sweet and playful... they all really contribute to making the day so fun! 

The pleased Grammpy!

The happy Grammy.

The Posse

Exciting Guests!

This year Eddie, Carline and kids were able to join us.  They flew down to have Keira's blessing here.  We were thrilled!

I think this is such a beautiful picture of Keira -on the blanket and happy.

Matix is so incredibly photogenic... if you can get him to hold still long enough!  

Good Genes!

Is this a great looking family or what?????

The Dad

 The Mom

The Big Sisters

Just because I thought it was such a cute picture.  It just says "summer", don't you think?

Are You Ready for Your Close Up Mr. Risser?

I was taking this annual 4th of July picture of Jeff,  Michele and kids.  I decided to film them singing "There's No Business, Like Show Business".   This video makes me laugh because Jeff just holds his frozen smile not realizing that we're filming.  If you want to know why they sang that song,  well I'm still waiting for a blog post announcement from them as to why they sang it... keep watching their blog.

The Dessert

Here's the traditional Flag Cake, made by Madison this year.  To add another dimension of blood sugar levels we added a holiday torte by Jeremy and Kristy.  

This One's for Becky

Ben, Leigh and Tristan joined us this year.   I'm so busy playing hostess, I didn't get to visit as much as I would have liked but it was great to have them.

No words necessary.  May we all have this much joy from something as simple as bubbles!  Enjoy and be prepared to smile.

Home At Last

More to come later, but I got home last night from Alaska (was picked up at the airport by my friend Matt - also from my BYU days- and whisked downtown to meet my friends for a night of masked Mexican wrestling Nacho Libre style,  but I digress).  Tomorrow is my Santa Monica (early) 4th of July party so I have some work to do and will post more later.  For now let me say I was TOTALLY screwed up by the extended daylight.  Our first stop in Barrow (330 miles inside the arctic circle) the sun never set; in Anchorage it set around midnight and would rise at ~3:30 a.m.  I don't think I got more than 4 hours sleep at any time. 

This is a video from Barrow where we toured the point in a Hummer 1.  The Inpuit natives leave whale carcasses to keep the polar bears there and not wandering into town looking for food.  This is a cub and mother.  What you don't see in this video was a male that was following them and slowly narrowing the gap.  We didn't hang around to see what happened next.

Grandma For A Day

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to play grandma for real. Rheanna, Doug, Jacob, Sara and Elliott have come for a visit in good ol' Erie, PA. Today they went to Cedar Point (big amusement park) for a day of fun. Of course, Elliott got to stay behind and spend some time with grandma. I must say, he is the easiest, happy go lucky kind of guy. Only cries when he's tired and / or hungry. Take care of that and you're good to go. Honestly, I wish I had it that easy when I was raising my children. What a breeze! Oh, well. I guess this is what the joy of grandparenting is all about.