Annual 4th Party

Over the past weekend we held the Annual 4th of July party in Quilcene at Grandma Shirley's house. Yes a week early, however we still had fireworks and sparklers to celebrate the day. Not many were in attendance this year, possibly due to the date, but it was great to see those who were. Abby came up from California, while Kevin braved the border and two ferries to make it there Thursday night. Mike asked his friend to put together a nice display for us and it turned out well.
Lorrie and Dave came for the 2nd year in a row, only this time they decided not to bike over. Mostly due to having Dave's youngest, Xander, with them. I also think it was because they didn't want to go to sleep at 6pm again. :P It was fun watching Xander hover over Mike while lighting off the fireworks, the next generation taking notes! Richard got a great picture of the two of them together. Xander and Kevin also got into quite the water noodle sword fight, I'm not sure who the victor was.
Taylor and Noelle also came back for more, I think this is their 3rd year. As if Noelle wasn't a hit last year with stealing marshmellows from Alicia, she was even more so this year. She ran up and down the hill a few times often yelling for either Richard, Taylor or myself. She remembered "chubby bunny" when she saw Alicia, who taught her that last year. I got a cute picture of her picking up and carrying a chair to go and sit down by Lorrie. She even played swords with the water noodles. During the entire fireworks show she laughed, clapped and giggled. Once it was all over she looked at Taylor and said she wanted to go home. I'm really glad they could make it again this year.
With Alicia being 8 months pregnant got to find baby's butt, foot and head over the course of the weekend. Liz made a face when she found baby's foot that was just speechless. It will be fun at next year's party when they are almost a year old. 6 more weeks to go and we'll have a new niece or newphew.
When it came to food, we ate well. Of course the usual standards were there; chili, potato salad and hot dogs. Chris also brough ribs which were soaked in his homemade bbq sauce that we then cooked over the fire. Kevin and Richard boiled clams while Mike mixed up some garlic butter dip for it. Once they finished Kevin and Mike went around pushing clams on people. It was funny to watch the circle hovering around them. Since Alicia and Mike also bought brats, Chris mixed up some beer for them to cook in after the clams had finished boiling. The skin was a little hard to chew through but they had great flavor.

Overall one of the best entertainment features was watching Chris, Kevin, Mike and Richard put together a tent at midnight for Kami, our last minute camper, to sleep in down on the beach. In order to make sure there weren't any holes in the air mattress, Richard used the vacuume to blow it up before putting it inside the tent. This was a great idea, however the door to the text was pretty small. The guys, being who they are, decided instead of letting out some of the air they will make it work. Square peg and round hole? Who cares! Sure enough they got it in there. Liz and I should have taken pictures but we didn't. We all got a good laugh after they successfully got the air mattress inside the tent when Richard noticed they hadn't openned the door all the way.

Thanks again to everyone for another great year! See you all next at next year's party!