4th of July - 2014

Tradition carried on this year - we made it up to Bloomington again to celebrate my grandma's birthday with her. 97 years old this year (if you're keeping track). We did break tradition and only she rode in the parade. All the rest of us got to enjoy it from the sidelines. We also got some cousins to join us, which made it more exciting.

After the parade we went on a hike to Bloomington Lake. I haven't been there in ages. The drive was a little slow going, but the hike was really nice. Hanging out at the lake was fun, until I realized that we were not going to make it back in time for dinner that had been planned at 5:00. My greatest petpeeve (maybe fear??) is being late (probably a little beyond reasonable), but the fact that someone actually went to the effort to organize the dinner and pick a time really made me want to support them. We were late, I apologized, and everything worked out alright.

I took advantage of everyone sitting down to eat to get some good shots. Uncle Bill was awesome and went to the extra effort of getting us veggie burgers. I really try hard not to be a pain with our eating habits, but it's always appreciated when people want to help us out.

And look at this -- I got everyone together for a group picture (well, our side of the family). I have decided it's going to be easier to just disown my eldest brother than to get him into a family shot. We'll just pretend he's not in the family anymore, does that work?

Then to top off the holiday, Sophie won an essay contest she entered. We have a bunch of the Professor Noggin's trivia card games. The girls really enjoy them. Sophie loves to enter contests (she could make it a full-time hobby), but I've tried to reign her in a bit and find more worthwhile things to do with her time. I told her she could enter this one because it required work (writing the essay), and the winner wasn't chosen at random, so she really had to try hard. The hardest part was that it had to be less than 100 words. When she first sat down and wrote it, it was very lengthy. She spent some time choosing what to cut out. The topic was "What does the 4th of July mean to me?" This is what she wrote:

Every year my family goes up to my great grandma’s. Her birthday is on the fourth of July. We hang out with family members until it is time for the parade. For many years we watched the parade until one year it was decided that we would be in the parade. The first time we rode in the parade my grandpa hooked his trailer to his truck and we decorated the trailer. Last year my grandpa was able to fix up his dad’s wagon that we get to ride in. It’s smaller and bumpy. And later we enjoy fireworks.