Family Fun

I am looking forward to the 4Th of July.

Our celebration is held at Dad's lake house. It begins with an early morning of crabbing with Uncle Mat. Here is last year's catch.

Katie admiring a crab

Jane and Alex holding a crab

Mitchell kissing a crab

Randy coming in for a smooch.

If you are a crab minding your own business somewhere at the bottom of the sea, along the coast of Washington, and you suddenly find yourself being kissed on the lawn at Grandpa's lake...well, it's not looking good for ya buddy....it's not lookin' good.

Because down on the beach there is a big pot of water starting to boil

And the men in the tribe are starting to gather around it

Ready for the plunge

The manly men have the job of cleaning all the crab

And then the feasting begins

Marc cracking crab with his teeth. There are tools for that, dear.

We always eat birthday cake on the 4Th of July

because this beautiful girl decided to be born 8 weeks early, to the sound of exploding fireworks outside my hospital window, twenty seven years ago. I will never forget the joy I felt when I was reassured by her team of doctors and nurses that she was going to survive and be healthy. If that's not a good reason to eat cake, I don't know what is.

The 4Th of July is a day to goof around and do nothing,

or to go swimming with cousins

or handsome husbands

Or maybe even to try sail boarding

Under the watchful eye of your father in law

As evening descends on our happy scene

We gather together the sleepy children

And our sleepy wives

And we settle ourselves on the beach

Snuggled up to keep each other warm

Grandpa goes up to the house and he turns on his patriotic music full blast, so that the residents around the entire lake can hear

It sounds like this

And we enjoy fireworks accompanied by music

We watch fireworks that other families set off on their beaches

And we set some off ourselves

And then finally, we participate in the ritual known as flashy dancing. Around and around we dance, to the beat of a rousing Sousa march, and the crackling of fireworks, under the influence of moonlight and summertime, as Uncle Mat tosses strobe flashers in the center of our circle.

I can't wait!

And by the way, thanks to Katie who conveniently downloaded these pictures from her camera onto my computer last year. Is it called pirating, if someone, who will remain nameless, innocently finds photos on their computer and kinda posts them on her blog?