July Fourth – Another Beautiful One on Record

July Fourth on The Farm.

It seemed to last a blink of an eye this year.

There were still people I didn’t get to really chat with and I think there was dessert I didn’t get to spoon onto my plate.

It’s always a bounty of good times.  A bevy of conversations to have.  A moving from here to there to this to that, tubing down the river and consuming copious amounts of food and then trying to settle all that food down quickly enough to tackle the annual kickball game and then suddenly it’s almost dark and we need to find our spots on the blanket for the best fireworks displays at a family event you’ll ever see.

Sometimes you hardly know how much you crammed in until you look back at the pictures.

There was the surprise arrival of one Uncle Stin.  (What a wonderful moment.)

And of course there were gator rides – what is that thing’s capacity anyway?  (And I think Oma received reprimanding looks from Papa Dale due to her rate of speed.)

Kids have been outnumbering adults now for a couple of years.

There was ice cream, naturally.

And sleepovers and new baby loving.

And inner tubes and slack line practicing.

It was a July Fourth with truly the best weather any of us could remember.  We literally needed light jackets to watch the fireworks.  So much better than sweat dripping weekends of the past.

There was bounce house playing and fishing trips to the pond.

We realized we had three first graders piled up this year all together.

There was glorious time watching kids run around the yard.  Space to be a kid outside on a summer day – a gift so simple in its perfection.

 

It was, indeed, what I’ve come to expect of this annual weekend(ish) gathering.

Lovely.  Memorable.  Sweet.  A highlight of our summer.