Happy Fourth of July!

We celebrated the Fourth of July this year at home with a bunch of friends. Mike smoked a brisket all day long and everyone else pitched in side dishes to make a fabulous feast. We topped the night off with a huge fireworks display provided by our friends Tom and Jerry. The weather was very pleasant and hopefully everyone had a great time!

The girls - ready for guests!

Daddy and his girls.

Waiting patiently for their friends.

The Candelaria's

Tom and Jerry -

in coordinating ensembles.

Lisa and Adam Perry with Ricky

The Henry's

The Falk Family

The Behnke's

The other McClure's

Dena and Miles

Snacks with flags

Hanging out...

Rory - the Meat Master carving the Brisket

Mmmmm.

Some of the spread

Wesley enjoying her dessert while watching the other kids with sparklers

Quinn and her sparkler

Kate and Sean watch the fireworks
(Doug and Nate pictured in the background. Unfortunately,

I didn't get another photo of them - eek!)

Backyard fun.

Sam and Frank

The kids were a little scared by the amazing and huge fireworks display so

they opted for The Jungle Book and jumping on the bed.

Goodbye kisses from Jerry.

Happy Fourth of July!

We hosted a barbecue to celebrate the 4th with some great friends. Although it was 100 degrees everyone had a great time! Mike woke at 5am to begin the long process of smoking a brisket, some sausage and two chickens. This was his first time to use the smoker he received for his birthday and the results were finger licking good!

Quinn "helps" make the cupcakes.

Wesley watches us prepare.

Heather and Wesley are ready for the party to start!

Linnea, Zailey and Zander Falk

Rory and Angie Behnke

Quinn took a late nap in order to make sure she could stay up for fireworks.

When she woke she was camera shy for a few minutes.

Quinn, Kate and Miles enjoyed driving the Jeep around the backyard while the grown ups played traffic patrol to prevent any collisions with trees.

Quinn enjoyed her first sparkler.

Quinn enjoys her second, third and each subsequent sparkler. She also loved all of the fireworks that followed. She would ask for "more, more way up there".

Kate liked the sparklers but didn't much care for the loud fireworks that followed.

The night was a blast although we are sorry that we missed getting any photographic representation of a few other families including the McClures, the Zunigas, and the Perry's.