4th Part 1

Well, much to my chagrin, the 4th of July is already over.  It went way too fast and the fact that it fell in the middle of the week and that Justin had to work the next day was a huge buzzkill.  I hated that we and everyone else had to leave in the evening and the 5th just seemed all wrong and anticlimactic.  Oh well, next year will be different...

It was a pretty chaotic weekend.  On Saturday I went with my mom and Ben to a family reunion of my Grandma's family.  She has a huge family and is the third oldest of 14 children.  They get together every year in Northern Minnesota, where they grew up.  Some of their cousins come with their families as well.  They live all over now.  One sister lives in Maryland, one in Michigan, one in Idaho, and of course several in Minnesota.  There were 9 girls in the family, who are all still living, and 5 boys.  Three of them are still living.  One died in the early days of the Vietnam War and one just died recently. 

Here is a picture of them all.  I think it might be the only one where they are all pictured together.  My grandma is in the back row and third from the right with her eyes closed!  They are...deep breath...Norma, Russell, Phyllis (Grandma), Gloria, Anita, Geraldine, Donald, Dennis, Patsy, Joy, Sandra, Karen, John and Barry.  Holy crap!   

So, anyway, the reunion was at Lake Bronson State Park in Northern Minnesota.  It has a lake and camping and also this 1930's era observation tower that is pretty cool.  We visited and walked to the tower and ate some food and that was about it!  It was pretty fun. 

Here is Ben meeting his...uhhh...some sort of cousin.   The other baby is Barry's grandson so I suppose the baby (Levi) is in my generation and my second cousin.  It gets confusing when the generations are so big!  My mom's youngest first cousin is my age! 

Meanwhile, Justin was playing in an alumni baseball game back in Hatton with my dad and brother.  I guess they weren't too strict about having to be an actual alum to play.  They teams were even graduation years versus odd graduation years.  It sounds like they had a good time and a big crowd.  The game was to celebrate the dedication of a renovated baseball field. 

After that we headed to Minnesota Lakes Country to Justin's family's lake cabin.  Ben's cousins Jack and Spencer were there. 

Here are the babies who happened to have both packed fun and summery orange outfits!  Too perfect!

Beach baby!

Jack and Spencer's puppies were there.  I like to call them the dingos because they are brother and sister and cling together in a mini pack all the time.  They LOVE water and swimming and will fetch a ball all day long.  They show fatique eventually but it takes a long time.  It takes ALL day. 

They swim like muscrats!

We went tubing...

Jack tubing...

YEaahh!!  I also went water skiing but I didn't have the camera outside.  I couldn't do these activities last year because of being pregnant so it was fun to get back behind the tow rope.  

Justin's step-brother Josh skiing...he has been doing this his whole life and is quite good. 

This was a good opportunity to use my camera's action setting.  I love how the water looks!

Ben went in the lake for the first time!  I know it looks bright but don't worry...these were taken in the evening so it wasn't as bright or harsh as it looks. 

He liked it!

It was Grandpa Larry's 55th birthday on the second!

I will write about the rest of the 4th later...Ben has taken up spending most of his waking time screaming.  It is different from crying and most of the time he is not upset but just wants attention.  I can't believe how loud he is and the only way to get it to stop is to carry him around and entertain him so I can't get anything done.  He is in the swing now but the quiet is not going to last much longer. Writing this post took all afternoon.  Ugh.