4th of July Weekend

It just wouldn't be a holiday weekend without a wonderful, loving, dysfunctional family...would it? This 4th of July I got tons of family time (and Steve got a big dose too...hee hee hee...lucky guy), and we have the pictures to prove it. Steve and I spent an hour yesterday going through and deleting the pictures we didn't want to keep, and there are still 261 pictures left. TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY ONE. And that was just Saturday through Monday. We didn't even break out the camera Thursday or Friday. Because I care about you (and your sanity), I will not be posting all of the pictures here. In fact, I won't be posting anywhere near all of the pictures. Instead, I will post a handful here and then I will upload the rest to a photo sharing website for those of you who I know would like to see them all (and possibly order prints). 

My mom and a couple of her other sisters (she has 6) decided to plan a family reunion over the 4th to get everyone together. It was a very good weekend and it was really fun to see everyone. I had tons of family in town from Alaska to Texas, and I got to spend some time with some of my aunts, uncles and cousins that I hadn't seen in a very long time. Saturday afternoon was the main reunion, and we hung out at my Grandma and Grandpa's house. Some of my mom's cousin's and other extended family made it as well. Here are some pics:

My mom and two of her sisters

Grandkids and great grandkids on the slip-n-slide (did I mention that it was like 90 degrees?)

The group (with the exception of a few people - who had either went in to take a nap, or escaped to go to the lake to cool off)

My cousin TJ...I couldn't help it. I can't remember why he was crying but he is just so adorable I had to capture it (sorry TJ!)

My mom, dad, brother and I

Cal taking pictures with my Grandpa's old film camera. Remember when cameras had actual film??? Notice Cal's hair, ok? Remember how long it is for future reference.

Grandma, Grandpa, my mom, her sisters, and their cousins

My mom, grandma and myself

My uncle Tom and Avery

Sunday afternoon my brother, Steve and I went fishing. Remember how long Cal's hair was on Saturday? Check it out after I took Steve's clippers after him...

Now isn't that just so much better??? And the picture (using the fish eye lens) is pretty cool too.

Sunday night we went over to my aunt Georgia and uncle Kirk's cabin (which is just on the next island from my parent's cabin) to have dinner with them and some of their friends:

Dad and Mark

Hanging on the dock, watching the sunset.

Karen and Cal

Marva and Bob

Mom, Karen and Georgia

 Steve and Gale

Beautiful Rainy Lake sunset

On Monday, some of my mom's family came out to the cabin to do some swimming and tubing...it was another gorgeous day! Before anyone arrived, however, Steve and Cal went knee-boarding. Yes, I am aware that knee-boarding went out in the 90's...but we don't have a wake board, or whatever it is that young people do now for water sports...all we had was the old O'Brien board that Cal and I used when we were kids. I just had to show you some pictures...mostly because I like the way Steve's biceps look when he is holding on to a ski rope, but also because it is humorous watching grown men knee-board. Check it out:

For the record, Steve made it look easy - whipping 360's and even at one point taking the knee strap off, sitting on the knee-board and trying to barefoot ski...Cal was in pain after a little while and needed to take a rest. Not that I should talk...I probably wouldn't have been able to even get myself up.

And on that note, I will leave you with a picture of my cousins tubing on Monday afternoon...I realize that I ended up putting in more than a handful of pictures, but it was such a fun and eventful weekend, I just couldn't help it!