July 5 ~Family Cookout~

I'm sitting here at home, exhausted yet enjoying the memories of the past few weeks and days.  We had an early lunch today at Outback Steakhouse before Trish & company headed back to Dover, Delaware. (Luke is signed up for baseball camp tomorrow)  Then Sara, Matt and Evie left for Cincinnati leaving Andy and me in an eerily quiet house.  Our cook out was a smashing hit yesterday.  The weather was perfect and with the help of the girls our cookout went off without a hitch.  We were able to kayak this year as the water was about as high as I have ever seen in July.  Our kayak party consisted of 5 adults and 4 children and proved to be a lovely adventure.  Unfortunately, I forgot my waterproof camera so I don't have many pictures.  (I really don't have many pictures of the entire day as I just seemed so busy having fun I forgot to go look for my camera!)  Thanks to Trish and Chad and help from Matt and Daniel, we had a top-notch fireworks display that would rival many of the neighboring community displays.

Evie and daddy waiting for the West Jeff parade

Luke and Lily braved the downtown Columbus crowds to watch Red, White and Boom!

The weather was awesome for the parade, not too hot, not too cold.... it was just right

John Kyle showing off for the crowd

Ronnie G and his youngest granddaughter

Highlights for the kids were the Scavenger Hunt, kayaking, the Lucky Duck Race and a family game of wiffle ball.  No one was seriously injured and there were minimal fights or skirmishes so I feel the day was a huge success.  We had enough food to feed a small army complete with brownies, cheesecake and home made ice cream.  DIETS START TOMORROW!

Evie was pretty good at corn hole,  hard to miss when you're standing right over the hole!!

Kayaking the Little Darby

Family wiffle ball

This morning we tried out Lily's new face painting kit

And this is how we all feel after the fun filled week end!

Additional picture via Bob's i-phone.  These were taken of our first ever Lucky Ducky Race.  All of the kids and some of the adults had ducks with their names on them.  We walked up stream a bit and we all threw our ducks in on the GO command.  It was great fun watching the kids run along with the ducks.  A few brave souls, myself included, waded in to retrieve the finishers.  Ramona's got by us and 3 others were caught in a whirl pool.  Asher and Luke rescued 2.  The first duck to finish belonged to Olive!!

Waiting or wading? At the finish line

Even with my net, Ramona's duck escaped on the far side of the creek!!

The Rescue Mission!

I think the Lucky Ducky Race will be a new tradition!