Wonderful Independence Day Celebration

Ron was so totally surprised when his nieces' kids started walking into the house Friday night. It was about 10:30 and I kept coming up with excuses why I had the front door unlocked and the porch light on... I went out and took pictures with my phone (so I could send a text message to give directions), then went back out with my camera, etc. My phone takes pretty good pictures for a phone, but it does not recover fast enough to take pictures of fireworks. (After looking at my pictures from Sunday night, I'd say my camera didn't do that good of a job, either. Need to figure out what I did wrong because only one picture turned out very well and that is of Isaiah playing with sparklers.)

This picture is of Ron and all of his kids (except Shaun) and their kids.

Left to right - back row: Amy, Keith, Ron, Stacey, Tim, Shelby, Mariah

Left to right - front row: Zane, Hayden, Aaron, Faith, Isaiah

Shelby, Zane, and Hayden belong to Tim; Faith and Mariah belong to Stacey; Isaiah belongs to Amy.

This is Ron and his boys. Tim is literally holding him up. Aaron, Tim, Keith, and Ron. Too bad Shaun wasn't here. It would have been nice to see all these tall boys towering over their dad. I think Tim is about 6'4", Keith is nearly 6'3", Aaron and Shaun are each about 6'2".

This picture is of Ron and his niece Elana - and her family. Her oldest son was working so wasn't able to make the trip. This is Elana, Ron, (with Maisey), Joey (in front of Ron), Lexie, and Hotchie.

This is Ron with his niece, Dana and her children, Jennifer and James. Dana looks just like Vicki and when she came in, I thought Ron was going to cry.

I should have taken a picture of Amy and Isaiah with Ron but didn't think to do that. But, that's OK - it's not like they are never here. I did manage to get a picture of Amy and Rex.

The weather was so rotten over the weekend that we passed around the laptops for the kids to play games and entertain themselves without having play in the mud outside. My sister said this looks like an Internet cafe. My laptop isn't even out.

Dinner time - we managed to get eight people around the table (added a couple of people after I took this picture). The lady in the blue and white top with her back to us is Ron's cousin, Deanna, who came to dinner. It was so nice to see her. She was very close to Vicki (Elana and Dana's mom) and I figured it would be nice for her to come and see everyone.

Starting in the 12:00 position, we have Karen (Ron's ex-wife), Zane (standing), Mariah, Faith, Deanna, Dana, Elana.

After dinner, Ron was completely worn out. This is him doing what he does best...

Of course, they all insisted I get in on the picture-taking as well. Ron was tickling the back of my neck to get me to smile. I was so hot from running around and pushing my hair back out of my face, that I was surprised I don't have hair standing completely straight up in front.

It was a wonderful day. Even though it was pouring buckets outside, the kids were all getting along, the adults were having a great time reminiscing, the food was awesome (big thanks to my "grill boy" for doing all the outside cooking - THANKS, Keith!), and the company was outstanding. Ron has said over and over again how wonderful the day was and how it was the best day he's had in years. One time he said it was the best day he could remember (he did qualify that and say outside of our own personal time and celebrations together). I wanted the day to be something special and I think we achieved that.

I'm very grateful that Dana and Elana were able to take time out of their busy schedules and make the drive here (Dana from Indiana and Elana from Florida). It was great to have Tim here and his kids. He said that things are changing around his house and that he will be more of a presence in his dad's life. I think he sees that all is not well in that area and he has decided that he doesn't want to miss out. That will be great. I took one picture of Ron in his chair, Tim squatted down next to him talking, and Stacey standing by him talking. As the flash went off, Tim looked up and I said, "It's so I can remember what you look like." We all had a good laugh.

The rain went away long enough for us to enjoy fireworks over at Stacey's house. Ron didn't feel up to going out, which ended up being a good thing because it started raining on us and we would not have gotten Ron and his chair in out of the rain quickly enough. The kids had a great time watching all the displays around. Even though our little city had canceled the display, we still saw a lot of great stuff going on around in Stacey's neighborhood.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Dana had to leave Sunday night but Elana and the kids will be here for a few more days. That is nice; Ron is enjoying his visit.