Reuniting

We drove 10 hours each way this weekend to spend the 4th of July weekend in the Florida panhandle with my extended family. On Saturday, we attended the annual Minchin reunion, and pictured above are all of us linked by my grandparents Bill and Lucy.

The kids had a wonderful time hanging out with their cousins, including Abbey and Elizabeth and Shade and Jessie Kate, who spent the weekend with us at my grandmother's farmhouse. We carried on the tradition of packing a bunch of people into a three-bedroom house, and enjoyed plenty of time to hang out and catch up.

Part of that included observing my brother's birthday with a cake made by a cousin who makes wedding cakes for a living. Not a bad way to celebrate!

Josh and Shade spent the weekend playing games on whoever's phone they could "borrow" and shooting Shade's air gun. The latter activity brought up some fun reminiscing about a time long ago when one person in attendance, now an adult, accidentally shot a cousin, also in attendance, in the face with a BB gun. Good times.

We observed the 4th with sparklers, which prompted yet another memory of my grandmother Lucy allowing us to do sparklers in her living room on Independence Day because it was raining, to my mother's horror. We chose the outdoors for this celebration.

Josh and Shade used their sparklers to try and set things on fire, like small branches and a pile of grass. Not a surprise.

My cousin Jessica's daughter, Jessie Kate, joined the girl brigade for the weekend.

We took Molly, Josh and Shade to see fireworks in Vernon, Fla., that night, and then Aunt Grace joined us for blueberry picking the next day. Molly went home with Mom and Dad for the week, and Josh is enjoying being an only child for the week. He's already laid claim to Molly's dinosaur place mat and is in boy heaven building an air rocket with Chris.