The Fourth of July: Part One

Growing up in Kansas had it's perks. One of those perks was being three hours away from Great Bend, Kansas. I love this place. One of my favorite times to visit Great Bend was the Fourth of July. We used to go and spend a few days almost every year. It was sheer bliss, thanks to this pretty lady right here.

Last year there was a host of excitement in Great Bend when it was announced that there would be a huge blowout on the Fourth and everyone was coming. We were the only ones that didn't make it. I was heart-broken, but it made the fact that we (minus Dale; WAAAAHHHH) were able to come this year that much sweeter. It was magical, thanks to this guy and that pretty lady to the left of him.

And now let's start with the introductions. The lady in red is my sweet sweet Grams. She's wonderful to the nth. Then the next picture was Uncle Jeff and Lynette. They are also wonderful and quite lovely party hosts. This sharp dressed man is my Uncle Kevin.

Lol was pretty partied out by this time. Aside from the piles of fireworks in the garage, they had a huge pool, a kiddie pool, and a blow-up water slide. Let's not forget about the tables stacked with food.

Speaking of food, did I mention the cheesecake ice cream that Uncle Jeff makes? Aye caramba. Red Knight, #10, AKA Teresa, came along with us to the party. She was there last year, and I think the year before too. There's kind of a running joke that she and Uncle Kevin are going to eventually hook up. Teresa is one of a kind. You should be so lucky as to meet her someday. You'll want to marry her too.

This is my cousin Annie, Uncle Jeff's daughter, and her boyfriend Greg Jeffers. Now this is where it gets complicated. Her dad's name is Jeff, and my cousin Leah's husband's name is Jeff. You met my Uncle Greg, holding Deisha about a week ago. There was a time we called him Greggers. They're all in the same genre of people for me, so even now, I'm rethinking his name. Is it Greg Jeffers or Jeff Greggors? Oh dear... this is upsetting. Sorry Anne. I don't know if I'll ever get it right. But my kids loved him. They kept talking about how fun he was in the pool. Here's another thing; he looks just like two of my other cousins, Luke, and Michael. I mean they are different, but very similar. You'll see.

Here we have my cousin Tina and my Uncle Bubba, with Megan in the blue, Tina's daughter, and Kayla, my cousin my marriage. Oh I wish you could meet Tina. You see that look on her face? That's how she is. All the time. She always looks just like this when I see her. She's refreshing. I adore her. And her husband Billy is just as fun.

How can they not be? Look at her father! He's a hoot. When I was little he was single and rich. He would send me dresses in the big fancy boxes in the mail. Quite a few years back he was in a jeeping accident and suffered some brain damage. Before the accident, every time I saw him he'd say, "Becca, how many boyfriends ya got now?" I never had boyfriends. It was like scouring my soul with ice cream salt. So when he started to recover, we had to start accepting the fact that he would never be the same. Our old Bubba was different and that was that. You can imagine my surprise when we went to visit the new Bubba in a rehab center and he said, "Well, Becca, how many boyfriends ya got now?" I was never so happy to hear those words!

These fancy ladies are my mom and her sister, Aunt Kim. They look so alike, I love it! Aunt Kim took me to California for the first time when I was 12. She was a single mom with three kids, so she needed extra hands and eyes to travel across the country to Los Angeles in a car. I was thrilled about going, but with hindsight being 20/20, I'm not sure I was the right guy for the job. When Leah started getting car sick in the seat next to me and we were on the freeway in bumper-to-bumper traffic, my Aunt started yelling, "Get something to catch it!" There was nothing else to do but bite the bullet and catch it. I wasn't the girl I am now and I couldn't think clearly. I was 12. I grabbed a Happy Meal box and tried to hold it to her mouth without looking. It went everywhere. I was gagging and crying, Leah was puking, Kim was yelling; it was a fiasco. And then there was the time when I lost one of the kids at Disneyland... Yeah. But we did have a lot of fun.

All the cousins lined up for this picture. We stood here in the heat for a long, long time while we added people and waited for everyone to get their camera. There must be 75 pictures of this floating around facebook. But out of all of them, this is my fave. Check out Alexa. That's how we all felt.