Conviviality and chaos

I can't believe I've waited this long to blog about the 4th of July! Honestly, it was just a fun day, nothing too sensational happened. But it was great. Ben came with me and was quite overwhelmed by just the scores of people who came to celebrate with us. Waffles and ice cream was at my parents' house, so the Snow side came over and gluttoned themselves (myself included!). I think Ben was in awe of the fact that I had this many relatives. "This is only half of my dad's side of the family...the smaller side," I told him.

I vowed I would get more pictures this year...I got a couple of my nephew Avery in his hat that made his ears go all cute and funny. And that's about it...I'm not even going to post them.

Mostly that day, I was just trying to survive burning to death and keeping Ben out of the line of fire. He handled everything so great, though. I give him an A for all his efforts at spending the day with my family. He even got to talk to my brother-in-law who likes to play board games, too. I was out grilling, but apparently it was a great conversation.

Also, it was pretty much impossible to find a place to a) escape the mayhem; b) take a nap; c) cool down. We opted for two out of three and took a blanket outside to try and find some shade...and moved about 7 times (this is not an exaggeration) before I finally got to sleep for about ten minutes.

To add to the mix, Natalie and Mike brought their friend Nick to the festivities. Apparently at Mike and Nat's open house last month, Nick's interest in my sister Paulie had been piqued. Hmmm...so he came along for the 4th. It was interesting...and by 'interesting,' I mean completely awkward. He was a bit strange and did not gel well with our family. Nice guy, but my theory stands that if all you can say about a guy is that he's 'nice,' he's probably not worth much time or effort. And nothing says fun-filled blind date like an entire day being scrutinized by an entire family and having no exit strategy. But both parties escaped, mostly unscathed. Let this be a lesson to you, please.

Anyway, Ben was a trooper and survived the parade, the Snow family waffles and ice cream, the ensuing noise and destruction, the BBQ, and the fireworks. Whew! It was a great time, though.