My Favorite Holiday!

The 24th of July has always been my favorite holiday.  Weird, I know.  Its not even a big deal really, but ever since I can remember, my brothers and I and all of my cousins would sleep out at Liberty Park on the 23rd of July.  We would stay up all night long playing cards, board games, playing football, playing on the playgrounds, telling jokes, etc.... and then in the morning we would watch the parade go by the park.  Afterwards, we would go back to my Aunts house and sleep.  Pretty much because we hadnt had a wink of sleep all night.  After our whole day sleeping, we would head back to the park at night and watch fireworks.  But once my brothers hit the teen years, we stopped sleeping out at the park  :(  They were too cool or something.  I donno.  This fun tradition stopped for awhile, but now that we are all older, we still go to my Aunts house on the 24th and hang out.  She has a BEAUTIFUL back yard.  She sets up swimming pools for all of our kids to play in and she has swingsets and fun things for everyone to do.  She also invites all the neighborhood kids that used to hang out at the park with us.  Its so fun, and it makes me feel old to see that we all have kids now who are enjoying the traditions that I used to enjoy as a kid.  This year she had hot dogs and everyone was asked to bring something to share.  It was fun!!  We decided not to stay for fireworks though, since Gabe had to get up for work the next day, and traffic down by liberty park gets CRAZY when the show is over.  It was definately a blast to catch up with some of my old friends.  I only see some of them at this get together.  Its definately not enough, but once a year is better than nothing I guess. 

Andi enjoying the playground.... in her swimsuit.... haha

Alex also enjoying the playground in her suit LoL

My 2 handsome boys!!!

I just love this backyard!

My cousin brought his dog, so Jo wouldnt get off of my dads lap! She sat with him most the night while he fed her yummy treats!

Sadly, we didnt do any fireworks when we got home, which means we didnt do any this whole summer! How lame are we??!  We will be better prepared next year!!  I guess we will have to do a big firework show for new years or something!