Happy Fourth!

The Fourth of July was spent at my sister Gloria's house in San Diego, CA. The first event was a local parade. Rather than try to find more parking spaces, we managed to crowd everyone into 2 cars. Russ got the fun seat in the trunk space of Gloria's mini-van. This is our grandson Jarom on the left, Gloria's oldest son, Trevor, in the middle and second son, Tyler on the right. The parade was really nice with several school bands (they were pretty good), horses, fire trucks, and politicians, and we all enjoyed good seats on a blanket in the shade.
After the parade we went back to Gloria's house where the kids, and some of the adults, played some classic outdoor games like "Duck, Duck, Goose" and "Red Rover". Even Gloria's youngest joined in attempts to crash through the other team's arms. At the barbeque, besides Russ and me and Gloria's family,were our son James's family, James's brother-in-law's family, my parents (they drove over from Arizona) and a surprise guest, John terHorst. He was in California as a part of his training to be a pilot for Sky West. He's doing well and we're so proud of him but we will all be relieved when he can be with his family more than a couple of days a month.

After the hot dogs and hamburgers were barbequed, we enjoyed a wonderful meal together. Gloria's backyard is beautiful but it's shocking what they had to pay to have it landscaped. I guess it's normal in Southern California but we were shocked. Later in the evening, we walked up on the hill above Gloria's house and watched some local fireworks. Russ, a passionate lover of fireworks, would have preferred a much closer view but it was convenient to not have to drive and look for places to park and sit.