Fourth of July

We had an amazing Fourth of July!  Great food, great company, great fireworks.

I've been having Diana, Corina's sister come and help me get my house in order for the last two weeks.  So, we cleaned and organized for two days before the Fourth.  And then I started prepping all the food.  Marinated about 10 pounds of tri-tip and 5 pounds of steak, and 10 pounds of chicken, 5 of lemon pepper and 5 of Italian.  We also had about 40 burgers. I made a fruit salad with watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, raspberries and strawberries.  Rounded it out with salad, bread, tortillas, chips and dips.  Oh and for dessert cookies, cakes and Pru brought a pie from Polly's - Ban-Berry.  A huge hit.

We got my mom around 2 and she had the best time.  Christa and Trey were here for about an hour and a half; between Christa's jobs at Ikea and Jet Blue.  Grandma was very glad to see them.  We had a good time chatting about all the changes coming up. More about that later in the post.

Both April and her mom, Wanda, brought Gabriel Jr. over for my mom to see.  What a good baby he is!  April had him at the beach party Christa had for her birthday and everyone just loved passing him around and he was eating up all the attention.  Never got fussy or cried.  A truly good baby!

The kids came over from across the street and had fun with some building pads that Randy drug out. We also got out the canned whipped cream and squirted it into their mouths to see who could eat it without losing it or using their hands.  Harold had a little mishap with that, LOL!

The fireworks were truly awesome this year.  While I don't buy the "illegal in California" types, my neighbors have no such qualms and we got a 360 degree view of some really beautiful displays.  My mom enjoyed them very much and could talk of nothing else for the next several days.

It was great to see Little Krysta again.  She flew in from Michigan the day before.  She is moving back to Cali to be near family and friends again.  But her mom and little brother are still in Michigan.  Not to mention the college and work friends she made there.  It's hard to make these kind of decisions at 20.