Canada Day

Kay, guys, You KNOW I love you and all. Because I should *COULD* be napping, but I'm updating everyone on the holiday yesterday instead. Yep. Because I love you. And because my eyeballs are too sunburnt to shut and my muscles are too sore to lay on.

Yesterday started WAY early, as I woke up Will and Bigguy along with my kids, and we drove down to Raymond for a Canada Day Parade first thing in the morning. We ran into quite a few people Will knows (small-town living-- everyone is related to everyone) and in fact, I ran into a few of MY family members too. My parents and Uncle Kannie joined up at our spot outside Will's sister's house, and we sat and watched the kids get attacked by candy-throwing participants the parade.We met up with Will's ex, who then dropped off the other kids. Armed with ARMLOADS and cheek-fulls of candy, the 9 of us then drove to a huge reservoir where some more of Will's family was meeting.

When they say those folding camp-chairs only hold 200 lbs, WHAT do THEY know?!

It was a SUPER good time. Potluck-ish lunch, sunshine, boating and tubing, and playing. Again, at Will's VERY DISTANT family reunion thingy, we also met up with a few of my quite distant family members. AND I MEAN DISTANT, so No, I'm not kissing my cousin. :)After we were all fairly pooped (don't start me on how literal I'm being on that one! ew.) we drove to Will's home town where they had a "Party In The Park" with native dancing and music and food and bouncers and such. And more candy.

Dancing the Macarena- some dances never die. LOL

A few hours and a couple more meltdowns from VERY tired children later, we sat on the big hill and watched Fireworks until about 11:30 pm.

The Girls of the Day. LL, Grace, Em, Mimi and I

Then, we squished 9 of us into my 7-seater van and drove the 1/2 hour back to Will's Ex's home to drop of the kids.

And then, it was 2 hours back to MY home ..where we arrived around 3...so that I could work at 6:30 this morning.

But, as you see, we had a GREAT day and enjoyed each other's company immensely. And, in spite of this picture, I think we came out not TOO horribly scarred from the candy overdose! Clockwise from top middle: Will, LL, Grace, Taylor, Me, Em, Bigguy, Mimi and Bear in the middle