Saturday, July 07, 2007

Empty Nest ~ Almost

It's Saturday, July 7, and everyone has left but Amber. Doug is taking his little ones back to their mother, and Rachel and her family are on the way back to Kentucky. The house is quiet now with just Amber and us here. After 6 little ones and five adults in the house for the last week the silence seems almost eerie!

We had such a good time with everyone here though. Brian decided not to camp out in the back yard with his two boys and they only came for the one day.....July 4th. The parade was long and the weather was great. Not too hot but sunny just the same. No rain either! Not any that day, so the fireworks went off without a hitch!
Waiting for the parade to begin! Most of the people on the left are kids and grandkids!
Family friends driving their old car in the parade.
Our family portrait! Only Brian's wife and 1 ½ year old daughter are missing.Left to right, Steve(holding Drew),Michelle, Glenn, Emily,Jeremy(holding Ty), Heidi, Trenten,Doug,Amber,Hunter,Harley,Mema & Bumpa, KeAira, Rachel(holding Cayden),Trenton,Darian,Brian,Elijah and David. Missing are Brian's wife,Vanessa and his 18 month old daughter, Rebecca.
Our oldest son, Brian, pushing several grandchildren on the swings to entertain them until the food is ready!
And one of the many fireworks that we could see right from our backyard. All the kids and grand kids that stayed for the fireworks walked to the local park to watch the fireworks. Bumpa and I thought we would just stay home and see if we could see them from the back yard. Boy am I glad we did! We had awesome seats on our lawn furniture and didn't have to walk anywhere! I hope they shoot the fireworks off from this same place every year!!!

On Thursday Bumpa and I and Amber, Hunter, Harley, Rachel, Trenton, Darian, KeAira and Cayden all went to the zoo in Grand Rapids. I'll get those photos up soon. Maybe tomorrow or Monday.....I desperately need to catch up on some rest and housework!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those are awesome pictures Martie. Thank you for sharing them. Hey you didn't have to fight the crowd for those seats. I bet the parade was really cool.

Get some rest now. Hugs

janet copenhaver said...

Glad fun was had by all and that now you can rest up. Don't know how you do it.
Love the family photo, I assume bumpa was taking the photo?

Smalltown RN said...

Oh how lovely is all of that....they all look so happy and healthy...I am so very glad you had such a wonderful time with them all...hope you aren't to pooped out.....cheers my friend

Anonymous said...

what a wonderful week :)

love the pics - especially the family photo - you are incredibly blessed!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow looks like you had bunches of fun. Good for you! Your family photo is just great...Lots and lots of smiles.

Hugs,
Connie

Renee said...

That sounds like so much fun with the whole gang. Y'all are a good looking bunch!

Anonymous said...

My goodness. You reaise how big your family is when they are all together like that. It would make for fantastic Christmas's though!

xxx

chesneygirl said...

Hey, I recognize a few of those faces in that picture of the whole gang! ;)

Glad everyone had a happy 4th!

Michael Lehet said...

What a great family!

I never understood why it's so difficult to get everyone to all look at the camera at the same time for just a second.