Happy 4th of July

Owen celebrated his first 4th of July at Lake Tapps. Patty Romeo held her annual party (that she's been holding ever since I can remember). Since Chris had to work all day/night, I decided that it would be fun for Owen to spend some of the day where I did when I was younger. I got the dogs situated in the garage with some music and went to pick up my mom. We only stayed at the party for a couple hours because I didn't want to be too late (with drunks on the road) and I can't stay away from the dogs for too long with the fireworks. We saw a lot of people from "back in the day" along with their kids who are now grown. A cute little 10-month-old girl really took a liking to Owen. She crawled right up and had her hands all over him! I was sad that Chris couldn't be there to celebrate with us, but we talked on the phone several times.

We picked up some sparklers on the way back to my mom's and lit a couple for Owen. He didn't seem very impressed, which surprised me a little since he loves things that flash and light up. we stuck around and I pruned a couple of shrubs around the pond. We also played around with paint chips and I think we found a color to paint her house. Hope to start on that soon.

Laura spent her 4th on the ship. Holland America called last Friday, needing her for just 1 week and asked if she could leave the next morning. At the time they didn't know where she'd be going but Laura said "sure". She happened to be in Ellensburg so she came right home to pack. She found out later that she'd be doing another Alaska route, this time out of Vancouver BC. So she's on the Statendam now and called from Ketchikan to say they extended her a week. She took this cool picture of a bald eagle and sea lions.

Other news... my cousin Charlie and his wife Allie are moving to Brussels for a couple of years. Tom and Toni held a going-away party for them in the 90 degree heat! As usual Owen was the one everybody wanted to see and no one was interested that Chris and I bothered to show up :)