Our Festive Family Fourth!
Please pardon the alliteration in the title- I just couldn't help myself! We really did have a wonderful Fourth of July Family Reunion!
It was cool and breezy up by the border with Canada, and on the first day, all of the guys went out for a game of golf. Along the course they saw a beautiful flock of sandhill cranes that had come to forage on the greens. Aren't they lovely, graceful creatures?! Can you see the red cap on their heads?
The ladies went for a walk around the lake and enjoyed chatting in the cool breeze on the patio. Everything was festively decorated with stars and stripes. It was so nice to get a break from the overwhelming heat and humidity further south.
Mmmmm....thirty pounds of ice and some gloriously chilled diet cherry Pepsi await you in the cooler!
Festive head gear was a must at our party, and my cousin rocked the star-spangled, firecracker headband look!
The Mersydotes clan is definitely filled with dog people, and we are actually staunch terrier folks (although there is now a charming visla in the family!). In total, we had 6 dogs (3 rat terriers, 2 fox terriers, and a visla) wandering around underfoot, searching for crumbs, hopping on laps, tussling, fighting, and eating everything the kidlets gave them. Wonderful! I actually watched one of my little cousins feed one of the dogs a cookie, and I just didn't have the heart to do anything to stop it! A dog only lives once!
Here is the smallest of the Mersydotes pack:
Isn't he the most handsome little dog you've ever seen? To me, he looks like a mouse in a puppy dog suit!
In the afternoon, all of the kids and most of the adults split into two teams for "capture the flag" out in the yard. It was a riot! What with a dozen people of all ages playing and 6 puppies chasing all the players, it was an absolute blast! Just look how happy and exhilarated Penny was!
There were also games of "baggo" and the new classic "golf-ball-into-the-umbrella-putting-competition".
Even though it was just a weekend trip, I felt so incredibly relaxed. Being with my peeps and enjoying our time together made me feel as if all was right in the world!
My wonderful cousin prepared amazing desserts for our cookout that evening. Would you like to see some of them? They are so beautiful!
A decadent gluten-free chocolate cake that tasted even more amazing than it looked!
In fact, my cousin is soooo fabulous that she sent the leftover cake home with us, and we are savoring little bits of it in the evening with tea- heavenly!!!
There was also a gorgeously decorated cake for my cousin who just graduated from high school. We had fun singing and congratulating him as he prepares to head off to college! Sorry the pictures are blurry, we had to use Mr. Mersydotes's I-pod since I left my camera in the car- oops!
And later, as the sun began to fade, we sat out on the patio with freshly brewed cups of coffee and summery sugar cookies. Aren't these beautifully decorated? The icing was both delicious and gorgeously pastelly- yum!
I have lots of other pictures of happy people, spending time enjoying each other's company and reconnecting after a year apart. These reunions mean so much to me- my best friends are my family members, and I'm convinced they're the best folks in the whole world!
Lots of love,
~Mersydotes
It was cool and breezy up by the border with Canada, and on the first day, all of the guys went out for a game of golf. Along the course they saw a beautiful flock of sandhill cranes that had come to forage on the greens. Aren't they lovely, graceful creatures?! Can you see the red cap on their heads?
The ladies went for a walk around the lake and enjoyed chatting in the cool breeze on the patio. Everything was festively decorated with stars and stripes. It was so nice to get a break from the overwhelming heat and humidity further south.
Mmmmm....thirty pounds of ice and some gloriously chilled diet cherry Pepsi await you in the cooler!
Festive head gear was a must at our party, and my cousin rocked the star-spangled, firecracker headband look!
The Mersydotes clan is definitely filled with dog people, and we are actually staunch terrier folks (although there is now a charming visla in the family!). In total, we had 6 dogs (3 rat terriers, 2 fox terriers, and a visla) wandering around underfoot, searching for crumbs, hopping on laps, tussling, fighting, and eating everything the kidlets gave them. Wonderful! I actually watched one of my little cousins feed one of the dogs a cookie, and I just didn't have the heart to do anything to stop it! A dog only lives once!
Here is the smallest of the Mersydotes pack:
Isn't he the most handsome little dog you've ever seen? To me, he looks like a mouse in a puppy dog suit!
In the afternoon, all of the kids and most of the adults split into two teams for "capture the flag" out in the yard. It was a riot! What with a dozen people of all ages playing and 6 puppies chasing all the players, it was an absolute blast! Just look how happy and exhilarated Penny was!
There were also games of "baggo" and the new classic "golf-ball-into-the-umbrella-putting-competition".
Even though it was just a weekend trip, I felt so incredibly relaxed. Being with my peeps and enjoying our time together made me feel as if all was right in the world!
My wonderful cousin prepared amazing desserts for our cookout that evening. Would you like to see some of them? They are so beautiful!
A decadent gluten-free chocolate cake that tasted even more amazing than it looked!
In fact, my cousin is soooo fabulous that she sent the leftover cake home with us, and we are savoring little bits of it in the evening with tea- heavenly!!!
There was also a gorgeously decorated cake for my cousin who just graduated from high school. We had fun singing and congratulating him as he prepares to head off to college! Sorry the pictures are blurry, we had to use Mr. Mersydotes's I-pod since I left my camera in the car- oops!
And later, as the sun began to fade, we sat out on the patio with freshly brewed cups of coffee and summery sugar cookies. Aren't these beautifully decorated? The icing was both delicious and gorgeously pastelly- yum!
I have lots of other pictures of happy people, spending time enjoying each other's company and reconnecting after a year apart. These reunions mean so much to me- my best friends are my family members, and I'm convinced they're the best folks in the whole world!
Lots of love,
~Mersydotes
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