July 2010

We were happy to hear my Uncle Jim was coming to visit from Florida... and he and my cousin, Shaun, drove to my parents' house from Eastlake this month for a family get-together. It was great to see them again. We were all able to reconnect and spend some quality time together!

We are now lucky owners of a trampoline! My sister-in-law, Karen, found it at a garage sale in her neighborhood, and I swear it was the best $75 we've ever spent. I had been wanting to get one since we've been in this house but couldn't justify spending $300 on a new one. The kids spend lots of time on it, instead of on the couch... and it's great exercise for me!

We spent July 4th at my parents' house, swimming

and having a cookout. Evan got the chance to hold his first sparkler and was fascinated by it! We lit off the small fireworks in the driveway and were tempted to light the bigger ones, but my parents' live in a really quiet neighborhood and we didn't want to be "those people" and create any ruckus. We'll try again next year!

So to finish out the month, we were about to leave the house for Joel's family reunion in PA, when Joel saw a hot air balloon headed our way. As we thought, they had problems of some sort and had to make an emergency landing in the empty lot next to our house. Joel ran over to see if they needed any help but they had it handled, as I'm sure it has happened many times before. A big pick-up truck came to load up the balloon and basket and they were on their way within 30 minutes or so. That is one thing we will probably never see happen again!