For the last three summers, my married siblings and I have converged en mass with our offspring on my mother and stepfather’s house during the June/July transition to feast and carouse and visit old haunts. The children have a splendid time with each other and the adults feed the children, take them cool places and in the off hours, catch up on our news.
This year we were missing Gretchen’s family, and we only had four days with Dieter’s family. We packed all our fun into those four days and then spent an extra day there on our own.
Saturday dawned hot and muggy, so we did what any rational people would do and spent it mostly indoors lounging and chatting. The children attempted to go create a fort under the pines at the bottom of the lawn, but the weather and its resultant mosquito population thwarted their efforts. In the evening, we ventured out to the 49er Drive-In theatre where we snuggled up with pizza, soda and a double feature on the huge silver screen. I love drive-in theatres. I saw a large quantity of 1970s Disney films at one of two drive-in theatres in the area at the time. Snuggling with my family under starry skies, with the mingled smells of night air, bug-spray, cut grass, and popcorn is one of my all-time favorite ways to watch films. Films in the park aren’t the same, though, because buckling in a sleeping child half-way through the second film and taking a quick walk to stretch one’s legs is an essential part of the night.
Sunday brought us to church at the ward I grew up in. I enjoyed seeing several of my favorite people and lucked into a fantastic Relief Society lesson taught by the woman who was both my favorite Young Women’s camp director (she was SO fun while teaching camping skills) and my most dreaded baby-sitter (she was mean and insisted on feeding us oatmeal). She reminded us of the religious aspects of Independence Day that were vital to the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth. 
In the afternoon, my youngest child was baptized and confirmed by his father, with most of our family in attendance. Ian was his own goofy self, but he definitely understood what he was doing. It was a very special moment and worth the few weeks of waiting to have everyone there. No refreshments or fuss, just a short reminder talk from me on the baptismal covenant and a focus on the ordinance itself.
We enjoyed the Hebron fireworks on Sunday night and kept our tradition of face painting while awaiting the start. Aunt Michelle brought huge glow-sticks and the nearby playground also helped keep everybody entertained until the start. We sat on chairs and blankets on the school grounds where I watched fireworks as a child. I love being able to enjoy with my children the things I enjoyed as a child.
Monday morning was the Hebron parade. My favorite part is the marching band. The children’s favorite part is the huge bowl of candy they achieved after scrambling for the offerings from the other parade entries. My second favorite part is watching them enjoy the scramble, and the neat ways they are kind to each other while doing so. Kay is an expert scrambler, but often shared her results even though she knew we would pool it all at the end of the parade and share anyway.
Cousin time is the best part of family week.
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| Emma asleep and still trying to play. |
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| All the cousins prefer to hang out with Uncle John for cartoons & video games. |
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| Uncle Dieter, Auntie Gretchen and I all marched in that band, on this street 20-odd years ago. |
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| If you can't be silly with cousins and watermelon, what is there? |
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