Happy 4th of July!

Today was a fantastic day!  The weather was great and my family was here!  3 of my 5 brothers were here.  10 of the 14 grandkids were here. My dad and Grandma Millburn were here as well.  It was wonderful! Let's start off with my favorite picture of the day.  I love this picture.  I love that cousins have a bond even though they rarely see each other.  I love how sweet Larkin is and I love how much Abby adores her.  You can see it in her face, especially in some of the other pictures.

Abby & Larkin

I tried to take a picture of all the grandkids.  Some were easier to get pictures of than others.  I was also trying to put them in order from oldest to youngest.  I think I got it right, but I'm not guaranteeing anything!  I know I got the first three right.  My kids are the Terry, Tammi, Rozie of our family.

#1 ~ Maysen

 #2 ~ Stockton

 #3 ~ Jorja

 #4 ~ Lincoln (born on Jorja's 3rd birthday)

 #5 ~ Skye

 #6 ~ Preston

 #7 ~ Ella

 #8 ~ Larkin

 # 9 ~ Marie, reason missing: she's in Japan

#10 ~ Abigail

 #11 ~ Mallory, reason missing: she became a big sister yesterday!

#12 ~ Blake

 #13 ~ Mina, reason missing: she is also in Japan

#14 ~ Trevor, reason missing: he was born yesterday

I should have taken a picture of Ange's belly and labeled it #15! Anyway, it was so much fun to have my family here!  We had a barbecue and went swimming.  Shocking!  It was a lot of fun though. I'm just sticking up the rest of the pictures in random order . . . because I have a lot.

 Skye, Abbs, Larkin

I was sitting outside eating my lunch when Blake walked right up to me with the sweetest grin on his face.  I picked him up and put him right in my lap.  There was a plate of jello in front of me.  Jorja made it and it was so cute.  She did one of those layered jello things.  She wanted to do red, white and blue but the blue was sold out - so she did red, white and purple.  Anyway, when Mike got here I asked him if Larkin could have the jello (Larkin and Blake have a lot of food allergies).  He said yes. So, when Blake came over to me I remember thinking, "He can have this jello, I've already checked."  I don't know why I assumed he was the same as Larkin.  I know he's allergic to more things, but for some reason that didn't register with me at that moment.  Anyway, I gave Blake the jello.  Thirty seconds later he kind of started gagging.  I got Mike's attention and told him I gave him the jello.  I said, "He can have that, right?"  Mike says, "NO!"  Totally not the answer I was expecting. I felt SO bad!  I try to be so careful and aware of food allergies. Anyway, Blake threw up right away.  Then he broke out into a rash. Great, Christen isn't ever going to let me be alone with him.  Not when I give him poison!  (Blake is allergic to milk.  There was sweetened condensed milk in the jello.)  Well, here are some adorable pictures pre-poison episode.  I hope you forgive me Blake!

Blake

 Gotta love that hat!

 Blake & Maysen

 Lincoln & Skye

 Skye & Lincoln

 Skye

 Lincoln

 Larkin, Skye, Ella

 Mike, Jorja, Preston, Maysen

watching Stockton's genius idea

 fail!

Mike tried to bribe Matt with $100 if he could make it across the pool on that ball fully dressed.  He didn't make it, but it was a worthy effort.

Porge!

 Larkin

 Mike throwing Preston

 Lincoln

 Skye

 Jorja

We played water wiffle ball.  That was fun!  It was Matt, Sam and my dad against Mike, Mike and me.

Sam batting, Mike pitching, Mike in the outfield on a jet ski

Our neighbors set off cool fireworks that we can see from our yard.  I love it because I hate going to firework shows.  Mostly I hate the drive home after the show.  Although one day I would love to see the show in Idaho Falls.  I hear that one is amazing.

Next week is Bubs' birthday.  I thought since there is a lot of family here that I would make him a cake.  I had another cake for all the June/July birthdays.  That was almost everyone else.  Sam, Mike, Christen, Matt and Ange.  The important thing is there was cake.

Bubs' cake

 Matt & Bubs

What a day!  Mike and his family left and are planning on driving to Vegas tomorrow.  Matt, Sam, Bubs, Lincoln and Ella all slept over. Matt, Bubs, Dad and I stayed up until 1:30 playing Dominion.  Bubs won the first game in a tie breaker with my dad.  I'm pretty sure Matt clobbered us in the next game.  I can't quite remember because it was getting very late.  I took my dad home and got back close to 2 am.  I took him in Mike's jeep.  When I got in the house I closed the garage door.  It wasn't until the morning that I realized I didn't close the garage door, I opened the door to the mini van garage.  So our garage doors were opened all night long.  Whoopsie.