Patriotic Pugmire Party!!!

We look forward to the Patriotic Pugmire Party every year.  Uncle Scott and Aunt Rebecca go to all kinds of work to make a wonderful party. It has loads of good food and good people.  This year we were excited to meet cousin Jen's sweet morsel of a baby!  Our meal is potluck which means everyone brings whatever they wish to share but there are a few expectations.  Some people get known for certain dishes, and of course you have to have homemade ice cream!  The kids enjoy playing while the adults chat.

  

Kids going for the football, McCoy on right

Having a laugh

Pa and Zany

Declan, Grandma and Zany

Declan holds the sweet baby with McCoy

Archy on bridge

Zany loves Uncle Gabe's chicken (an expected dish)!

Auntie Rebecca 

Zany checking out a real life baby!

Soon as it is dark it's firework time! Uncle Scott provides all kinds of amazing fireworks.  He supervises their launching and when the minions aren't doing it right he crosses the bridge to set them straight.  Of course, everyone gets to participate in the sparklers!

Archer

Nona and Pa

Zany

Quinton

Declan

Cousin Jen

McCoy

Possible the finale: Jeanine's Cheesecake!

(Ashlee's note:  Being the designated photographer for our family, I field lots of strange requests of "Take this picture for the Blog, of variuos random inanimate objects. I try to mostly get people in them. But as Mccoy said this dessert was so good,it should make the blog!" And indeed it was!)

Reigniting the Blogging Fire

Having taken a bit of a hiatus from blogging to due a lovely long vacation and also some general summer laziness.  I was determined to blog today.  The slight problem is that with Eddy's new iphone, that came along with his new job, all the photos taken lately have been on it and I can't quite figure out how to access them from here (my computer).  Eddy is a great IT guy but he went to a Diamondbacks (MLB baseball) and so is not here to help.  

For some reason I was able to access this short video Eddy took on our vacation.  I was kinda baffled why the crowds of people watched this volcano (guess where we went?) on their phones as they recorded it rather than just actually watching the volcano.  It was way more impressive watching it live.  Really what are you going to do with a recording of the volcano show anyway.  I told (read kindly suggested)  Eddy not to record it and just watch it (he did get a few moments as depicted by this brief video above).  We were so close you could feel the heat almost singe off your arm hair.  Once I can get into the photos I will do a proper post highlighting all the vacation/summer fun.  It will almost be like a slideshow that people used to do of their vacations back in the 1950's and 1960's.  

In other news, this summer has flown by faster than any other before it.  We only have about three weeks left before school starts--eek!  I really thought my whole house would have been cleaned out by now (my summer goal).  I have been trying to not be so uptight this summer and take more lazy summer days of swimming, napping, late movies and general laid backness.  Downside to lazy summer days  is projects just don't get done as quickly.  I haven't even crafted at all or worked on my sewing projects this whole summer.  I have a lot to cram in these last three weeks.  Don't worry I will make sure to include blogging on my to do list!  

For the Blog: Feats of Awesomeness

My favorite thing about summer is the amazing thunderstorms. I was sitting down to blog when a terrific storm arrived with fierce rain and booming thunder so I decided to take my blogging to the back porch where I could sit and enjoy it. It's a real gully washer!

Here are a few photos that the individuals requested taken to be immortalized on the blog.

This little radio flyer is Zany prefered mode of speedy transportation (if you want to see her zooming in a harry potter like photo on it just click the link), she sometimes drags it in the house and races around on it.  Archy spying her radio flyer decided I needed to capture him doing this amazing feat of balance. If you look closely you can see the concentration it takes on his face.  I wouldn't want to try doing it but Archy has catlike balancing skills.

Zen Archy

Declan is always one to jump in on any picture taking so he rustled up something worthy of the blog (in his opinion) and wanted me to take a picture. He is sporting an old man beard (old white tank top hooked on his ears) and looking very ponderous now he just needs some cronies. 

Old man Dec

Eddy and I planned a mini date of running errands Zany wanted to come along so Eddy dressed her up. She is wearing a dress with leggings and fancy sandals and even has a necklace and earrings too. Eddy is usually really good to brush out Zany's tangleriffic hair after a bath. I really like in this photo he styled her hair just like he wore it after a bath when he was a kid combed straight back.  She wanted me to take a picture of her before she left.

Fancy pants Zany