Ok, we’ve been away for quite some time so I have a lot to write about. On June 30th we hosted a Backyard BBQ Party. Josh had smoked 4 pork butts!!! And we also had lots of smoked chicken. The event was potluck, we provided the meat, buns and condiments (four kinds of BBQ sauce), and pink lemonade. We ended up with all kinds of decadent desserts! My sister Sarah and her hubby Scott came down from Ames and there were several couples from Josh’s work and families from Josh’s church, and our realtor’s family, and eventually Rose and Sammi made it up from Des Moines. In the end, icluding ourselves I think we had a turnout of about 48-50. We ate and visited–everyone mingled well, the kids played in the blow-up pool (which I’d cleaned out and refilled the day before) and played with water balloons and even got to go to the playground for a bit. The last people left between 10:30 and 11pm–after watching fireworks from the deck off the back of our house. Then we cleaned up and finished packing for the week ahead.
Saturday, July 1st, we got up, packed the van, got gas and hit the road (almost at our planned time)! We arrived in Muscatine around noon with just enough time to get the kids some lunch and stuff before running down to Eversmeyer Park for Elena’s first birthday party. She had a pretty good turnout for her party too. Even Becky (”at the beach” formerly Baguley) made it all the way from Charleston, SC. Elena wasn’t completely taken with her cupcake (she doesn’t really like many sweets yet) but she loved her presents! She especially enjoyed playing Pick’emup with her uncle Steven. I’ll add some pictures to this once I get them downloaded. After Elena’s party Josh took the kids over to his folk’s house to visit and I went out with Becky and Danaka. We had a swim in Danaka’s pool and then a yummy Peking dinner. There really is nothing like their egg rolls. I was ready to crash when I got back to my folk’s house, but instead Josh and I stayed up talking with my parents until around 1-1:30. Sunday morning Josh got up and took all the kids to church while I went through boxes of things with my mother that she has had stored in her attic for years that she wants to clear out. The “gummy lump” took all morning to go through and I barely got showered before Josh came back to get me to go to his folks’ for lunch. Jenny and Chad were off on their first anniversary, but Jason “big” Elise and Charly were there along with “big” Elise’s brother Josh. After lunch we ‚ played dominoes until Laura’s going away party was about to start and we needed to leave to meet my relatives at “Wayne’s” for ice cream. We were running behind as usual and by the time we got there people were starting to disband so we ate our ice cream quickly and then ‚ drove on to Coralville where we were spending the week with the Wheelers. Look for the next installment of last week coming soon to a blog near you!