My dad’s mom turned 84 today, surrounded by a few of her kids and several  grandkids.  We were all there, of course, and Steve and the twins, Elizabeth and Felicia, came by.  They had boyfriends, which is crazy to me.  They’re both so tall, the girls, and they look so much like their mom.  They’re easier to tell apart now too.  Not only does Felicia have a necklace with her name on it (her cheat necklace), but they have different styles and haircuts now.

Bernie and his younger three came too: Alex, Harper and Hank.  We got to spend a good bit of time with them.  I say younger, but Alex is 17 now.  Yeesh.  And they’re all such great kids, too.

There was a big get together at the Quinn house today to celebrate the 4th of July, and Baba was able to go to it.  The Quinns only live one street over from her, but she doesn’t get around the best and Dad drove her over there.  There was food and swimming and babies (Milly and Addison) in floaties that their Mum Mum bought them.  One thing that was cool to see was Jackson playing with a kid his age that he hadn’t met before.  There were a lot of people there, some I knew, some I didn’t.  All the Quinn girls were there.  Becky’s got kid #2 on the way.

Milly ate all kinds of food.  She particularly loved the deviled eggs, which is most definitely something she got from her mom.  She also enjoyed potato salad, cookies and cupcakes on top of having her first drink from a straw.  Kind of.  It was a juice box and I think she was getting the juice more by squeezing the box then from sucking it through the straw.  But whatevs.

There was a bit of a conundrum with going to a fireworks show.  Amanda wanted to go just to do something, but there was nobody to watch Milly.  I mean, Baba was going to be home, but she couldn’t get upstairs on the off chance that she’d need to get to Milly.  Adam and Renee volunteered to stay, and Adam even insisted on it, but by then I think Amanda was fine with not going.  On top of that, hers pants were still drying and as bad as the bugs have been biting and considering that we’d be out in a field, wearing shorts wouldn’t have been a good idea.

After Andra, Josh and Jackson left with our car, Amanda and I put Milly down.  She didn’t want to go down at first so I walked her around a little bit and even took her out front when she indicated that she wanted to go out there.  She saw her first fireworks over the treetops out there.  I don’t think she knew quite what to make of them.

Adam, Renee, Amanda and I played Puerto Rico.  Amanda won, yet again.

Zach Dotsey