July

Independence Day

We spent the long Independence Day weekend at home. I bought a new badminton/volleyball set, since our old one was totally destroyed, and a new tetherball. We set those up, along with horseshoes, and built real pits for the horseshoes. I bought some small prizes at the grocery story and we had a badminton tournament--double elimination so everyone got to play more than one game. I love badminton, despite the fact that I suck!

We didn't attend the fireworks party on July 3 that we usually go to because it was raining. By the time it was late enough for the fireworks, it had cleared but now it was too late to get to our friends' home in time for the show. We live very close to the fireworks, but they can't be seen from our yard due to the enormous trees. So Daryl and the kids jumped the fence and walked onto the golf course at the metropark across the road where the fireworks were being held, where they had a great view. I stayed home with the little ones, who were in bed (it doesn't get dark in our neck of the woods till 10pm at that time of year). I attempted to see the fireworks from the yard, and from a 2nd story window of our house, but couldn't.

On the 4th, we had our own fireworks show. In recent years we've purchased a small set, which our oldest has set off with Daryl's supervision, and oohed and aahed over all those bottle rockets. This year, however, we were driving through Illinos in June, which boasts warehouses full of fireworks that aren't legal in Michigan. Seriously, we shopped in a Costco sized warehouse full of fireworks. We bought 2 large sets, one of which we set off at our family reunion in late June. We also bought several individual mortars. The sets were basicallly bigger versions of what we'd done before, just a lot MORE bottle rockets. The mortars were really cool fireworks that went up high in the air! They scared the pants off poor Daryl but the rest of us loved them! We have enough bottle rockets left for several more years, we'll just need to supplement with a few mortars.

Sold!

On July 6, Daryl closed a business deal that we had been waiting for a long time. He sold a small company that he co-founded with a colleague to a much larger company. This was very exciting news for us. It means we will be able to complete some major home renovations that we have dreamed of. The next day, he left for China and Japan for a week. I spent the week completing our vacation preparations.

Reunion

The evening he returned from his trip to Asia, we hosted a gathering of some of our old college cronies. My dear friend J., one of my 2 freshmen college roommates, always comes to Michigan in the summer and she and her husband and daughters always come for a visit and spend the night. I had recently reconnected with our other roommate (see my post titled Serendipity) after 19 years, so she and her husband came over and the 3 of us (we lived in a "converted triple" which means a dorm room designed for 2 people into which they cram 3!) were all together for the first time in 20 years! Several other old friends were here also, and we had a lovely dinner.