One of the nice things about being at our home in Washington State is that we get to celebrate birthdays, holidays, and other special occasions with our family that lives out here (our son Mark and his wife Kristy, their son Conner and his wife Caroline and their toddler Leeland, and right now, also Mark and Kristy’s daughter Tory who is a missionary in Mexico but on stateside assignment right now due to the Covid pandemic).
Traditionally, our celebration of this all-American holiday includes grilled burgers for supper, and sometimes homemade ice cream. It always involves games of some sort as well.
Badminton set was hubby’s Father’s Day gift from Mark and Kristy.
Even the sodas are traditional (little bottles of Coke, cream sodas, root beer, etc.)
Before Leeland went to bed, he asked Grandy to read “Danny and the Dinosaur,” the actual book that Mark (Grandy) loved to read when he was a little boy in Licking, Missouri. I brought the book to WA, and for some reason Leeland fell in love with it (cut from the same cloth as his Grandy?)...we think one thing that fascinates him is that the book has a totally different “look” to it than his other books of current times...
The grandkids wanted to “help” Grandad make the homemade ice cream. Tory said she loved being out there on the patio while Grandad was making the ice cream, because it brought back special memories of that activity as she was growing up. Grandad enjoyed visiting with the “kids” out there. Special times.
Wow, we all agreed that was about the best ice cream ever! It’s my recipe from years ago and, frankly, it is delicious.
We finished out the evening with a game of “Balderdash” before the whole town of Ridgefield went crazy with very loud and booming fireworks, around 9:30. It woke up Leeland, and it was scary for him until we all assured him it was okay. It was noisy but pretty. He said, “It’s fireworks.” “Leeland’s not scared.” He looked out the sliding glass door and said, “It’s sparkly.”
In the end, in the end, we just enjoy being together, and we all believe family times are simply the best times. We are thankful.
#IndependenceDay #FamilyTime #FamilyLove #Badminton #homemadeicecream
