diana enjoying the beautiful sunset before the show began- she was giddy with anticipation!
aves and tweets, still sporting their 4th of july antlers, having a blast with the sparklers!
tweets loved to just wave those sparklers around and enjoy the light stream they create!
bubba decided to double fist it- sparkle on, big man!
after the food is gone everyone still hangs out and just enjoys a bit of chatting.
remember those diet coke and mentos videos? well, squeegee brought a 2 liter and some candy to show everyone that cool trick!
the kids were amazed- and so were the parents! man, that stuff shot up about thirty feet in the air- very impressive!
bubba was finished swimming and had taken his towel to dry off. when he was sufficiently dry we found a fun way for him to wear it- looking good!
this was the funniest thing i saw all day: while enjoying the lake with a swimming noodle, aves and tweets started playing a game. they would submerge the noodle so that it got water inside the center hole then they would each put their mouths on an end and blow as hard as they could, causing one of them to get a face full of lake water! the thing is, aves never won a single time, but was more than willing to keep trying- wet face and all!
aves, ready for the parade, shows off her patriotic antlers!
tweets was excited about the parade, even though it may look like she is grimacing in pain...
some how adam found a video of us in 4th grade! well, we HAD to watch that together, right? oh, it was hilarious to see ourselves so little!
the dustman and myself, quite shocked at seeing everyone again after so long!
kristy and lauren, a couple of classmates the guys and i loved to torture! we sure were pests to the girls in our class- thankfully none of them seemed to still hold it against us... i think.
adam, aaron, and kevin just chillin out in the kitchen at the end of the night. we ended up staying there until almost 3:00am! now thats a lot of memories!
i wanted to take a picture of adam, who then insisted on holding up a random treat from the table. it looks lovely, adam, thanks. and thanks so much for the goofy idea of having an 18 year 8th grade reunion!
adam, our host, shares with everyone what he has been up to these past couple decades.
these two faces look pretty familiar... come to find out, staying close with your best friends from grade school is pretty unusual. dusty, aaron, adam and i have stayed close since our grade school days, but we seemed to be the exception. hardly any of the others in attendance have stayed in touch with their friends from that long ago. well, their loss!
of course the old kelloggsville yearbooks had to come out, right? with out them how could we properly make fun of our 8th grade pictures!
getting ready for the 'graduates today' shot. the surprising thing was seeing just how little each person changed. sure, we all got big and grown up, but those 13 year old faces are still in there!
first of all, let me just say that the bed in mom and david's guest room is the most amazing bed in the entire world! its an amazingly soft king sized bed that diana and i always look forward to sleeping in when we go to visit! the funny thing about this bed is that its really high, so poco has a really tough time jumping up on it! poor thing! so we actually bring in a chair from the dinning room and set it next to the bed so our stinky dog can make it up there. ridiculous, i know...
another job i got to take care of while i was there was a bit of regrouting the chimney to try and fix a leak. while i was up there i got a great view of the lake!
diana and poco surveying the work that had been done so far. i know, honey, its not that impressive so far, but you just wait!
the ceiling looked a ton better after it had been repainted!
slowly but surely the place starts to take shape. diana picked out a color the walls and i spent the next couple days putting up as much of it as i could. will the painting never end?!? get out of my dreams paint! 
the girls doin' their thing out on the dance floor! tim and i just watched and laughed along with them.
we were talking so much that the time just flew by! before we knew it they were calling for closing time. after seeing these games and rides so full just an hour or two ago, it was kind of strange to see everything so vacant! 
david and mom got this place so they could turn it into a rental property. my job, should i choose to accept it (which i did...) is to get this place in shape as soon as possible so they can start renting it out. the kitchen was disgusting and they wanted to replace everything in it, so it was my job to get rid of the old stuff.
the best part of any job: the demolition! i relieved a lot of stress that day, let me tell ya!
this used to be a kitchen, i'm pretty sure...
poco was being naughty at the house, so we brought him here to watch him. he didnt care for that one bit! he spent his time cowering by the wall- poor boy!
we couldnt wait for fathers day, so diana's mom gave david his gift a little early- this enormous fold out camping chair! ha! david is really tall, so it was hilarious to see him dwarfed by the size of this thing! of course we each wanted to take a turn in it, feeling kid sized again!
little baby mom!
little baby me!
the kids, who we only saw for a minute, at the water park at sandy pines. they had been there for about 4 hours by this time and were visably exhausted- nap time!
tim and jill's place at sandy pines is pretty close to mom and papa's, so when they were coming over for dinner, tweets decided to rollerblade on over- so cute!
grillin up some fantastic brats, yum!
back in the day aaron would sometimes come out with me to sandy pines when we were younger and we would have a blast driving around his remote controlled car in front of the cart as we would ride around the park. well, now they have a remote controlled course! sweet! i've already told aaron that he needs to dust off that old car so we can try this course out!
um... this is a door to the bathrooms at sandy pines. please note that the company that makes the walls and doors for bathroom stalls is called 'hiny hiders'. just let that sink in for a moment...
some how the kids always seem to have a few extra dollars show up when they get to the flea market (thats how we make sure we remain their favorite uncle and aunt!), so the kids usually get some fun little toy that they play with for the rest of the day. this time bubba got a cool gyroscope car thingy that we had a great time playing with when we got back!
diana and the girls went up in the loft to play while dinner was being made. those girls have such an active imagination- they could play up there with their auntie for hours!
every time i pull out my camera my mom groans 'why do you always put embarrassing pictures of us up on your blog? its time to put a picture of yourself up there!' so this is the picture mom took of us at dinner!
(this would be the kind of embarrassing picture my mother was talking about above. you are welcome!)
rex and freddie trying to make their best smiling faces. they both failed miserably...
allison and brains chillin out. i was a bit surprised brains didnt try to pull out his guitar and play some U2 for us- he's always trying to play U2, i think its his favorite band ever! (actually brains passionately hates U2, this is all a ploy to get him really mad at me...)
