4th of July Weekend!

Happy 4th everyone!  I love this country we live.  We had a terrific weekend.  Everyone had arrived that was coming to my house for the pre-reunion activities.  27 people were at my house, with the other 7 staying in near-by hotels.  Lois, Sam, and their families, my parents and Sheldon arrived that weekend.  Sam arrived Sunday with the others arriving Saturday night.

With lots of people at my house I was very grateful for late church!  Our meetings start at 1pm.  It worked great with so many people here.  And thanks to Deb and her fun beads it was a very peaceful Sabbath morning. 


We took some pictures before and after church.














The main point of the pictures was to get a picture of each grandchild present with Grandma and Grandpa Bartholomew.  Somehow we missed Clark?  Oops!  We need to get some of our kids with their Robertson grandparents this summer.










After church we went down to the JMU arboretum.  I've actually never been there before.  It's very pretty.  We need to go back for a family walk.





Out of order, but that night Makenzie and Rebecca did a Personal Progress project by doing a young women preview for the girl nieces in primary.  They wouldn't let us come to the meeting, but they had opening/closing songs and prayers and it just sounded so cute!  They had refreshments too! 




We enjoyed hanging out after church, visiting and eating.




There are a few birthdays in July and I handed out some presents.  Alyssa  was just baptized on Saturday!  (The girl with the presents in front of her.)


The awesome pile of shoes!


4th of July came!  Sheldon, Lois and Jeff arrived at the park early so Sheldon could do the 5K run.  He came in first!  I ran three miles that morning just here by my house.  We all met up that morning at a park for a tri-unit 4th of July breakfast.


It's always a fun event and I enjoyed the program too.




These cousins had such a great time together.  Keith is part of the little group too...not pictured.




That afternoon Deb, Matt and Sheldon took a group of kids to the Grand Caverns.  The kids had free admission--yep--thanks to the library program!  Lee and I packed up for our upcoming trip. 




That evening we had dinner at the park.  It was raining most of the day so I was worried that we wouldn't even be able to use the shelter we reserved and paid for.  But the rain died down and we had a lovely evening at the park.




Clark and Lee bought fireoworks and we had fun setting them off in the parking lot.






We saw fireworks that night in Harrisonburg. By then a few families had taken off.  Lee and I stayed up late to finish packing and cleaning before our trip.  I stayed up much too late!  But we got done what we needed.  Hope you all have a terrific 4th!  Stay tuned for the rest of our travels!