Fourth of July

Uncle John & Cousin KevinMy wonderful sister Amy and her fabulous husband Andy
A&A's son Brian
A&A's daughter Kayla
Two shots of the fireworks side by side

After dressing up as patriotically as we could, Amy, Andy & I headed out to Old Poway Park for a 4th of July festival and train ride. It was another warm day, but totally pleasant sitting in the shade with a nice breeze. In comparison to the heat & humidity we get in Texas, it was "no sweat." The kids made some crafts and then we took a ride on the train that circles the park. We lucked out and ended up on one of the rides where there was a staged hijacking of the trains by the evil cowboys and an ensuing gunfight. It was quite entertaining and the actors assured the kids it was all pretend in the end. We watched them shooting off a cannon a couple of times which was very loud and watched a blacksmith working iron into dragon shapes. Grandpa Bill's brother John and his son Kevin were working as conductors on the train and took the boys up front into the locomotive car to see them stoking the fire. It's probably been over two decades since I've seen John, so it was quite a treat for us to get a photo and for the boys to meet another one of their San Diego relatives. Johnny and I ran in a two legged race and I jammed my pinkie toe really badly ... 10 days later it still really hurts to walk on. We won the race by a wide margin, but it was a painful victory for me. Andy made a delicious dinner for us on the grill - he is an excellent cook. Later, we headed over to Andy's parent's house to watch the fireworks from their back yard. It was a really nice display and pretty interesting to see their house rebuilt after it had burned down in the Witch fire last year. Thank you Chuck & Nancy for having us over ... it was great!