Anne Was Here!: Big BBQ

The day of my visit to the DMV and out trip to Thanksgiving Point was a very busy one, indeed.  That evening, we had a BBQ here at our house with my little family, Anne and her three kids, and each of our three brothers, their wives, and all of their children.  There were 25 of us in all and the only people missing from our family were my parents and Anne's husband.  What a bunch of party poopers!  We got over their absence, though, and had plenty of fun without them.

Dinner was easy for us...we did a pasta salad (made the night before), prepped the chicken, and made a big cooler of lemonade.  Everyone else brought veggies, fruit, and dessert.  Max was the grilling master and while he took care of business, we took several pictures of all of the grandkids together, the three brothers, the five sisters-in-law, and the five of us awesome siblings.  I do wish that the aforementioned absentees could have been here so that we could have taken pictures of everyone.

Pics of all the grandkids, the brothers, the sisters-in-law, the granddaughters, the grandsons, and the five siblings.

We don't always behave for the camera.

Best picture of the night...me and the BEST sister in the whole world.

After picture taking was done, the three brothers got up on the trampoline and the kids took turns being "bounced" high into the air.  A few of them were up over Matt's head at their peak...and he's 6'7" so they really got up there!  At the end of the pre-dinner fun, two of my sisters-in-law decided to let the guys have a go at them and unfortunately, my brother Dave's wife, Jeanette, ended up with what was diagnosed the next day as a nasty case of whiplash.  She could barely walk and was in a lot of pain.  Poor thing spent the evening laid out on our bed with her legs propped up on several pillows (my hubby is seriously a pro at this thanks to the many times he helped me when I was laid up with back problems).  We all helped take care of their baby girl (6 months old?), my sister fed Jeanette dinner since she couldn't sit up, and everyone went in and visited her off and on throughout the night.

In addition to just getting together for dinner, it happened to the birthday of Matt's middle child/daughter, Abby (she's the one in the bright green).  They brought very tasty red velvet mini cupcakes for the kids and red velvet cake from Costco for the adults. Yummy!!  It was great to combine an already fun get together with her big day.

Just over a week after this big BBQ, Dave and his family moved across the country to Connecticut so this was our last big hurrah for a while.  We're all planning on meeting up in Newport Coast, CA next summer but as my mom says, "Life is what happens while you're making plans."  I just hope that the whole family (and I mean everyone!) can be there next year.