More 4th of July Please!

First off, apparently Justin is going to start reading these... or so he says. That'll be quite interesting. BUT I cannot let that change anything! So I will continue to write free style. It is, of course, the only way to right a blog.

SO... the 4th of July! Oh man I've been WAITING for this day for such a long time. Every year I kind of forget about the magicalness that this day brings. I always forget how much fun I have and how many of my friends I get to see. I fail to remember that I run in to a million of people I knew in high school... and then some. Like people from Wells Fargo?? Trippy. Anyway, back to "the day". I got to accompany Justin and the fam to Joe's brother's 50th birthday bash. I would have to say this is the sweetest thing I've ever seen a family do. It makes me want to start a tradition... although being a twin, the tradition would last about mmm... 5 minutes. Great. WELL what this family does is all the kids (12 of them, excluding the birthday boy/girl) and the parents (holy Hannah they are getting old!) write letters to the birthday boy or girl when they turn 50. And it can be about anything. People cry, people laugh, and there are solemn faces and faces that look proud. It is quite the theatrical display. Everyone is in the back yard because, well frankly not that many people can fit comfortably in the house. Think of it: 13 siblings, almost all have spouses, those families have kids, and those kids have spouses and kids! Let's just say it was a very crowded event! But that's typical in the Knapp family. So the birthday kid sits up front with their parents and then there is an extra chair for the letter reader. Apparently they usually go in order from oldest to youngest, but they did it in reverse because the younger children always get the shaft because of time constraints. Yep. I said it. TIME CONSTRAINTS. And they aren't joking! Some of these letters are novellas! But the whole thing really made me want a big family yet again. Who knows, maybe I'll have a litter of children so they can do this for one another as they grow up. What's crazy about this whole thing is
1) The parents are still alive- they are already in their 90's
2) The first daughter Claudia was 22 years old when Henry, the 12th child, was born. That means Liz, the 13th and final, was born when she was 26!!! Talk about decades of difference!
3) They only have one child left to hit 50. Woah. Still baffles me how they could have so many kids
That took up most of the day. Not that that was a bad thing. We ate twice and hung out and I got to see people I haven't seen in several years due to the fact that I was outrageously single and no longer able to attend family events. So welcome back me, it's good to be back. :) haha

After our very long stay at Papa Knapps (no, I really won't call him that EVER), we made it out to see my family! And what a surprise when I walked in the door! My nieces Ashley and Sophie were there! I never really get to see them so it was wonderful that my parents were babysitting. Ashley I don't think likes me very much. She hadn't cried the WHOLE time and I walk through the door and say hello and she bursts into tears! She hate me! She must see it in my eyes that she scares me. I mean granted she is a few months old, but she can sense my fear. Oh babies. What to do with them. But Sophie! I know she likes me because she gave me a tootsie roll out of her candy bag. And that means a whole lot considering my dad said that she hasn't let it out of her sight since the parade earlier that morning. A-dor-a-ble. Man. Well, we didn't stay long because it was already getting late and we had a few more stops to make.

Next on our list was the wonderful Flemings. The main reason for that was because we wanted to see Sarah and Phil before they moved all the way to Sunny California. That feels like a world away! The only time I've even BEEN in Cali was in the airport on my way to Hawaii. It doesn't have very good connotations with me though. I basically spent that time in LAX puking and trying to sleep on the floor with a TERRIBLE migraine from either all the flight/lights or restaurant food that has too much MSG. Either way, no bueno for me and my memories of California. But I'm sure they'll have a good time. They just need to avoid those treacherous airports. The added bonus to visiting these two was that I got to see her parents! I love love love love them. Justin and I are thinking about hanging out with them more often. They may be parents, but they are the one of the coolest ones.

FINALLY after a very long day we made it to the 4th of July carnival in Delano. YES YES YES! I won't go into detail of everything we did, but I think a list would work well for this story. Funnel cake: YES! Cheese curds: YES! Zipper: YES! Zipper for the second time: YES! Awesome fireworks: YES! Tons of friends: YES! Running into the millions of people you know: YES! Everything about it was wonderful. Nobody got sick, (well, except for miss pukey from the Zipper. Thanks for aiming for the ground... where we walk. Nice aim) nobody got angry, everyone loved the fireworks (really they were to die for, the finale was different the years past, but it was better. I was impressed). So that was my 4th of July adventure. Busy, exhausting, but oh so worth it.

Since the event of the 4th, I was able to make very tasty cookies for Corie and Karrah who just moved into an adorable apartment in Uptown. It was so pretty and really big with nice wood floors and cozy rooms. I will be a frequent visitor in that apartment.

OH! And i'm finally an OFFICIAL bridesmaid in Jen's wedding. I mean, I always have been but I finally have a DRESS. Now I won't be naked and ashamed. Lol. Okay, I'm being dramatic. But still...

Justin and I basically went on our first official date. Although he'll deny it until he dies. Isn't he precious? We went to Hopkins super cheap theater to see Robin Hood. Not as bad as I was thinking. Either way, he bought my ticket and we thoughtfully chose seats (almost say in the love seat seating but... I decided it was weird and NOBODY sits in those...) and I got to eat candy. What a great date! Lol.

Final note: Lynx won their game last night! If you need to ask who the Lynx are, don't bother. It's not worth knowing. Go Lynx!

Amy