July 4th at the Clark Family Barbecue

If you didn't get to attend the annual Clark Family 4th of July

barbecue- this post is for you.

But if you did get to be there-

then feel free to add your two cents worth of

stories and highlights of the night :)

So I am going to start my post again with the

real image that should appear at the top

of the page.

2010- Mike's backyard.

Plenty of "cold ones" to go around and tons

of really good food-

potato salad- just like Grandma Clark used to make,

Mike's marinated 1 inch steaks from Golden Corral,

brats and pink frosted triangle donuts.

Bocchi ball and hacky sack.

Kim F. being helpful and asking Grammy-

"Can I get you something to drink?"

Grammy, "Oh, anything wet."

Kim gives her a one eyed, tilted head look,

and Grammy quickly sputtering,

"I mean, well, almost anything wet."

We all get a good laugh at this, Kim almost

got to give her a beer. He would have loved that :)

(me too! she never wants to make up her own mind,

wants someone else to do it. This might have cured her:)

Brandon was there with Nancy and Kim W.

He has officially moved back from Tacoma.

Nancy was in heaven- to have two of her kids

near to her again. She just glowed.

Jeromy and Mike were there. No kids. No women.

Two lonely boys who have nobody.

They work in Rexburg during the week and drive home

each weekend. Some weekends they get their boys.

Sad.

Dustin and Jenny came with their dog Bella,

which they emphatically exclaim they named

before Twilight became a phenomenon.

Yea, whatever :)

Dustin got accepted to school to become an x-ray tech.

Jenny is having a baby in February.

Never say never.

Travis came with "Jessie"

his date for the night.

No kids. No Wendi.

Jessie.

She had a tatoo of a handgun above

her right bosom.

A handgun.

handgun.

gun.

I had to keep looking to see if it really was a handgun.

Yep.

A handgun.

snicker.

She was real good at hacky sack.

Danny and Michelle came with their

three/four kids.

three= theirs

fourth=brothers baby (9 months) who they are guardians of until

brother and girlfriend get their acts together.

possibly another 8 months.

They've had him 3 months now.

Can you imagine having to give that baby back to

potentially unfit parents?

Me either.

They can't even think about that right now.

Danny's youngest son- Ashton

told us all excitedly about how his hamster died

and they had a funeral for it.

They wrapped it in a wash cloth and tied a ribbon

around it and buried it. But first they said

some real nice things about his hamster.

He was thrilled with this impromptu funeral.

Tommy and Sophie spent the day with Sophie's fam.

Brad woke up sick, so he, Ash and Mags didn't come.

Sierra and Stevie came, ate, and listened into

the conversation for a bit. Sierra was dying for

Lisa to come so she could hold Will.

But then they got a better offer of seeing

"Letters to Julia" with Chris and Sydney.

Poor Stevie. First "Eclipse" on Friday, now

"Letters..." on Saturday. I told him, he needed to take

Sierra to a really manly movie soon. "A Team"

"YEA" he says. Sierra gives me the evil eye and they leave.

Then of course Lisa, Josh and kids arrive.

Their kids, Danny's kids and one of Kim F. sisters

grandkids are the only kids there. So weird.

Mallory sees Bella. Freaks. Sits on my lap

for awhile. I convince her that Bella is a nice dog.

She finally agrees to go see the dog if Grandpa will take her.

The other kids are with Bella and petting her,

so it's not long that Mal will pet her- only on the rump.

A one swipe across the rump pet.

Dustin lets Bella loose and Mal is now following her

swipe/petting her rump all over the yard

repeating over and over,

"Bella, Bella,Bella,Bella,Bella,Bella,Bella........"

Soon she is playing with the other kids, chasing

poor Bella and acting like she has loved dogs all her life.

Even after Dustin, Jenny and Bella leaves you'd find

Mallory, "Bella, Bella,Bella,Bella,Bella,Bella,Bella........"

She just liked saying that she told us when we informed

her that Bella had left :)

Soon we are telling stories that I should number

so we could say, "remember story number 22?"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

We tell the same stories every time we get together.

"Remember when Kimmie kicked a hole in Marla's

basement wall so she could hide in it when we played

hide and seek? Marla never knew about that hole for

15 years! We always put a dresser in front of it to hide it!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

"Remember when Carolyn ran Eddie down with her bike

and broke his collar bone? We just propped him up

on the couch until Mom and Dad came home from their

vacation a few days later!

She told him to move out of her way!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Same stories, but we all still laugh at them

and love to hear them over and over.

I look forward to our family 4th of July celebration

every year. I love these people. Some things have

changed so much. It almost hurts to think of those

who are no longer a part of the family.

And yet some things are exactly the same.

I can't wait until the Christmas party!

Don't forget to bring the wooden spoon so we

can break the pinata!