Family and fireworks

The farm in Ohio has been in the Boggess family for decades now and has been the scene of many holiday gatherings over the years. For the 4th of July, my parents revived that tradition with an invitation to all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. My family calls it “the lake house” and after we all spent Christmas there it feels like a second home. I think we were all eager to share it with the rest of the family, so we parked the bus in Albuquerque and flew back for the occasion.

It was fantastic! All of my aunts, uncles, and cousins on the Boggess side were able to make it – close to 70 of us! It’s been years since we had that many Boggesses in one place. We took full advantage of our time, catching up with everyone and trying to keep up with the kids. Well, mostly the kids just had the run of the place. Imagine a small pack of Indians with a strong sense of adventure, insatiable appetites, and volume that goes to 11 coupled with a lake, rowboats, Nerf guns, bean bag toss, and a zip line into the lake and you’ll get the picture.

Did I say zip line? Yes, I did. We’d been talking about it for a couple of years but just never made it happen. On Friday morning, my brother and I were standing at the top of the hill with my cousin Rich, looking at the lake, and someone said, “Wouldn’t it be great to have a zip line into the lake?” “Yeah, but where would you anchor the cable?” Aaaand, next thing you know we’re at the hardware store and the weekend was well on the way to reaching epic status!

We capped the family festivities with an awesome fireworks display on the lake Saturday night. Afterwards, we lit sparklers and let the kids (yeah, the kids…) throw firecrackers into the campfire. It was really an excellent weekend!