Just like the old days ...

I didn't realize it at the time, but last Sunday marked 11 years for us in our neighborhood.  Its been a great 11 years.  I'm grateful for the amazing neighbors and friends we've made over the years.  We feel so blessed to have this "framily" in our lives.  Our friends really are like family to us and our kids.  After our tailgate, we had lots of leftover pulled pork so we invited our friends over for a spontaneous afternoon dinner, just like old times.   The first few years we were here, we often spent time on Saturdays or Sunday afternoons relaxing in the yard with a simple barbecue or dinner.  With these gatherings we watched the kids grow up and we felt at home.  Since then, we've all had more kids, we've all gotten busier, we've made additional friends and life has just gotten busier so we don't hang out like this as often as we used to so this dinner brought me back to that simple time in our lives. 

 Also makes me glad we never put in a fence because it was fun for the kids to be able to play in our yard and the Walkers (even though they weren't home) and for the "big boys" to play football.

 Just relaxing with friends ... this is what life is about. 

  

 Wow - now that is a lot of girls!  And its not all of them either!  The group who was here.  Hansons, Becks, Gormans, Chilcotes, DeRoests, Bowens, us - 7 families. Break down the kids ... 14 girls, 9 boys ... of the 23 kids, 2 boys are teenagers, the rest are 12 or younger!   (Plus Taylors snuck in for a bit at the end after their family commitments).  Good times!

Steve and our neighborhood celebrity look-alike ... he calls her Cameron more often than he calls her Paige.  (Cameron Diaz ... but not sure this picture shows it that well).

I love this little guy ... major hunk.  He was so content to wander around yard, munch on Taylor's cheetos and watch everyone else. 

Ahh... the joys of summer days ... (ok, so its almost fall, but it sure felt like lazy days of summer).