Today we celebrated my Uncle Gale's 50th birthday! Gale is my mom's baby brother. She is an only girl with 4 brothers- the oldest brother, Lee, and Gale (the youngest), are 20 years apart in age. Since Gale is a mere 9 years older than me, I remember playing with his hot wheels and other toys when we would visit grandma and grandpa. It was pretty cool having a young uncle! This is a picture of a picture, so it's not great, but these are the cousins from all the families on my mom's side except for Lee's family. L to R: Brenda, Debbie Diane, Dennis Jr. (Denny!), Shelly, ME, Don (Donny!!), Sharon, and Gale. I think he got lumped in with the cousins a lot!

My mom with her brothers:

This is a picture of the card my sister decorated for him. These are some of my favorite pictures:

He has driven race cars as long as I can remember and is still a regular driver at The Meridian Speedway:

There were quite a few people at this shindig. It was a simple lunch in Gale and Tracy's backyard with plenty of time and tables to just sit around and visit. My dad and Rob:

My mom with the birthday boy and Dennis:

My Aunt Pat was the grown up in my life that always gave me her undivided attention. They lived in Washington when I was growing up so we didn't get to see them very often, but I always looked forward to the times when she would look me straight in the eye and ask me what was going on in my life. Here she is with Ethan:

And with Spencer:

Rob isn't as crazy about my new camera because I can take pretty much an unlimited amount of pictures now!! He's getting a little tired of it:

And my brother-in-law, Dave, is just tired:)

Aunt Pat with cousin Brenda and her oldest son, Camden. It's hard to believe he's entering his last year of college!!

Gale and Tracy:

The kid's were all looking forward to swimming in Gale and Tracy's pool.

It was much more appealing to Ethan when he was forbidden to get in:

When permission was granted, he allowed Rob to put on his swimmies:

It's rare to see these two this close together without teasing on Rob's part and suspicion on Ethan's!!

Ethan wasn't too sure that this was a good idea:

Gloria tried to help, but he still wasn't convinced:

The kid's who could stand up and still touch the bottom had the advantage.

They all had a good time.

Ethan recovered from the experience by snuggling with Grandma:

Shelly is helping Zach design his room to resemble Endor:

This is a much more accurate look at Rob and Ethan's relationship:

Dave, threatening Gloria with a dunking, which is really no threat at all!!

Later, at home, we watched a storm roll in:

Gloria, dancing in the wind:

Gloria, running inside to beat the storm:

The brief summer storm:

Have I mentioned that I love my new camera????