The 4th of July started with a bang. Our usual block party turned ugly when some thieves showed up and stole Raj’s boat. They could only push it as far as The Foley’s driveway. See pictures for the play by play as I caught them in action. Being good citizens, we admitted it was us who called the police. In shame, we voted ourselves off the cul-de-sac. This is all code for we had a wonderful 4th, complete with fireworks. Good thing Jon Ledesma (our Anaheim PD friend) didn’t show up.

Diane’s been planning it since Feb. On July 8th, she pulled off Keith’s surprise 60th birthday party. Word got out, so that even Marilyn Monroe showed up. There must have been 50 people who showed for good food, good fun and an all around wonderful celebration. I hope when I get THAT old, I’ll have a party like that too. Only kidding Keith – you’re the youngest looking 60 year old I know. Ok, you caught me – I don’t know many 60 year olds!

Last weekend, we took 2 of Lani’s friends (Noelle and Ginny) with us up to Big Bear to celebrate Lani’s 14th birthday. Cody was fortunate enough to have been invited to soccer referee camp (where he’s pretty much earned a grade higher license than what he previously held). That made Luke rounding out the foursome. I never knew 3 girls could be 1)so noisy and 2)so messy. If the noise and mess is any indication, they had a great time!

This weekend we go to the OC Fair to look for spas. We’re finally going to finish off the other half of the backyard, and this is long overdue. Then it’s The Kralich’s Beach Party. The next weekend is Luke’s big 14th birthday party. He’s invited about 40 kids, so wish us luck. I’m bringing in Keith as the bouncer. Then it’s Big Bear again with the Jessen’s and Robert’s. As the Haines’ are MIA, we’ll go to Las Vegas with them the week after that to celebrate our 29th wedding anniversay. That just about brings us to Lani starting OCHSA – Orange County High School of the Arts. The week after that Cody and Luke start Canyon – Cody as a senior and Luke as a freshman.

Got all that? Gotta keep up!

Another great vacation has come to an end. We just returned from a week at our condo in Nuevo Vallarta. We took Bernie with us and now he’s ready to move down there. We took no tours, just lounged by the pool, and went to dinner. Twice we went up to Bucerias and ate at tiny restaurants on the beach. Twice we went to Nick and Ashley’s favorite place – Fajita Republic. Not much else to say, except a very relaxing time.Â

To my joy, we were given the 3rd of July off, so this has stretched my one week off into a week and a half. This worked out good, as today, the workers came and put in the counter top for our new kitchen island. Yep – it will seat 8 all right. Come check it out next party. Kayleen, for you, glad you looked at the pictures. I’ll try to take more once the bar stools come in.

Everyone have a wonderful 4th of July!