Happy (belated) Fourth of July!

Yesterday was tons of fun as we packed up our stuff and headed to the beach! Dan's been to the beach before, of course, but this one was a little bit different--lake instead of ocean, wind instead of calm, chilly instead of balmy. We didn't get in the water (you can see from the pictures that it was a little choppy and probably very cold), but we had a great time just hanging on the sand with the family. Dan and I met a lot of relatives and I still don't have completely have all the relationships straightened out, but I'm working on it.

The beach house is owned by Zach's great-aunt, Auntie Bear, his mother's father's sister. That's the one relationship that I do have figured out! So there were many great aunts (great-great-aunts to Dan) and second and third and probably even fourth cousins there, in addition to the normal crew of Mary Ellen's siblings and their families. Lots of people to squeeze Dan's cheeks and tons of great food made for a very pleasant Fourth of July!

We headed back into Buffalo before the fireworks and bonfire, which might not even have gone off because of the wind. There were a few people with fireworks in the city, but they didn't seem to keep Daniel up. He was so tired out that he probably didn't hear a thing!

Dorothy, Gus, and little Deirdre, enjoying the not-so-balmy July beach weather:

Dan, having fun in the sand:



With his old pal, Jean, then with Big Deirdre, then with Andrew:



And one last one of the patriotic pals, Dan and Jack (you have no idea the jumping around I was doing to get them both to sit still and laugh, but it paid off):