a Ficenec pre-4th of July

After our all-day road trip out to Eastern Oregon, we got to spend a day relaxing with Mary's relatives - another 10 'cousins' to see.  The day was nice (and unusually, for Eastern Oregon - not-hot), so we spent most of it out on the deck and in the back yard.

The older folks mostly sat around and talked.

The rest of us played games a bit.

Fortunately for Sean, there was another boy ablout his age - Clayton - who brought some toys along to share.

They had a great time with a few finger rockets - spending a couple hours running around the back yard, shooting them into the trees and bushes...

...and at each other!

Unfortunately, the trees would tend to 'eat' them, and it would take someone as tall as Uncle Tony with a broom to get them back.

Then, Uncle Tony got started on the barbeque.  He had a bit of help, but that was a lot of meat to prep for the smoker.

Tony brought his smoker grill out, and he did the cooking.

A man and his grill...

The meat, when done, was added to the rest of the pot luck, and a feast was had by all.

The meal was bigger than the kitchen!

Sean, like Robb, likes his meat, and decided he needed to try a little of everything.

So what's here for someone who doesn't like meat...?

After dinner, it was time for the kids to let off a few fireworks.  Oregon doesn't allow much in the way of personal fireworks - a few smoking ones, a few fountains, and noise-makers, but no real fire-works...  The kids had fun with poppers and some snakes.

Still, when it got dark, cousin Nick got to set off what fountains we & Tony had.

It was fun!

And the crowd went wild...

It was a long, and tiring day - but a good one!!