The Greatest Bonfire Ever!!

We had our annual luau and bonfire birthday bash the end of July.
It was a smashing hit this year!

Here's Kait making her famous facial expressions,
dressed up for the occasion in her Hawaiian shirt.

Here's the whole gang. Don't we all look so festive!

Grandpa and Grandma enjoying watching the limbo and high jump.

How low can you go?!

I think Gichin had the hardest time, being so tall!

Dani had an unfair advantage!
A few of us were able to hang in there quite a while with her.

Next was the high jump, which I didn't even attempt in my skirt.
(Though I can't jump very high anyway!) Brooke and the boys were pretty impressive though.

Then the long awaited bonfire. We only have one about every other year or every 3 years. It takes us that long to fill up our pit in the back yard. It had been 3 years this time and we had quite the pile. TJ loves fire, and especially gas with fire! I think he put about a gallon of gas on the whole thing then started it with a gas soaked rag.

The fire started out small, then slowly spread around the outsides.
The all of the sudden there was a huge, ground shaking bomb and it exploded up!

We were not expected it at all and scared us all.
We think after the fire spread around the outside all the gas fumes went to the middle and when the fire hit the middle...it just exploded! It was very exciting!

Here we all are after the fire had died down a little.

I love the flames and coals.

So, the big ground shaking bomb must have alarmed some of our neighbors. And even though my dad had notified the fire department, about 5-10 minutes after the bomb a cop car pulls into the field behind our house. And then a few minutes after that we see some fire engine lights coming down the street! The small fire engine pulled into the field next to our house, shouting and asking if they could get in this way.

We just all stood around, not knowing what to do, and told them there was no way in and that we were just fine! Then it got even better when we saw the lights of the big fire engine coming down the street and pull up in front our our house.

Even the local newspaper had showed up for the story! Luckily they were all very understanding, and now we know to not only call the fire department but the police department as well next time!

After the excitement had calmed down, we enjoyed roasting marshmallows and eating smores.

Grandpa was the champion marshmallow roaster!