Day 3 - Sunday 7/4

7:00 am - I am awoken by the sound of tables and chairs being put together.  Seems on Sunday morning they have an elaborate brunch at the hotel.  I'm just grateful they didn't start at 4:00 am.  Mom and I shower (not together) and dress.  We head for the restaurant and have a nice breakfast.  We then head off to the church.  On the way out of the restaurant, we pass my sister-in-law, looking frazzled and mumbling something about having to get breakfast for one of my brothers and their two kids.  She obviously hadn't showered yet and they were planning to go to church as well.  Now her two boys are just the sweetest little things.  They are 4 and 1 and if I have a favorite, its the 4 year old.  Mom asked her if she needs help, and she says no she's going to let my brother get them ready.

9:00 am - arrive at the church.  It's a non-denominational charismatic church.  My mother who has been to church probably 10 times in her life will be in for a treat.  In spite of my mother trying to take someone's purse (that's another story) I was quite proud of her. 

11:00 - we had cake and punch in one of the classrooms after church.  My cousin, the one with the 9 kids (home schooled and self-sufficient family), had her eldest daughter make the cakes, make the floral arrangements, played the harp and cleaned up afterwards.  I'm telling you, she's the next Martha Stewart!!

1:00 - My uncle was then going to take everyone out for lunch.  My brother (the one with the 9 year old) and I decided we were going to spend the next 2 days with our real father.  Now without going into a lot of details, our father has...let's say....been lacking in the father department.  He remarried when I was 9 and my brother was 4.  They had two boys and my brother and I had moved to Texas.  So he pretty much wrote us off.  But I told my brother that it is important that his son know his biological grandfather.  So the three of us skipped lunch and off to Baltimore we went.

2:30 - It started pouring rain.  We were hoping it wouldn't since I told dad that we wanted to watch fireworks.

3:10 - arrived in Baltimore.  Had a nice visit.  My nephew staked out the place thoroughly.  He found the Porsche in the garage that my dad drives in road rallies.  Well he started his little whiney act ..Dad, would pop-pop take me for a ride in the Porsche?  Dad agreed but insisted on waiting until tomorrow when the roads were dry.  Thank goodness.

5:00 - My half-brother and his live-in girlfriend arrived for dinner.  It stopped raining and we ate outside on the screened-in porch.  My half-brother brought fireworks some of which were illegal.  He had bought a case of them.  Well my nephew was in hog-heaven.  He kept telling my brother that Uncle Derek was cool!! 

dusk - Dad made the best pina colada's I've ever tasted.  We then went out in the culd-de-sac to set off the fireworks.  We would light a few...then run into the house for fear of the neighbors calling the cops.  But no one did.  We had fun.

Ahhhh alcohol and explosives.....Happy Birthday America!!

All in all we had a nice visit and I was in bed and asleep by 10:00 pm!!  YEA