Block Party!

So since the 24th of July is a holiday here in Utah, one of my neighbors had a great idea to have a block party. People always say that kind of thing would be fun and a great way to meet all the neighbors but then of course no one ever actually does it. I even thought of doing it myself as a way to try and meet everyone because it gets really uncomfortable to live by someone for a long time and you don't even know their names. I was thinking that maybe 30 people or so would show up for our Block Party but boy was I surprised. There were at least 100 people there. We had a potluck dinner and there was tons of food and it was all really tasty, I might add! Trust me, I ate way too much! We met so many new people, both members of our ward and non-members too. I'm happy about that because being in Memphis taught me how closed off LDS people can be to others who don't share their beliefs. But I've had lots of great friends who weren't LDS (even though I think they'd love it if they gave it a try!) and they were all really awesome. Anyways, after eating dinner we just chatted with everyone. The kids had a blast playing on the Atwood's swingset and they loved being able to ride their bikes and scooters right in the middle of the street (the city actually gave us permission to block off the entire block which I thought was cool). Lexi has a whole bunch of new girl friends that live on our block and Zack even found a new buddy, Gabe, who doesn't even call him a "crybaby." (long story about that!). I'm not sure why Gabe is wearing one gardening glove or why Zack has a plastic sword down the back of his shirt. It must just be a guy thing! I tried to make a point of meeting as many people as I could which is going out of my comfort zone a little. After all the chatting we had a great fireworks show. Everyone had brought a few fireworks to contribute and the show ended up going on for almost an hour! So the block party was a great success and I think everyone should consider hosting one in your own neighborhood. By the way if this post is a wee bit rambly it's because I'm writing it at 1:00 in the morning because I drank too much Cherry Coke last night. Ooops!