Fun With Sparklers

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Kyle & Kate

At the house in Michigan, we had a bunch of fireworks to light off on the fourth of july. The older kids, Chris (13) and Mitch (10), were really into the big explosives and spraying tubes and crazy displays. Tommy and Kate, who are only 3 years old were very reserved. Their dads helped them with a sparkler, but they didn’t seem to be into it much at all.

The middle kids? All they wanted were more FIRE STICKS.. aka, sparklers. More, more, more! Light it on fire! I don’t think they even cared about the big fireworks. Just the sparklers and the snake fireworks, which they loved because they thought it looked like poo. POO ON FIRE! Oh, and those little snap things you throw on the ground. I’m afraid we may have turned Ben into a pyro. After the sparklers were all gone he just wanted to light things on fire. Have fun with that back home in California, Kyle & Winnie!

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Ben

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Derek

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Derek

Down by the Lake

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Ben

Aunty Peggy and Uncle Neil’s house in Michigan reminds me a lot of my parent’s house in Wisconsin. Both are situated up on a hill with the driveway coming into the front of the house. In the back, both houses walk out on the lower-level basement to a yard that slopes down to a body of water. At my parent’s house there’s a pond that is surrounded by thick woods and is home to a lot of wildlife. At Peggy & Neil’s there’s a lake with a small sandy shore and you can swim and boat.

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Kate

Uncle Neil told me he’d just gotten more sand poured recently. The kids loved this. Tommy didn’t want to get wet or dirty. He told the other kids to get him buckets of water from the lake. Then he had them set the buckets down by him and so Tommy could dump them in the dump truck. Tommy is destined to manage the family business some day!

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Tommy

Naoko and Heather were up at the house making dinner for that night. Most of the other non-golfers were just lounging around. With the kids it was actually still relaxing. It was when all the golfers got home that things got loud and crazy.

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Tommy, Aunty Peggy, Caroline, Kenji, Cory

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Aunty Laura, Aunty Glenna, Caroline, Tommy, Kate

Kenji was lounging too. This is a rare moment for him. Usually he screams bloody murder when he is not by his mom, Naoko. And not just by her, she has to hold him. It’s worse when he can see or hear her and she’s not holding him.

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Kenji

This is Trixie:

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She loves to do this:

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And remember Tommy? Who didn’t want to get wet? Trixie did this to him.

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We all saw it coming, but Tommy was shocked. Then he started to giggle.

Kids on the Lawn

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After the Camp Fukuda photos, Uncle Neil went to the shed to get out his riding lawn mower. Not to mow the lawn, but to give the kids – Mitch, Ben, Kate, Hideto, Derek & Tommy – a in the ride in the trailer that was attached.

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The kids loved it!

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I think Uncle Neil may have liked it more!

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– – – – – – –

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Caroline & Mitch :: Brighton, MI

Dallas and I spotted these familiar tubes in Aunty Peggy & Uncle Neil’s garage. It was the same ladder golf game that my dad made for us. Aunty Peggy said that someone made it and gave them the game but they never played it before. Dallas and Mitch, who’d played at our house before, set the game up and we showed everyone how to play. Aunty Peggy and I won 5 games in a row before she purposely lost so that she could go refill her wine!

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Chris & Dallas :: Brighton, MI

2009 Camp Fukuda

After golfing we headed over to Aunty Peggy and Uncle Neil’s house. For the last two July Fourth holidays Dallas’s family has gotten Camp Fukuda tshirts made and then taken family photographs in them.

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Trying to assemble 25+ people can be maddening. People walk off.

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Other people pose together.

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Kids run around.

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Finally. Only Heather and I are missing. Heather was setting up her camera on a tripod so I took that time to make my own photo. There’s a photo floating around somewhere that has all of us.

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Back: Caroline, Aunty Glenna, Uncle BB, Jeff, Cory, Chris, Caroline, Danny, Aunty Gail, Naoko, Kenji, Doug, Tommy, Derek, Krystyn, Hideto, Scotty, Peggy, Neil. Front: Adam, Chris, Dallas, Kathy, Laura, Mitch, Kyle, Kate, Winnie, Ben.

Aunty Laura’s Family –

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Cory, Chris, Danny, Caroline, Aunty Laura, Krystyn, Hideto, Scotty

Kathy’s Family –

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Kathy, Caroline, Dallas, Rachelle

Shaka!

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Caroline, Dallas

Aunty Peggy & Uncle Neil’s Family –

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Aunty Peggy, Derek, Uncle Neil, Kyle, Kate, Ben, Winnie

Dallas & his sister, still goofing-

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Caroline, Dallas

Aunty Gail’s Family –

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Jeff, Heather, Chris, Mitch, Auny Gail, Tommy, Doug, Kenji, Naoko

Aunty Glenna & Uncle BB’s (sort of) family-

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Uncle BB & Aunty Glenna’s kids didn’t arrive til later in the night so they got Adam, a family friend, in their photo.

These are the people that won the 2009 Fukuda Cup earlier in the day. Notice that they changed into their winning shirts.

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Kyle, Jeff, Adam, Chris, Aunty Gail, Danny

I poured my beer into the award cup and each winning team member had to drink from the cup. Notice that Chris’s shirt is all wet. Doug, a sore loser, sprayed the hose all over the winners while they were posing for photos.

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Chris, Aunty Gail

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Adam, Jeff

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Kyle

These are the people who lost the 2009 Fukuda Cup. Dallas was giving “the finger” in some of the photos. He told his mom to do it and she gave thumbs up… wrong finger.. and everyone started laughing.

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Dallas, Doug, Kathy, Uncle BB, Uncle Neil, Scotty

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Dallas

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Glenna

After photos we spent the afternoon and evening eating delicious gumbo that Danny made, drinking, and visiting in the yard. Or inside. The mosquitoes were kind of brutal in Michigan.