Kurt Family Fourth of July

We had our annual Kurt Family fourth of July, with an even bigger crowd than ever. The Mike Koch and his wife Sarah came in from Chicago and we had my Dad's fiancee Judy's family was there as well. The Kurt side had planned on being on it's best behavior. In the past, we used to have a bounce-house at Maddie's birthday party. We would take bets on how long it would take my brother Jon to make a kid cry. People bet against it happening since Jon is a new man after being in Memphis and having two kids (ok, no one really bet against Jon making anyone cry). Jon did not disappoint. Three minutes in, Jon had hurt yet another kid, and they had no problem coming out and letting us know.

Dan introduced a new drink to the family, bringing a big 'ol cooler full of a drink called hop-skip-and-go-nakeds. The ingredients are asfollows:

20 cans of beer
1 Half Gallon of Vodka
1 Can of Sprite
1 Can of Frozen Limeade

They were very tasty for a hot day like this. Note the red cups throughout the pictures. You might think my nephew Shabadu (aka Matthew) was sneaking sips of them with the picture below, but no, this is just the way Matthew rolls.


Emily had some of her ususal drama. Not having any girls, my brother Dan thought he'd try and use his oldest-brother-authority and try and clear things up. At some point he told me that i was grounded and Emily seemed to be happy again.

We celebrated Susan's 30th birthday, Maddie's 10th and Reagan's first.


Dan and Jon took a number of romantic rides around the neighborhood, all while singing the song "A Bicycle Built for Two". Susan kept wearing this mask all day and walking up to strangers and asking them to wrestle.

Later that evening we headed out to the fireworks in Okemos. The kids played while we waited for the Fireworks to begin.


You're not a Kurt unless you try and get into another person's picture. Dan and Susan were no different.



The fourth of July is really just an excuse for our family to get together and hang out. We just love spending time together. Judy is learning the Kurt family sense of humor, including posing for this picture (complete with gang signs, cell phone and shades), knowing full well this picture would be on a blog.

A couple of years ago, I brought my camera and played around taking time lapsed pictures. From then on Susan always makes fun of me taking pictures of Fireworks, randomly sending me pictures anytime she sees firworks. This picture is for her:


You can see all of the pictures (include 3 more pictures of fireworks) here.