A good time was had by most

We decided to do an impromptu salmon cookout tonight at my house, inviting all my local siblings for dinner. We didn't call to invite Mark because he's a bit farther away and I figured he'd be busily cooking dinner for a pretty girl up in Seattle tonight anyway. Other than him, we were all there.

For a while, we sat around watching Olympics on my OnDemand. Leslie had no idea of the outcome of many of Michael Phelp's races, so she watched them intently. She used to be somewhat of a competitive swimmer herself (she actually went to state for one event in high school), so she is really into this sport. Then to see him win by 8/100ths of a second was very exciting for her.

Eventually, we ate some grilled salmon, salad, and rice pilaf. After dinner was over, we decided it would be fun to play a few games in my very large backyard. I have the largest yard of anyone in my family, so we can do quite a bit in it. Unfortunately the grass hasn't come in too well, so it wasn't as soft as it could be, but we're planning on aerating it as soon as possible. Perhaps we'll have a soft lawn next year.

Our first game was a tug of war. We had Lacy and Regan be team captains, and didn't try to influence who they would choose to be on their teams. Here's both teams, ready to go:

Team Regan
Team Lacy
We played two rounds, and each team won once. The deciding factor was the slightly slanted piece of lawn, giving the advantage to the downhill team.

Next we played Red Rover, with Turner and Landon as captains. Dave wisely bowed out of this competition, as he was afraid he was going to hurt someone.

Team Landon:
Team Turner:
And how smart Dave was to bow out. Both the mothers in this game hurt a child of theirs. I accidentally dragged Lacy on the ground for a second (she tripped when we were running and then landed on her head). She didn't land very hard, but she seemed to really hurt herself. She may have been being overly dramatic because she was starting to get sick and currently has a temperature over 101. Actually Dave is trying to get her to take Tylenol as we speak to help her sleep better, but she is being stubborn about it (of course).

We next had foot races, with several different types of races, eventually morphing into fun and interesting races. We had a wheelbarrow/crab relay at the end. I'm not sure who won, but it was hilarious to be sure.

Then we just started getting weird. We did some leg wrestling, arm wrestling, standing arm wrestling with both arms (does it have a name?), and that thing that Joseph Smith liked playing with a stick. I have way too many pictures to post right now, but here's my favorite: Leslie and me leg wrestling. She beat me, but I had the final victory.