Brandon's Memorial Bonfire

One year ago today, we lost Brandon in a terrible accident. It's been a long and painful year, but as we all know, life does goes on. We had some additional heartache, but we've also had some extremely wonderful times throughout this past year. To celebrate Brandon, last night we held a Memorial bonfire similar to the one we held last year on the evening of his funeral. We enjoyed great food and fellowship with family and friends. This will always be a sad day and we all miss him too much to put into words, but he lives on in all of us and always will. I am so thankful for our family as large and as blended as it is. That is what makes this a good day.

Well, I knew when I started this blogging business I wouldn't last and I'm not even going to apologize for it. It's just like a journal of sorts and I've probably bought 50 of them in my lifetime and written a couple of pages and then quit. It's just not something I'm in to. I figure if I ever have something to say worth reading, I'll post it. If not, oh well. To spare you, I won't even try to update what's happened in our lives since the last post. But we are all alive and well.

We recently hosted the Hammeke family reunion. There were about 50 or so of us. It was so windy all day. You would think that those of us who have lived in Kansas all our lives would be used to a little wind. It's just disappointing to have all of these fun activities planned (like water balloon volleyball, bubble machine for the little ones, etc.) and then not get to do them. But no matter how much I worried that I wasn't keeping everyone entertained, they all seemed to do ok. A big hit of the day was the Dairy Queen treats that were brought by Ryan and Lynsey. Thank you, thank you. And how lucky were we to find that they had left all the DQ leftovers in our freezer. Again, thank you, thank you. We even shared some with my parents when Dad got home from the hospital.

All in all, we had an awesome time and plan to do it again in 2 years. I sure hope everyone will get to come. I wonder how many of us there will be by then?

Remember that this is 9/11. Don't forget to take a moment and remember those who lost their lives that terrible day and those who have served and/or fallen defending us. Do you remember where you were that day? I sure do.

Later,

Dana