Family, Food and Fireworks on the 4th

I'm warning you, this is going to be a long post with a lot of pictures. I took over 100 this weekend, but I promise I will only show a few...or 20. :)

We had a BIG 4th of July in Alabama with Jimmy's family. We all gathered at Mimmie's (Jimmy's grandmother on his mom's side), and by all, I mean 22 people and 3 dogs to celebrate our country's 233rd birthday.

It was the first time we had ever been on the 4th of July and the first summer since Jimmy and I have been married that we weren't there to celebrate a wedding.

Now that all of the cousins are married and having babies, we have grown to quite a large brood. Sadly, we were missing Jimmy's cousins Millie and Kelly and their families, but we had a wonderful time. Thank you SO much Millie for letting us stay at your house!

I am now convinced there is no better place in the country to be on the 4th of July... huge family, beautiful pool, amazing food, and front row seats to the fireworks. It doesn't get much better than that!
Hannah and Trace
Trace, Grace Anne, and Elmo. He pushed that stroller around the pool all weekend, much to his daddy's despair! ha!
This was pretty much Trace's wardrobe the entire weekend... swimsuit, crocs, water wings, and a helmet. He kept getting out of the water and jumping on his plasma car for a quick spin around the pool. Sylvia kept chasing him down to put his helmet on, and I pushed those swimmies up his arm until they were nearly raw, so we finally just gave in and left them all on. Luckily, it didn't slow him down a bit!
Trace LOVED the newest member of the family, precious Darby.
The girls were so sweet to play with Trace and let him tag along. They are little mommies in the making!
Generation 1
I love this picture...Frank (Jimmy's grandfather on his dad's side), Mimmie, and Polly (Jimmy's great aunt). I know it's rude to tell a woman's age, so I won't tell exactly. ha! But they are all over 90 and added together their ages total 275...you do the math!

They are truly inspirational and are the cornerstone of the family. They are so dearly loved!!
Generation 2 (minus the husbands)
The sisters... Sandi, Sylvia (my mom-in-law) and Sheila. They worked so hard this weekend putting all of this together and keeping us all fed! Thank you guys so much, it was wonderful...now go take a nap!

Generation 3
The cousins
Generation 4
The kiddos
We will include Ginger in this generation. She really enjoyed sunbathing on my towel after a dip in the pool. No family party is complete without our Gingie-bug!
The Cofer clan
We ate WAY too much food for one weekend, the shrimp boil was just one of many meals. You notice who is under the table... just waiting for a piece to drop, you would think we never fed her.
Don't eat too much now Mimmie...ha! ha!
We were also celebrating Frank's 90th birthday. He was born on July 4, 1919 as Benjamin Franklin Cofer and served in the Navy during WWII.

He loves to claim responsibility for Trace's name (James Franklin III). I can hear him telling the story now, "When Jim (Jimmy's dad) was born I said I don't like that Benjamin, let's drop it and add James, and 3 generations later... it stuck.

Happy Birthday Frankie... we love you!
The girls helped me make his cake. Aren't they beautiful!
Speaking of girls...this is off the subject, but interesting. In the past 4 generations there has not been one girl born in the Cofer family. As far back as we know, at least the last 12 Cofer's have all been males... that's a lot of boys. Huh, if I'm ever blessed with another baby, I bet I know what it would be?!?

As the day came to an end, we settled in for the fireworks. They were being shot off right below Mimmie's house from a barge in the lake. Talk about a front-row seat!

It was very emotional, sitting and watching the fireworks while Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" played in the background. I felt so incredibly blessed to be holding my baby in my arms and sharing this experience, while so many parents across the country were praying for their babies who at that very moment were fighting for our freedom... I can't even imagine that. I was overcome with pride and gratitude for all that they and those that came before them have done for us.

We were a little nervous about how Trace would do (he's never seen fireworks) but once the initial boom was out of the way, he loved it! Jimmy and I were totally prepared to run for cover but he kept asking for more. I armed him with his bobbie and blanket just in case.
Trace did a whole lot better than Ginger did. You'll notice, I've got one baby, Jimmy's got the other. They were a little too close for comfort for her!
It was a wonderful and very memorable weekend. We really missed the cousins that weren't able to be there, but hopefully we will see them soon and have many more 4th of July's together!