A rainy, rainy 4th

I love our family tradition of celebrating the 4th of July at Mimmies.  Since she passed last May, it's not been the same.  But I KNOW without a doubt that she would want this tradition to continue and sitting on the bluff, watching the fireworks being shot from a barge right below, has spoiled us forever.  There is no place we'd rather be!

This year was a little soggy.  Actually, that is a understatement.  It poured most of the 24 hours we were there.  So we did a few things inside like red, white and blue chocolate covered strawberries, and Trace logged in way too many hours on the Wii.

Rick worked his magic on Keatyn and eventually won her heart.  His new nickname is "the candyman."

The lure of the pool was just too tempting.  So even in the rain, they swam!

This was the pool poopy face I saw THREE times!!

Seriously? I only brought 3 swim diapers, and no sooner did her little toesies hit the water, she'd start poopin.  One particularly constipated cousin nearly jumped in to see if the magic would work on her. :)

Once we knew she was good and cleaned out, it became that kind of party. ;) 

After hours of rain, we looked out and saw this beautiful rainbow over the bridge right before sunset. 

Thank you Bonnie for the solo cup sparkler idea!  Who knew there were so many uses for a red solo cup?

We simply can not take a family photo with everyone looking at the camera...

Exhaustion had set in...

It was kinda strange being bundled up under blankets on the 4th of July.

Cousins

Our Alabama cousins came for a visit last week.  I was smack in the middle of VBS so I wasn't there often to witness all the mayhem and fun, but it's easy to assume there wasn't a dull moment.

The first day was swimming, tubing and sea doo-ing. That's pretty hard to beat. 

Catch and release.  This child has no fear  just like her brother.  Lord, help me.

Alex and Keatyn got up close and personal.

Love them!

The next day after VBS was over, we got really brave (or crazy) and headed down to Coolidge Park.  This was my car load!

Such posers...

Mallory and Keatyn loved the fountain!

We got snow cones and headed for the bridge.

And then when they started doing things like climbing the rails and squeezing their heads between the loops to see down below, our stroll was over.  :)

The carousel...  Keatyn loved it.  Good times.

We hit up the fountains one more time to wash the snow cones off.  

The boy to the left is either in speedos or his underwear. Either of which in a public park are wrong. Very wrong.

We headed back to Sisty's for pizza and a movie.  Trace spent both nights up there and was wiped out (which is hard to do) by the time he got home on Saturday. 

 

It is always so good to get to see them!  We are truly blessed with an amazing family!