The 4th of July and an Alabama Rebound

It's the 4th of August and I'm writing about the 4th of July. ;(  Time really does march on, and a month goes by before you can upload new pictures and actually have time to tell about them.  At my age, briskness would be a virtue in actually remembering the events you'd want to write about.  But I'll attempt...

Our family tradition of spending the 4th in Alabama is one I cherish...the cousins, the noise, the kids, the food, the pool, the heat, the popsicles.  Oh, can we just have a moment of silence for the popsicles.  Rick, the candy man, feels strongly that popsicles are an essential food group and was armed with boxes and boxes of a variety of flavors.  Over the course of the day, I saw my kids eat easily a dozen each but yet was still baffled by them behaving like monkeys. Duh.

 

Love this family so much!

We made this flag cake when Hannah and Grace Anne were little, so we had to make it for the tinies this year.  God Bless America!

 There were lots of beautiful princesses roaming the house this year.

And Trace absolutely feel in love with baby Chase.  Trace and Chase, quite the duo.

 Daddy even got into playing dress-up and appropriately donned the red, white, and blue.  His followers stuck to princess pink.

The fireworks were absolutely amazing!  They moved the barge back down the river in front of the house and they were literally on top of us.  You've never seen fireworks, till you've seen them at She-She's house.

We brought home lots of extra we had stopped and bought on the way down.  The kids begged to do a few on the deck.  Little too close for comfort if you ask me.

 The next day, Trace had his last swim meet at the pool and Uncle Andy and Aunt Kadi got to come!

 Playing at the lake with Alex...

That weekend was James David's paintball birthday party.  A first time for my boy, but I'm sure not his last.  Every 8 year olds dream!

 After the party, I came to pick up Keatyn and once again found her in my mom's lingerie from 45 years ago.  Sigh.  She was playing "bride."

So, because the Elliott's are gone to the beach every year on the 4th, we tried to plan a Chattanooga visit for them the next week.  But things got really complicated trying to coordinate schedules, so Sisty asked me if I was up for another road trip.  I was all in and couldn't wait for more cousin time.  I offered to take Alex and Madelyn to meet their grandparents so Mandi wouldn't have to drive them 3.5 hours down and then turn around and drive home.  Turns out, their grandparents live just about 30 minutes away from Sheffield, in Mississippi.  As hairy as this picture looks traveling with all these kiddos, it honestly was the calmed, nicest 3.5 hours I've ever spent in the car with my children.  Ha!  I'm going to have to borrow the Moffitt kids for trips more often!

Once we delivered Alex and Madelyn, we picked up Nelson (to save him from the girly baby shower that was taking place at his house) and headed to see the Minions.

After the movie and the baby shower, everyone gathered back at She-She's for some swimming and dinner.  Keatyn couldn't wait to get her mermaid tail on and show off...

and Trace's shark fin.  Thank you Grandaddy and Sisty!  So much fun!

The candy man and his latest victim...

Yes, it was the middle of July.  Yes, it was hovering 100 degrees outside.  And yes, we build a fire to roast hotdogs and smores.  Memories...

Later that night, Trace went home to spend the night at Nelson's, and SK and Mallory (aka Mawry according to Keatyn) stayed with us.  This was the first time Mawry had ever slept anywhere but with her mom.  She made it until midnight and then I heard soft whimpering from the other side of the room.  Bless her heart.  We called and Mark came and picked her up.

Luckily they all came back the next morning and we hit the pool again before heading home.

Speaking of heading home.  The ride back to Chattanooga was every bit as miserable and stressful as being on an airplane with a screaming infant for 3.5 hours.  I guess it was payback for the "perfect" ride down.  Call it overtired, over popsicled, over siblinged, I don't know but my 2 started fighting before we turned out of She-She's driveway.  Somewhere around Decatur, I whipped my car into a Dollar General, slung open the van door (which doesn't have near the effect a real car door has) and threatened spank them right there on the side of the highway.  In front of my sweet mother-in-law.  Truth be told, she probably would have helped me at that point.  When we finally got home 3 days  hours later, I texted her a picture of these.  Luckily, she had also bought herself a set when she bought mine and we were both enjoying a stress relief bath and glass of wine. Great minds.

The fun, family memories were well worth the rough ending and I hope we get many, many more!