July

We kicked July off with our monthly Bham Ladies Who Lunch Meeting.  It was a really fun one.

We met at the Pizitz Food Hall.  

I had a cheeseburger and tater tots from The Standard.  It was delicious!

This girl is a mess.

My cousin Matthew at Coley and Scott's wedding! Also the only picture I took that night.

We hit up Alabama Adventure with our buddies.

We've been working with Grampy some doing inventory.  I thought her nose was bleeding, turns out she was just sniffing sharpies.  Which is equally unsettling.

We made it to a movie in the park.

I don't even remember what we saw now.

I'm not sure where Barrett was but she was so good while I worked in the shop.

We broke out the sponge rollers again.  She loves having "Princess Hair".

Treated myself to a scoop of the Watermelon Sea Salt Sorbet at work one day.

We wrapped up the summer reading program at our library.  We seriously slacked this year.  But we had fun!

That night we went to the Roger Day show for the grand finale.

These two entertained themselves in the shop while I counted all the inventory.

For my birthday I wanted to go eat at this new food truck in town.  You eat on the double decker bus.

It was delicious and a fun, different experience!

After dinner we headed up to the grill at The Club for drinks and dessert on the patio.  It was a beautiful night!

Frozen Jack & Coke.  Delicious!

One Sunday, after church AveryAnn and I met John and Hope and Madelyn and Brooks at Alabama Adventure.  Barrett didn't want to go.  We had a fun afternoon watching the girls play together.

It started to rain so we packed up and headed home

I was cutting Ally's hair and noticed she had a bad spot that looked like it might be infected.  So I made her an appointment at the vet, we had to work a couple of hours before the appointment and she wanted to be held.  I got my old baby carrier out of the car and it worked perfect.  She sat in it the whole time we were we worked.

We went to the lake last weekend for my birthday and had the best time.

My sister made me a cake. She thought it was so funny to put 35 on it, I'm only 34.  It was so yummy!

My sweet people cheesin' so they can have cake.

My sister and I decided to take the canoe for a spin.  Pretty sure we broke some lake records.  It's just like riding a bike.  All those Tuesday canoe trips in youth group came right back to us.  

Barrett was so proud of the fish he caught!

We had the best weekend!  We got to see a meteor shower too.  We made some sweet memories.  We're about a month away from the first day of school and I'm afraid it's going to fly by!

July Fourth

We usually go to the family lake cabin for July 4th, but this year was a little different.  The State baseball tournament started on July 5th, we thought we were going to have practice on the fourth so we didn't really make any plans.  The week of Coach decided to cancel practice so we started trying to figure out what everyone was doing.  My little brother invited us to his house on the lake for the day.  We really considered just spending the night with them because the baseball tournament was 20 minutes from their house, we decided against it since we knew Barrett probably wouldn't sleep well.

This is the first time we've gotten to enjoy the lake at their house.  AveryAnn had been out of her cast for almost 3 weeks and she was starting to get around really well.  We had so much fun swimming and playing  AveryAnn said she wanted to ride the tube, I told John to get it hooked up because before she changed her mind.  She was so cute.  We got on it and she was smiling and said "This is going to be so fun!!" Then, I had us sitting to far up on it and it went under when we took off and she started screaming and crying.  

She did not enjoy it as much as she'd hoped she would.  Madelyn wanted to ride it too so I rode it with her.  Thankfully she was on it with me because we  hit some giant waves and John slowed down.  If I'd been by myself I'd probably still be rolling across the water.  After the girls rode the tube Barrett decided he wanted to ride the seadoo with me.  I was shocked.  He's never really been a fan of anything like that. That all changed this summer.  He would have ridden it all day long if we'd let him (with us of course).

They just got new neighbors, we were jumping off the dock and she yelled over if the kids wanted to go down the slide on their dock they could.  John and I asked if adults were allowed to go down the slide and she said yes, adults were also allowed.  So we swam over and went down the slide a few times.  They were so nice and we enjoyed getting to meet them.  

Then it was time to feed the catfish.  The kids loved getting to see all the fish.

We went in and changed clothes so we could shoot fireworks.  My kids aren't huge fans of fireworks but the ones John got were pretty mild.  Barrett was really excited about it this year.

AveryAnn tolerated it.  After we shot the fireworks it was time to head home.  We got to see lots of great fireworks on the way home.  We had the best time with John and Hope, and can't wait to go back and hang out with them!  

Beach Weekend

The stars aligned and it worked out for us to sneak in a long weekend at the beach with Tony and Carla!  It had been nearly two years since we'd gotten to stay with them  We were so excited to get to spend time with them and make some memories at the beach.  

Barrett took this with his iPad and it just made me laugh.

AveryAnn was about two weeks out of her cast and she was starting to get around pretty good. The beach was a little challenging for her but she loved playing in the sand.

Our schedule was clear for the weekend when we planned this little trip, then our team picked up another one day tournament.  Coach was fine that we already had plans and couldn't make it. We were really sad to miss it but it gave our alternate a chance to play.  All that to say, he still had to take his ball and glove to the beach and play catch with Patrick.

We got down there around 5:00 Friday evening.  It was a little stormy.

But cleared up in time for us to head to the beach and catch the sunset!

I was able to snap a few pictures of the kids.  I actually took my real camera this trip and I'm so glad I did!

We slept in Saturday because it was raining again!  Carla made us a wonderful breakfast casserole and mimosas.  One reason I love staying with them is we never go out to eat, they always cook fresh seafood for us in their kitchen and it's always amazing.  I love seafood but I hate waiting for a table and fighting crowds.  We get the best of both worlds with them.  Amazing seafood and no waiting!

I finally cleared up Saturday afternoon so we headed to the beach!  The boys went to the other side of the beach to see hermit crabs. While they were gone this bird came strutting by.

Carla somehow convinced AveryAnn to take a nap.  Beach naps are the best!

More catch.

We stayed out until sunset and it didn't disappoint.

My kids even cooperated for a few pictures.

I've got to get this one on a wall in my house ASAP!

We also managed to get a great family shot!

And Barrett snapped a good one of the four grownups.

He loved the beach! It was so sweet watching him play.

Once the sun went down we packed up and headed back to the house.  We cleaned up for dinner.  It was amazing once again!

We were heading home Sunday but weren't in a huge hurry.  I got up and went to Mass and then we hit the beach for a few hours before we packed up.  She stole my hat and she looked like a little sorority girl.  I feel like she's grown up so much this summer!

Then she found these goggles in the bag and had to put them on.  I laughed and laughed at her!

We packed up and headed home.  It was a short but sweet trip.  Carla and Tony are always so gracious to let us come stay and cook for us and help us with the kids.  It's so nice to have to extra adults to carry all the things to the beach.  It's so nice to have two other adults that will play with your kids when you just want to sit down for 5 minutes and enjoy the beach.  It truly feels like a vacation when we are with them.  I love the memories we made.