Fourth of July Part 2

Ryan's Aunt and Uncle own some land near the Castor River.  They like to take their huge RV out there, grill, and hang out in the river.  So all of Ryan's family headed out in the afternoon to meet up with them.  Brynn LOVED playing in the water with Ansley and the other kiddos.  I liked just relaxing in my chair and watching them play!  We had a lot of fun, and thankfully it was really shady down by the water.  

Haha....it looks like Ansley is about to unload her water gun on Brynn!
Brynn's just content to pick through the rocks and sand...thankfully she's past putting everything in her mouth!

Am I sleeping at this point?  HA!

Sarah and Charli were such troopers!

I could not get enough of Ansley in her swimwear!  Ryan kept joking that it was probably
bullet-proof!  

Gigi!

Brynn just wanted to be wherever Ansley was.
Ansley would splash and kick and Brynn could not stop laughing!

Then we headed back to eat!
Some of the little ones thought it would be more fun to play in the ATV...
Abby and Trevor (Ryan's cousin's Jeremy's kiddos), Ansley, and Brynn
Picture this in 16 years....YIKES!

Brynn really likes cars lately...CAH?

Despite the SWELTERING HEAT (can you tell I thought it was REALLY HOT) we had such a good time visiting with family and celebrating the Fourth!  I am so grateful we live in such a wonderful nation.

Fourth of July Part 1

On the morning of the Fourth we got up and and just played around the house.  Ryan made some really good fried potatoes (one of his patients gave him some from their garden) and we had a "real" breakfast.  Then we headed to my Aunt Tina's house to swim and eat!

How cute is this Fourth of July braid??

Somebody was excited about the Fourth of July!

I'm honestly debating whether or not I should turn this in to the cutest baby contest on
"Live with Kelly"...I think she'd win!  HA!

We made another quick batch of our red, white, and blue strawberries...
somebody just wanted to eat them!

Once we got to my Aunt's house it was time for a swim!

Daddy lathering her up with sunscreen...it was only 103 degrees!  

Doesn't the ponytail make her look old?
Yes, she pulled the braid out on the way there!  Bummer!

After swimming, we brought Brynn in and fed her lunch (the adults were eating a little later).  Then we put her down for her nap.  It was so nice eating a little later because she was asleep and we just got to SIT and ENJOY some DELICIOUS burgers by my Uncle Bruce (he made three different kinds of burgers, and they were all stuffed with something...cream cheese/pineapple burger, bacon and American cheese burger, and swiss cheese/something burger! YUM!)  Then the entertainment began...

Yes, this is my grandma, my mom, and my aunt all dancing in the kitchen.
My mom was trying to teach my grandma the Cupid Shuffle so that they can all do it
at my sister's wedding in a couple of weeks.  You guys, we were DYING...I haven't laughed that hard
in a LONG LONG time!  I videoed it and I WISH I knew how to upload the video because it would go VIRAL!

Kelly's face says it all...we were DYING!

Oh how I LOVE my family!  There is NEVER a dull moment! We even laid back out at the pool for awhile, and then once Brynn woke up we loaded all of our stuff back in the car and headed to our next family adventure...Castor River with Ryan's family (post coming soon).

'Twas the Night Before the Fourth of July...

The day BEFORE the fourth of July we just had a lazy morning at home.  After Brynn's nap we headed to Oran to visit with my grandparents.  My grandma was making some pillows and curtains for my sister's new apartment, so we tagged along and had dinner and played.

Our Fourth of July "pinterest" dessert...white chocolate covered strawberries with blue sugar sprinkles!

She took off everything and just wanted the strawberry.
She actually "helped" me make these...our kitchen was a wreck afterward!  HA!
They were super easy to make, but with a 15 month old grabbing the spatula of white chocolate
and spreading it on herself we made a big mess!  But we had LOTS of fun!

 Then we headed to Oran...sewing with Grandma!

I think Pawpaw is just a bit smitten with little girl!

Look at this face...she has been doing this all the time lately...crack me up!
She was trying to blow his nose!  HA!

Pawpaw got out a special "bubble gun" for Brynn!
She is really into bubbles right now and loves to say "bub uh"!

Her hair gets so curly when it's hot and humid!

Time for some fireworks!

My grandparents neighbors always put on a big show.  We decided to keep Brynn up later than normal to watch.  BAD IDEA...she's normally in bed by 8:30 or 8:45 so we figured if they started around 9 we'd let her watch 15 minutes or so and it would be fine.  Well...they didn't start until 9:30, but every minute I kept thinking "they will start any second, we can't leave now.  Otherwise we've waited for nothing."  And she was doing fine...well they finally started and Brynn liked watching the smaller ones, but the loud ones scared her a little.  We watched for like 10 minutes and left around 9:45.  She fell asleep immediately on the drive home, but when we got home she woke up and I think she was so overtired or scared from the noises that she couldn't get to sleep.  It was pretty rough...then she woke up again around 4:30, but thankfully put herself back to sleep on her own.  Whew!  Oh well...she'll always remember those beautiful fireworks she saw when she was one, right?  HA! I figure sometimes you just gotta make the memories and enjoy it, and just pay for it in the middle of the night.  =)

Patriotic Service

Tonight our church had its patriotic music service.  The church was packed, and there were lots of veterans in attendance, which is always so neat.  Seeing them just makes me so grateful that we live in America.  The choir did a great job and it was a really fun night!

Family picture in our red, white, and blue!

Oh my gosh, our church was PACKED!
This is my FAVORITE part of the patriotic service every year, where the choir sings all
the songs from each military branch and all the veterans walk up during their song.
I get so emotional watching the men and women walk forward.

Since Jason and Sarah both sing in the choir, Ansley got to sit with us during the service.
We were on the very very end of our church (hence the wall behind me) and this was during the
branch song.  Ansley was so excited because everyone was clapping and waving flags.  I
couldn't look at Ryan or the camera because I was so teary!

Hanging out after the service.

Apple pie and ice cream after the service!!  YUM!

Then we headed to Dairy Queen with some friends.  While us girls were chatting, Ryan was following Brynn all over the place.  He ran over to me and grabbed the camera because he said the girls were being really funny.  He took a billion pictures (which caused him to get made fun of by everyone...Mark and Jason were joking him that other people in the restaurant probably thought he was a perv for taking so many pictures!  HA!)

Brynn, Marlee, and Ansley!

Happy "Almost" Fourth of July!