Father's Day minus Dave

Ok, Ok, so I know it's not ideal, but last weekend I took Emily to Montevallo to see Pop and MeMaw without Dave. Boo! :( Dave had just hired some new people at work and was out of town this week for three days at a conference for work. So he decided he needed to spend a few hours Friday night and Saturday at the office. Since Emily hadn't seen Aunt Leslie, Hayden, Natalie or Ellie since January we thought at least her and I should go. The Wolfe clan lives in LaGrange, GA and it's about 7 hours from Memphis. So we only see them when we meet in Montevallo. We left early Friday to make it down in time for afternoon swim. We had a blast! Late Friday night Aunt Leigh, Uncle Dill Pill (AKA Dillon) and Baby Rowan arrived. All the other kids were already asleep so Ro-Ro got a lot of attention!

Saturday morning we decided if we were going to go to the park we ought to do it early before it got too hot. Well, no such thing in the south in the summer time. But we braved the heat anyway for an hour or so before we hit the pool.

Hayden may be the best big brother in the world and he's a pretty good big cousin too! He will turn 6 next week! I can't believe it.

Here's a group shot of everyone watching these crazy teens use a rope swing to splash in 3 feet of water. Emily kept running down towards the bank and I had to keep heading her off.
Emily posing for mommy on the bridge.
My little day-dreamer!

Pop with his girl on the swings. This lasted about 5 minutes because the seats were SO hot!

When we got back we quickly jumped in the pool and literally as soon as we hit the water the thunder rolled. Hmmm... we waited it out for about 10 minutes but then retreated to the a/c for nap time to let the storm pass. After an entire house nap, the three oldest kiddos helped MeMaw make a cake for Pop. Too cute!

One thing I noticed more and more this trip was the middle child syndrome. It was kind of a tough spot because Emily is over 2 years younger than Natalie and 4 years younger than Hayden. But she is 9 very critical months older than Ellie and 1 year older than Rowan. Since she is walking, and talking she tended to get lumped in with the big kids during meal time even though we are still very much still in a booster seat at home strapped in. She didn't want to be held like the babies, but she wasn't safe to roam the house like the big kids. For instance, while I was in the shower the other bathroom door was left open. When I came out I found Emily sitting in the bathroom sink, 3 feet off the ground with both faucets running. With 5 other adults in the house she managed to sneak away and use the step stool to climb up. But she enjoys all her cousins, big or little. Here she is playing with Ellie.

And here is Ellie stealing apples from Emily's tray.

After everyone was well rested and the storm had passed we managed to get in the pool. It was a BLAST! Below is my fav pic from the weekend. I caught Pop throwing Hayden mid arch!

Here is some video of my baby girl jumping off the side of the pool!

Aunt Leigh with Em and Ro-Ro.

The little love bugs, Rowan (left) and Ellie (right).

Natalie posing for the camera. She's good at that!

I managed to get a pic with my girl too!

Tickle! Tickle!

Rowan and Ellie playing together. Looks like Ellie is going to have curly hair like her big sis.

Look out Angelina Jolie! Check out these lips! And maybe a little snot. :)

Dillon with his little girl and big cousin Natalie.

But never fear... I was a good wife. Saturday night around bedtime I decided to drive home while Emily was asleep so her Daddy could kiss her first thing on Father's Day morning. Since I had a nap that day I was feeling fine. Emily was out after the first hour and I listened to podcast sermons from my church all the way home. We arrived home safely at 12:30am Sunday morning with big kisses from Daddy and spent all day Sunday as a family! Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!