Fireworks, Family, and Friends

Happy Fourth of July (Ok, so it's actually the 6th). This weekend we traveled to Nashville to spend time with Grandma Jamie, Grand-Dude, Aunt Leigh Leigh, Uncle Dill Pill, and Ro-Ro. We had a great time as usual. Saturday morning Grandma Jamie took me to Zumba at the local rec center. It was the first time for both of us. All these years I thought she liked me and all of a sudden she was trying to kill me! Geesh! Besides feeling like we were about to die for an hour, we actually had a lot of fun. I will be trying to find a place around home to Zumba until the next time we go to Nashville. Note to self, next time I will not pack my hot pink, neon teal, don't-get-hit-by-a-car-while-running outfit for my first attempt at a coordination required class. Think, nondescript, black and white next time! After we burned several hundred calories we ate twice that much worth of yummy ribs, corn and potato salad! Below is Emily with Grand-Dude, AKA The Grill Master.

After lunch we tried to get a little photo shoot with the babies. FYI, 9 months and 21 months are not the easiest ages to photograph.

Ta-Da!

And she's done!

Emily and Rowan are two of the biggest Mommy's girls I have ever seen. To be honest, I don't mind, and I don't think Leigh does either!

We worked on our sharing skills too! Both those little hineys squeezed onto the one chair.

Then after a food coma nap Dave shot off some little fireworks on the driveway to try and ease Emily into the big fireworks the following night.

After a few minutes of that Emily quickly retreated to the house. Is that not the cutest watermelon butt you've ever seen! Thanks to Grandma Jamie for that little gem of an outfit!

Sunday morning Dave and I woke up early to drive out to Center Hill lake to visit our good friends Lindsey and Jeremy and Lindsey's parents at their boat house. Grandma Jamie and Grand-Dude were kind enough to keep Em so we could have a grown-up day. Although in hind sight, I don't know that we actually acted much like grown-ups! Dave went tubing, we played on the boat, and then floated on rafts in the lake for hours. Dave and Jeremy repeatedly jumped off the dock completely soaking Lindsey, her mom, and myself. So like I said, not much "grown-up" behavior actually occurred. But we had an absolute BLAST! On our trip around the lake we found Alan Jackson's private boat docks where he stored this beauty, "Hoochie Coochie"

Love the hat Lindsey!

That's better!

We even witnessed a redneck 4th of July boat parade complete with inflatable Uncle Sam and beads being tossed out! Got to love Tennessee!

We made it back to Franklin in time for dinner. Then because I can't imagine the 4th of July without a major fireworks show, we took little bit to the Factory to watch the city fireworks display. The show was suppose to start at 9pm, which really meant 9:45. We had one tired little girl, but it was so fun to see her face! We laid out a blanket on a little slope so we could lay down and watch the show. Dave started playing oldies on the iPod and we watched Emily dance, which was far more entertaining for me than the fireworks. I loved seeing a tradition being born and can't wait to do that again as a family for many more years to come. By the time we got back to the car and drove home it was 10:30 and Emily was wiped out. She was crying and whimpering "Boom Boom Boom" all the way home. Hilarious in a sad kind of way.

Monday we had planned to go down to the house in Spring Hill and pick some weeds and freshen it up a bit when we got a phone call that it was going to be showed between 11 and noon. So scratch that idea. Still no word, but please keep praying that house sells SOON! Instead we got to go out to lunch with the family before we drove back to Memphis. Chuy's=AWESOME! Here's me with my beautiful niece Rowan.

And us four girls. Notice Emily's newest facination... Picking her nose. Yes!

Another great weekend! Thanks to Grandma Jamie and Grand-Dude for everything. And a big congrats to Aunt Leigh Leigh for finishing her Doctorate in Psychology and successfully defending her dissertation. For the next few months she will be a SAHM until she starts her part-time position with Vanderbilt in the fall! We can't wait for her and Ro-Ro to come visit us!