Fireworks, Questions and Goodbye's

Things have been "popping" around here this last week!  First up fireworks.  We had a good ol' fashioned backyard cookout to celebrate the fourth...  

Kim and Bryan brought the fun and set up a badminton net...

There is no shortage of competition around here and the girls took on the boys...

Our little fans chanted "Go girls GO!" from the trampoline... 

But we lost...sad.  Oh well, better luck next time.  With darkness came the opportunity to teach our kids all about playing with fire...

Thanks for being born America we were happy to celebrate you!

Fireworks aren't the only thing that got popped this week.  He popped the question and she said yes (of course)...

I'm so happy for my sister.  I mean really really happy...

It was a sweet day and I'm so glad that we got to be a part of it.  I'm also so glad that this girl was there...

It wouldn't have been the same without you Cayce.  Our best buddies are off for a year long Hawaiian adventure and I can safely say, after they've been gone for a mere 72 hours, we are going to miss them like crazy.  We did our best to squeeze in as much "togetherness" as we possibly could before they left.  Going away parties, pool dates, and celebrating Hudson and Claire at a dual birthday party...

Cayce has always been "Kim's best friend" but she has very much become one of mine as well.  Saying goodbye is sad especially when it is to those that are such a seamless part of your lives...  

It is hard to imagine what our lives will look like without the Harris family in it.  I'm happy for the perspective the military life has given me.  A year will fly by (at least I sure hope so) and we will all be together again.  I know the only thing that will have changed is the fact that they'll have had an amazing adventure in the mean time.  Thanks for being "our people" guys, we love you...

  
On second thought...goodbye's kind of suck.  We may be visiting Hawaii in the very near future!! 

Happy Birthday America

Beach Babes

So, where did I leave off?  Ahhhh yes, we were headed to the beach...

Emme was keeping me entertained with a rousing game of peek-a-boo...

And Carter was asking every 5 minutes "how many more minutes til' we get there"?  We had all the makings of a good old fashioned family road trip...

Complete with a pit stop for BBQ...

And then (because we are all about short and sweet) we were there!  

That my friends is the benefit of the Texas vs. Florida coast.  You can go from your front door step to toes in the sand in a matter of a few short hours...

The girls couldn't wait to catch a few waves...

Emerson needed a little help from her favorite guy...

I love the way being at the beach just encourages you to sit back, relax and take it all in...

Later that night Leslie and I walked to down to see if we could catch the sunset.  Carter tagged along for a little beach walk in her pajamas.  It doesn't get much better than that...

She stopped along the way to draw something in the sand then ran up begging me to go back and look. We were quite a ways ahead and being lazy I sent her back with my phone to take a picture instead of walking back to see it in person.  I wish I had made the effort because when I saw what she wrote it made my heart happy...

After a good nights rest (that's laced with just a little sarcasm because sharing a twin bed with a toddler is not for the faint of heart)...

We were ready for another day of sun and sand!  The plan was to hop on a Jetty boat and explore St. Joseph's island...

It delivered with plenty of shells and clear water.  The perfect 2 hour adventure.  Not too long, not too short but juuuuuust right.  After a sno-cone and a much needed nap we headed back to the beach and look who had arrived to join in on the fun...

We spent our last afternoon sand castle building and relaxing...

And then we drove off into the sunset...

There's a little trick we've learned about traveling at night...babies fall asleep...

Our trip was short and sweet (with just a smidge of hard work) but I'm so glad we have a little beach memory to add to our Summer...

When I look at our family the last time we hung out in Port A...

It's easy to see little people are growing up all over the place around here...

I'm so glad we're having fun along the way.