A great start to summer and cousins week (or two)

We had an incredibly busy start to our summer. We spent Memorial Day weekend hanging out in my parents pool which was heavenly. And then we came back to Dothan and had a few lazy days filled with time with friends, movies, sleeping in and enjoying the start to summer.

With my Dad at a Montgomery Biscuits game

With two of their second cousins, Ellison and Bradford, after swimming in the pool.

Hooray for summer!!! We've been waiting since Labor Day for this pool to open.

But then that was it. No more relaxing.

The weekend after Labor Day we went back to Montgomery so I could attend two separate wedding of two beautiful girls that I had watched grow up in the youth group of our church in Montgomery. Rob went to North Carolina to spend the weekend with some friends of his so my lovely oldest daughter was my date to both of the weddings.

All gussied up

With our dear friends, the Bascoms, that I hadn't seen in 6 years.

Wedding #2. Still going strong.

Best date ever

And then summer got cra-a-zy. My sister and my oldest niece went to Uganda on a missions trip. They were gone for over 2 weeks and since my brother-in-law had to work, I got to keep my sister's other two daughters for 2 weeks. And you know what? I loved every second of it! Here are just a few shots of the fun adventures we had.

We hung out in eno's in the backyard

We put on swimsuits and played in the rain. Twice. And when I say "we" I really mean "they."

We went on long bike rides. Maybe my favorite thing that we did. I loved going on bike rides all over our neighborhood and stopping off at the park to play. Of course I would have liked it better if it had been a cool October morning instead of a hot June afternoon, but I'll take it regardless.

 Cousin time!

 We went roller skating....

 ----and swimming. Of course. We also went to our local water park twice, but we didn't take pictures either time. Shocking, I know.

 We started a tradition a few years ago of camping out in our backyard whenever my nieces came to visit and so we gladly continued the tradition this time. Bennett and Emmie were the only ones who made it all night. Rob and I didn't even attempt it and Will only made it 20 minutes. Sutton made it about an hour and that was that.

 Meg patiently waiting for any leftover hot dogs. Her wait was not in vain.

We took a day trip to the beach. I love love love living close enough to where you can go to the beach for the day. A friend of mine has a condo there and she gave us a day pass so we could use the pools at her resort and have access to the beach. It was perfect. Here we are headed off for our fun beach day. Lainey looks like she would rather be anywhere else and Will is crying because Bennett is leaning too close to him. Typical.

Hanging out in the pool. What a perfect day. I think this was the only group shot we got during their entire visit.

While the kids played on the beach, I drove all up and down the beach so this little one could nap. It's hard being 1 sometimes.

That night we headed down 30-A for dinner and sightseeing. We stopped at the house we had stayed at over Spring Break. 

And of course we had to have dessert at one of our favorite spots.

 Let's see.... what else did we do? Well, we spent a lot of afternoons just doing this. Look at little Lainey bug. She wants to be big so badly.

Even shopping trips are more fun when your cousin pushes the cart.

We went to an old fashioned general store and got sodas out of bottles.

And the three older kids went to a drive in movie. How fun is that?

I had a wonderful 2 weeks with these special kiddos. I love each of them so much and I feel so privileged that I get to be their Mom and aunt.

Oh, and in addition to all of this fun, I also ran a week long drama camp for 30 kids, threw a 5th birthday party for Will, and made a huge life changing decision. But I'll save that for the next post. Whew! But first I need a nap.