among the wildflowers: July 2010

And by H-O-T, I mean sticky, humid, miissserable, all-i-wanna-do-is-stay-inside-where-it's-cool kind of weather. That's pretty much what it has been like here (and probably wherever you are too) the past several weeks. We are either at the pool or inside. However...a couple weeks ago Anniston had their Cool Blues and Hot BBQ Festival:) I didn't know anything about it until Russell told me, so I checked out the website and it looked like fun, well...we tried to go Friday night, but mother nature had different plans and decided to send a thunderstorm our way...we postponed til Saturday and almost got rained out again, but we persisted and went after the rain. And you know what that means...oohhh, the humidity! But, the girls had their naps, everyone was itching to get out of the house, so off we went! And we had so.much.fun.!!! Aunt Jessica was in from Texas (more on that later...) and she did a fabulous job capturing all the fun we had, especially by Miss Marissa. She smiled and giggled and was having a blast!! Our first stop was to purchase a $5 wristband for the girls so they could jump in the bounce-house, ride the spinning cups and go down the big water slide. Of course, the bounce-house was first on the list for Marissa.
She jumped....

And jumped....

And jumped.....

And she rested for a split second to catch her breath....

And then she jumped some more....

She even stopped long enough to look at the camera for Aunt Jess....

But that didn't last long, she was going to make sure we got our full $5 worth. Especially considering you-know-who had no interest in jumping.....

She was more interested in the yummy BBQ! Shocker, I know!

Once the BBQ was gone, she kept eyeing her big sister as though she just might be interested in joining her in the bounce-house...

So we stuck her in there. And this is what happened. She didn't move.

The only thing that moved was her mouth when she started screaming for us to get her OUT!

Daddy to the rescue.

And off she went...probably to find more food:)

And Marissa, well, she was still jumping.

That sweaty, red, smiling face was worth every penny of that $5 :)

Once the jumping was over, it was time to indulge in some high-calorie, fried goodness that brought a big smile to my face.....FUNNEL CAKE! Oh so yummy.

Guess who else liked it?

As you can see, my children ate extremely healthy that day...

Fried dough covered with powdered sugar....genius. :)

After I had my fill of the funnel cake...it was time for what was to become my favorite part of the day (which had to be pretty darn good to top the funnel cake!) I got to ride the spinning cups with Marissa. Oh.my.goodness. We laughed and laughed and went round and round til I thought we were going to, well...you know.

I mean, seriously, look at Marissa's face! She was having so much fun!

Allie kept yelling for mommy, so she joined in on the fun!

And we kept spinning and laughing and let me tell you, it turned into one of my most favorite moments with my girls. This is my favorite picture of the day:)

Ok, last but certainly not least, was the BIG water slide. We really didn't think Marissa would do it, but she said she wanted to, so up she went. The older girl in the white shirt was so sweet and was helping all the little kids up the slide. :)

She got all the way to the top....

And completely FREAKED OUT! You could hear her screaming from a mile away. She was frozen. She stood in the corner and would not move. Remember the girl in the white shirt, well, she looked down at me and said "She's not going anywhere!" So this time, it was mommy to the rescue! I almost took a few kids out on the way down, but I saved my sweet girl from that big ol' slide. Oh well, maybe next year.

And finally, on our way out, Aunt Jessica got in on the fried food fun with her fried snickers bar. I took a little bite and I have to say...it, like the rest of the day, was hot and sticky but at the same time, pretty stinkin' great!!

Several weeks ago, we headed back to Texas to celebrate with Russell's family the 90th birthday of his Mawmaw! We flew out of Birmingham, connected in Houston then it was off to Waco. The girls were so great on all the flights...they watched their movies, colored, had some snacks and did a little sleeping. We got in on Friday night and had dinner with the family and then it was bathtime for the babies:)
Cousins-Allie, Marissa and Ronan

They weren't really into cooperating for an after-bath picture...

On Sunday...it was party time! We went to Hubbard, TX for the party and there ended up being 120 people there to see Mawmaw and celebrate her birthday with her! (including my Grandma Joy, who I was very excited to see!) Ok, so these pics aren't really in order...but oh well, here goes...