July 4th Weekend-McKinney Family Reunion

We spent our 4th of July weekend with lots of family that had not been all together in a very long time! It was wonderful to see everyone...we had family drive all the way from Texas and fly all the way from Nevada. My parents were there along with my dad's two brothers and his sister and most of their extended family. In all, there was about 30 or so people there! The reunion was in Georgia at Eddie and Allison's house. Allison is my dad's niece, so my second cousin?! Anyway, the girls were so excited to see their cousins, Sadie and Holly, again and the 4 girls played great together!! Luckily, my sweet cousin Rachel did a wonderful job as photographer for the weekend, so all the pictures you see are courtesy of Rachel!!

Sweet Allie and her sun-bleached blonde hair :)
They had a slip-n-slide which was definitely the hit of the weekend!! 3 out of the 4 girls LOVED it!! Here is Holly giving it a go! Marissa thought it was hilarious!

Next up was Marissa.....

She loved it!!

The one that didn't slide....I made her go down it once and boy oh boy...that was a BIG mistake. She was so mad at me....I'm pretty sure Russell has made that same exact face at me before....sorry Allie.

A great action shot!!

Luckily, she didn't stay mad for too long....but she still wouldn't slide.

So she just made silly faces for Rachel.

And sweet faces :)

The girls ventured in the house and played in the playroom....

And on Holly's Dora bed...which Marissa abosultely LOVED!!!

While the family was outside chatting and catching up...telling old stories and just enjoying some long overdue time together.

The next day...Eddie said there was a dock within walking distance where they could jump into the lake...so a group of them walked down there. He said it was a pretty long walk, so Allie and I stayed behind. But from the stories and pictures...it looks like they had a blast!! Marissa is our little water baby!

This is the funny part...as they were walking up from the dock, Russell had this wierd look on his face and everyone was saying...Marissa jumped off the dock!!! So, Russell came up to me and said he and Marissa jumped off this 15 foot dock together and that he really didn't want to do it. (Russell's not so big on heights...) He said he would say "1....2....3....are you sure Marissa?!" about 5 times before they finally jumped. He told me, "I couldn't back down in front of my own daughter and look like a wuss." HAHA! Daddy defnitely took one for the team. Marissa ended up jumping 3 times with her daddy and 1 time with Papa! Our little daredevil.

Jump #1....

There they go!!!

Safely to the water with Papa looking on!!

Not sure if Marissa is hanging on to Russell or the other way around....haha. :)

Ready to go again! Such a cool picture!

Having a blast!!

Once everyone was dried off, it was time to play some late night corn hole. By this time...we were already back at the hotel in bed. Between all the playing and no naps...the girls were d.o.n.e. by 8:30. But, the party went on into in the wee hours of the night...

Go Papa!

Marissa found this Dora hat in Sadie's room and wore it pretty much the entire weekend.

All the cousins (minus Holly, she wasn't in the picture-taking mood.)

Our patriotic picture...without Daddy. He had to go back home that morning to check on the golf course..

Silly, silly girls.

To all the McKinney family, it was wonderful to see everyone again!! And to Rachel...thanks for taking such beautiful pictures--you are so talented!! See y'all next time!