A Few Days with Uncle Marc and Aunt Emily...but mainly the girls

I know my girls were looking forward to hanging out with these cutie cousins, and I wish I could have been with them, but I had to work.   Magan took Belle and Ruby to visit with Eloise and CeCi for two nights, and while alot of the smiles are captured in the pictures below, I could only gather the following snippets from the laughter and stories shared with me.   

I heard about Eloise wanting to show everyone her diarrhea, which was confusing until they realized it was a diary she was referring to...which is slightly different.   I heard about a little Ceci sticking her stinky feet in her daddy's face.   I heard about Both girls "fixing" Belles hair with bows and ribbons, and perhaps leaving a little bald spot.  

At the pool for CeCi's swimming lessons, I head about Magan's bruised boob from Ceci's head and Eloise kicking down under the water.   They told me that Ceci was smiling the whole time excited to have them with her at the pool.   They never saw anything but Eloise back going under water.   And Ruby sadly had to wait with all the little kids 10 minutes every hour to rest with the other 12 and under kids.   

Back at the house, they built a huge house of magnet blocks, and put Snoopy in the top.   Then Ceci opened one of the pieces near the bottom and the entire tower collapsed, scaring her to death.   Eloise came in to scare everyone after drying off with a towel, then turned to sneak off and ended up mooning everyone when her towel crept up a little high in the back.   They also told Belle "Why are you still wearing your PJs, go get dressed."  when they found her to late walking around in PJs.

And on their way home to Chelsea, Nanny asked them to get some BBQ and sides, but then when they arrived, Nanny said she had cooked them some snacks.   Those snacks were like a whole meal.   I know it was fun for Eloise and Ceci, but just as much so for our girls.   Glad these cousins could hang out a little this summer.   

America Turns 250!

 O say can you see...We again gathered with the Rawls family to celebrate the nations birthday, and this was year 250.   While I can't remember number 200, I do remember the special quarters they made that year, and being excited as a kid to find one every once and awhile.   For year 250, it was nice to see all of the different items at Walmart marketed for 250.   Probably hosting the World Cup in this year helped amp up the celebration even more.   But in Chelsea Alabama, it was not much more than the previous year.   Me and Ruby went that morning and bought some fireworks for the night.   This year's special was Princess Parachutes, which seemed to be fun for the girls.   We also got some cheap parachutes that did not include army men or anything, just hot slightly smoking tube with a parachute.   

Brandon had some BBQ, and some of his famous baked beans.   And we ate a great meal before going outside for the parachutes and fireworks.   I think all had a good time, each of the kids getting a chance to light some fireworks.   Everyone left that night with all of their fingers, so we will call that a success.  

On a following night, we went to go see the new Angel Studios movie "Young Washington" that told some tells of Washington before he was president.   Really good movie, and Magan and I got to use our two free guild tickets.   I hear they are already working on the movie 1776 for next year...or maybe the year after.   And we got to play with the new pups at the Ray house after taking Claire home.   Happy Birthday 'Merica!!

One More Visit to Peavine Falls

I will have to admit that Peavine Falls was not on the agenda for my Friday off before July 4th, but when Anabelle said "yeah, we could go back to Peavine Falls", it jumped on the agenda quickly.   It has always been a little adventure that I have taken all the kids on for many many years.   I know these opportunities are more and more rare, but Anabelle's voice was music to my ears.   

But we had also planned to visit Joe's Italian that day also, as we had not been there in a long time.   So there was a little concern with plates full of pasta, a steamy hot July day in Alabama, and a 1 mile hike to the falls, but we decided to try.   At Joes, we had so much food...we shared 4 entrees amongst us with a couple of appetizers...and while the new owners have moved Papa Joe's seat at the front of the restaurant, we know he would have smiled at our happy faces.   Then Magan for some reason asked the guy to tell us about all the desserts, while me and the kids just laughed.   We will get the piece of strawberry cake, we know that is what Magan will pick....then she said "Wow, those sound great, we'll take a piece of the strawberry cake".   

We left Joe's with a bunch of extra cake and a little bit of Italian...Anabelle made fun of me for keeping a half a meatball for later.  And that meatball moved to about 4 plates before finally making it into the togo plate.   We drove up the long long hill to the Peavine Falls parking lot, and found the small geocache at the top before heading down.   It was extremely busy at the beach area, but pretty empty for the Peavine Falls hike.   

Once down at the waterfall, we all (except for Magan) got into the super cold water coming down the falls.   It does not make for the best hike back to the car, but that cold water feels great on a hot hot day.   After the hike we visited the bird refuge center 3 minutes after it had closed, then me and Davis and Ruby walked along the treetop trail.   I put a picture of Sam and Davis the first time we went on that trail.   Oak Mountain has a treasure trove of memories within its gates, and I am glad we are still adding to it.