the weekend....

We had a great weekend.  As expected!  Quick (yeah right!) recap with lots of pictures of course.  

Saturday morning Blakely woke up super early so we decided to watch some Mick.ey in the bed with Coll.ier and Sy.ble.  Terrible picture but it was such a sweet time.  This was the first time B had seen them because she was asleep when they got here Friday night.  She was so excited.  

We ate breakfast and immediately went out on the boat.  We took a long ride and then stopped to swim for a while.  B was getting very sleepy so we eventually headed back to the house for her to sleep.  Well, she fell asleep on the boat for a bout 10 minutes so once we got back to the house she refused to nap.  Yikes.  I was a little worried about her attitude for later in the day but she did great.  I think she was just distracted with so much going on.  

We hung out on the dock and in the water while my mother in law and her cousin, Andrea, watched B in the house.  My sister in law's friend and her family (husband, aunt, uncle and son) stopped by and hung out on the dock with us for a while.  

After a few hours in the water we headed up to the house to start cooking for the fish fry.  We had another couple and their 2 kids over for dinner and to let the kids play.  They are friends of ours but they also know my brother and sister in law.  We usually have them over when Marshall and Kristen are in town.

My {amazing} mother in law made real french fries.  And she brought all of the groceries...

This sexy guy fried 4 pounds of crappie.  If you are unfamiliar with this fish a) I feel sorry for you and b) you don't pronounce it the way it looks ;) 

one of about 6 trays....

The weather could not have been better.  It was high 80's and not too humid.  Let me just repeat that HIGH 80's!  At the beginning of July!  It is usually 100 by now and so humid you can't breathe.  Thank you thank you thank you!  We were able to sit outside without the mister or even our large umbrella up.  Perfection.  

All of the kids had a ball.  They built a huge fort in my living room.  At one point it was a 2 story fort!  Blakely was just trying to keep up with them and doing a pretty good job of it.  Jeremy was the builder of the forts.  We called him the fort engineer...

Blakely absolutely loved playing in the fort.  She did not want to come out.  It was adorable watching her take toys in there and play by herself.  Such a sweet girl.  

They also made a ton of paper airplanes.  Still finding these in random places...

After we stuffed ourselves with as much food as possible we headed down to the dock to shoot some fireworks.  I just took B down there for the first few because I knew she wouldn't like the loud noises and it was already 930.  

B and I came back up to the house and since she was so sleepy and snuggly I decided to let her watch a Mick.ey in our bed.  This girl didn't go to bed until after 10!  And with only a 10 minute nap.  She was such a trooper and she had an absolute blast playing all day.  The good thing about having bigger kids over is that it shows you that your "big girl" isn't really all that big yet.  Thank goodness.  

When I got back upstairs from putting her down, everyone had broken into the strawberry pie my MIL made.  It was, of course, wonderful.  I could have eaten the whole pie but, alas, I had to share.  

The next morning B did not sleep in.  Not cool my dear.  So we were up bright and early for another fun day.  Coll.ier and Sy.ble have been asking for a long time to see pictures of when my MIL was a child.  They also wanted to see pics of their daddy and uncle Lonnie as kids.  So my MIL brought her projector and slides (can you even believe that?) and put on a slide show for all of us.  It was so fun and the kids had a great time guessing who everyone in the pictures were.  Total hit NanaBob!  

Colli.er and Sy.ble wanted to take another ride on Big Mable before they left so Lonnie and I took them out...just the 4 of us.  

Coll.ier wants to ride really fast and turn in lots of circles.  Syb.le "just wants to ride, not all crazy, just a smooth ride"....her words.  We let him ride by himself first so he could go crazy.  He leans in and loves going outside of the wake.  I told him next year he will be begging Uncle Lonnie to try to throw him off the thing.  

Syb.le said Coll.ier could ride with her but only if we did what she wanted.  So we went slow and gave her a smooth ride.  :)

I love this one.  Look how bored he looks!

There it is!  Our fun summer weekend.  We are hoping they come back in a month and we can do it all again!  Happy 4th of July!