July 4th and Summer Fun!

Let freedom ring, it's Independence Day! Happy Birthday America. I keep thinking every holiday that they are so much better now that I get to see them through the eyes of my kids. Fisher might be a little young at this point, but it's still special getting him out and doing things as a family of 4! J is getting old enough that he does have a lot of fun doing new things and seeing new things. He gets it ;) We went to Madison for the day on July 4th. It was such a gorgeous day, especially for the middle of summer in Alabama. It was cooler than it had been with a nice breeze. We spent most of the day outside, which of course, made Jonah's day! 

He loved chasing the doggies!

Fisherman had a great day, too. He slept more than usual, which I think is because we spent so much time outside. It was just peaceful. 

It's super hard to take pics of these two! 

My angel cakes! I just adore that smile! Sun's out...guns out (as Daddy says)

This boy tore up some corn! Our food was SO yummy. We had ribs, chicken, bratwurst, corn, baked beans, rolls, and lemon pie for desert. Yum!

We went to the neighborhood pool and had such a good time. J really loves the pool now that he can jump in to his Daddy and swim around (almost) by himself. 

Oh yeah...we had the pool totally to ourselves! I was afraid there would be too many people there for us to get the little ones in. Boy was I wrong! Everyone must have been at the lake ;) 

Me and this little snuggle monster just floated around. He was in paradise! Notice he is sucking his thumb? Yeah that happens a lot lately...

My best attempt. They're super cute in their sleeveless t's though!

We had a great time in Madison and hated to leave, but we needed to get home to get ready for fireworks with the cousins! They played in the back until it got a little later, and so I could feed Brubby and get him to bed...or so I thought!

They really liked the poppers. They liked throwing them, but especially stomping on them!

Pretty Pretty Princess

He decided he did not want to go to bed. He wanted to be part of the action, too. Bless him, he just didn't want to be left out.

Me with my babies watching fireworks from the back of Daddy's truck!

Sweet precious cousins

Once the main fireworks were done, I went back inside to try to get Fisher asleep. He was up over an hour past his bedtime. We ended the pretty much perfect day with Thunder on the Mountain on tv. That's the way to do it ;)

Some other summer randomness....

They are just so sweet together! It warms my heart. Jonah likes to make Brubby laugh, and Brubs really likes to watch Jonah run around being crazy. 

Ok, funny story that I didn't want to forget. Grandpa has been coming around a lot more recently to hang out with the boys. He usually brings a little something each time. Mom told him that Jonah has been asking for a giraffe recently. He came in with two of the same t-shirts. This is the smaller one. It's huge, and purple, and a girl's v-neck T! We laughed and laughed and laughed! Bless him, he tries. The next time he came, he brought a 2 foot tall stuffed giraffe from Toys r us and totally redeemed himself. We never had the heart to tell him about the huge girl's shirt, though!

J got his first fish! We got him when we got back from the beach. We gave him the option of naming him Finn or Sharky (mine and Derek's pics). By no surprise, he decided on...Finn! I made the comment that he named the fish after Finn McMissile from Cars and we couldn't leave the store without Crush the turtle from Nemo. My life revolves around Disney, and I absolutely love it!

Meet Finn the fish!

Daddy got himself a basketball goal. Him and J have been playing a bunch :)

So, Derek came across this list about things you have to do in Birmingham. We realized that we have not done most of the things on that list. We have decided to do at least one a weekend. The first thing was this amazing park in Leeds. It has the biggest slides in Birmingham, and it is HUGE! J was a little intimidated by the big slides, but he had fun. 

He really liked this small area, because he could play by himself a little easier.

Had to get some froyo!

We went through the car wash the other day, and J's face just cracked me up! He wasn't really scared, just a little nervous!

The next thing on the list was Vulcan! I'm 26 years old and just now visiting Vulcan. I kinda had the wrong idea about it. I thought it was going to be in this rough area of town and hard to get to and sketchy once you did get there. It actually was super easy to find, very nice and well-kept area, cheap, and a beautiful view of the city. I was also very thankful for an elevator since we had the stroller for Brubs!

He saw a choo-choo in the distance

We also checked off Steel City Pops from the list! I've heard how great the Buttermilk popsicle is, so I had to try it. OMG so good! It's basically like the yummy cream cheese fruit dip, but as a popsicle. Derek has been begging to go back, but we were just there yesterday!

This was this morning before church. I just thought he looked precious :) We worked hard for this pic though. He is doing so great at Sunday school. He just walks right in and gets to playing!

We went over to see Lele for her birthday today! I don't think I have a pic of these three! They are just so sweet to Fisherman. They will just talk to him and "pet" him so sweetly!

Fisher was loving D tonight! 

We are having such a great summer just soaking up the sweet time with our little ones! Can't wait to make more memories and check more fun things off the list!!!