Fourth of July!

Our Fourth of July was fun and... wet! We had my sister and her family come visit from Iowa and it poured rain most of their visit! Bummer! The Franklin fireworks were even cancelled due to rain and thunderstorms! But of course, when you put 6 cousins together, there is still lots of fun to be had!

My first attempt at decorating the mantel for a holiday. Turned out pretty good! 

We always seem to have rain when visitors come in town so this was our third trip to the indoor gardens at Gaylord Opryland. It's free and always a fun time. 

I loved how Lily was holding Stephen's hand. So sweet. 

We stopped in at the Johnston and Murphy store there to look for some mens shoes and Britney and I made our husbands pose! Haha! (Their names are Jeremy and Merrick. Perfect!)

We also did a quick drive through downtown to see the honky tonks, and we got out during a break in the rain to play at Centennial Park. Of course we checked out the Parthenon before hitting the playground.

The kids loved doing a sort of tightrope walk around the exterior of the Parthenon. 

At one point on Thursday I texted my brother Jordan that J&M picture and told him he should drive up from Texas and come hang out with us! Lucky for us he made the 13 hr drive spontaneously!! It was so fun to have him here for a couple days. The kids loved it.

Saturday we drove to the Loveless Cafe. Yum! We got there and it was a two hour wait... So we decided to get take out and it worked out great. 20 mins later we were eating on a damp picnic table outside (it had just stopped raining). 

After we ate we played corn hole with the set they leave out for patrons. 

Then we walked around downtown Franklin, stopped at Sweet Cece's for delicious froyo, and stopped at the church for a little 2 on 2 basketball for the men. 

Britney and I chatted on the stage while they played and then we realized the kids had left and were probably making a mess in the church. We found them in the Relief Society room conducting a meeting. :) 

Precious. They said they were each giving talks on "spying". :) 

In the afternoon we enjoyed the sun that finally came out and took the kids on a walk down to the field of wild flowers in our neighborhood. It was gorgeous.

That night we offered to babysit while Britney and Jeremy went to see Carrie Underwood and others at the Grand Ole Opry show. We made snack necklaces and watched a movie.

Cute cousins! The next day Britney and her family left and Jordan stayed and went to church with us and we walked down to the river with him in the afternoon. It was nice to spend some extra time with him before he had to drive back to Texas. 

Despite the rain our holiday was so fun and we loved having family in town! 

June

[Meant to post this a while ago! Oops!] We have had a great summer so far! It's been hot and humid most of the time but we've still had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures to document that we didn't just sit inside in the AC the whole month of June. :) 

But really we have enjoyed some fun times indoors as well. The first activity I scheduled for our summer break was a week long soccer camp for A and C. They really liked it, the coaches were awesome, and I really liked the indoor soccer field, especially since there was thunderstorms and tornado warnings all week. At the end of the camp they got a trophy. Their firsts, so they were excited. 

The next week we did VBS- Vacation Bible School at the church Camryn went to for preschool last year. It was a little shocking at first to hear rock songs about Jesus and cheer leading about prayer but the kids had a great time! Here they are on wacky day. 

Then we had a week off and it was nice to not have anywhere we HAD to go every day. 

One day we went to the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro. It was so much fun! We could have stayed all day. Even Merrick was busy playing the whole three hours we were there! 

Then we had an awesome neighborhood 4th of July party (fireworks show included!) and we ended June with Avery's 7th birthday!

We had a great month! July is shaping up to be really awesome too... :)

Texas!

For Memorial Day we took a long weekend trip to visit my parents in Houston, Texas! We had a wonderful time. My parents have lived there for 7 years I think but we have only been there a couple times to visit. Now that we live a "short" 13 hr drive away, we were happy to make the trip! 

Our first full day there we played in the pool, definitely a highlight for the kids. 

Then in the evening we went to a Houston Astros baseball game and had amazing seats. Merrick tried out the crawfish boil but the rest of us played it safe with hot dogs. :) 

The next day we went to church in my parents ward and after lunch we drove to San Antonio. We of course had to stop at Buc-ee's, basically the coolest rest stop ever. 

We were decked out with Buc-ee's gear by the time we left. :)

We went to dinner at the Olive Garden in San Antonio and then drove downtown. Unfortunately the Alamo was closed but we did get to ride the boat ride on the Riverwalk and that was magical. I never knew San Antonio was such a cool, romantic city! 

The next morning we got up early and headed to Sea World San Antonio! It was our first Sea World experience and it did not disappoint! The weather was perfect and the crowds weren't too bad. We got to see several shows, ride some rides, get wet, and see some cool animals. 

That evening we drove back to Houston and the next morning we were back on the road coming home. We had a great trip and the kids did great in the car, despite 3 episodes of carsickness. It was a really cool drive for me, too, because I've never been to Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana before. I was in awe of how the freeway would go for miles and miles on these stilts through the bayous. 

Very cool. We enjoyed seeing all the state lines we were crossing but the Welcome to Tennessee was very nice to see after a long drive. :) 

PreK graduation

Camryn had her PreK graduation this week. She went to a Christian preschool all spring twice a week from 9am-2pm. It was a fun class and she loved her teachers. The program was pretty cute and they sang some Spanish songs they learned as well was Christian songs like "Hosanna Rock" and "My God is so Big". :)

It's been nice for Camryn to make some friends through school. She is very ready for kindergarten this fall too. (Although that means it will be just me and Lily all day every day so I don't know what we will do with ourselves!) I have been teaching Camryn to read and what was initially a struggle has now become fun and something she looks forward to working on with me everyday. She also now tries to pick up a book and see how many sight words she knows, which is great. I am so proud of her!