4th of July Weekend Celebration - Part 1

The 4th of July is a pretty big holiday for my fam. We all go down to Blackwater River with the boats, find a good sandbar, and chill as long as the weather allows us to. The fam decided to go down to the river on Sat instead of on Monday, the actual 4th, due to the river being crazy packed with people. The girls were super pumped about riding in PawPaw's big boat again :)


Aunt Em and cousin Kaylea

Aunt Juliet and cousin Landon

The girls and Kaylea...too cute!

Playtime!

Aunt Teresa and Aunt Kim

Cousin Sawyer and cousin Landon...with their tractors and trucks, of course :)

Yes, Shane looks ticked in this pic. He is. The reason is because about 5 seconds after we got out of the pontoon boat and into the water, Landon found a crab in the sand under the water....THUS, the Gabster FREAKED out and then thought that if she put her feet in the water even an inch that the "baby cwabs were going to eat her toes off". SOOOO, she was refusing to get in the water and wanted daddy to play with her on the shore....where it was a zillion degrees :)

They built sandcastles....

while Jocie, Kaylea and PawPaw squirted each other with the noodle :)

After a good LONG hour, Gabbie gets a TINY bit more brave and decides she will get in the water as long as her feet don't touch AT ALL. Geeeeez....but I guess it was progress :)

SO, she got in every tube that was there....

And laid on every long float that was there....

and totally managed to keep her feet completely out of the water at all times. What are we gonna do with this OCD child?!?!?

PawPaw and MawMaw relaxing before the GIGANTOR lightening storm moved in which we all got caught in...there are no pics of that for obviously reasons....We all are still alive, praise the LORD :) It was a fun day down at the river minus the "mild" panic attack I had during the storm ...anyone that knows me knows that me and storms aren't great friends....especially bad lightening storms while we are in an aluminum boat under an aluminum awning on the water surrounded by tall trees :)

That afternoon after the storms passed, the daddy and kiddos played in the pool

Then it was sparkler time!

I think Gabbie was just a bit tense :)

We finished the day off with DELICIOUS homemade ice cream...pineapple and banana. Both were FABULOUS. The girls LOVED helping MawMaw put ice in the ice cream maker :)

The next morning, the girls swam some more and then they had their first ever fishing experience down at PawPaw's pond...they LOVED it. They each "caught" aka....Shane would hook 'em and they would reel 'em...several baby brim. They were amazed :)

Gabbie looks like a pro....look at that form :)

On Sunday a bunch of our family gathered at my grandma's house for lunch. Just look at this spread.....

And grandma's famous chicken-n-dumplings....They are unbelievable.

And multiple deserts, of course :)

Some of the great-grands chowing down...

My grandma with two of her sons and her daughter...Uncle Tim, My mom, and Uncle Allen...

Aunt Emily holding the newest Great-Grandbaby...Juliana

The girls were obsessed with their new worms (fishing lures) that they found down at the pond..

We finished off our day in Jay with watermelon, of course :)

Which, by the way, is the ONLY fruit this child will eat....very odd, I know :)

We had a fabulous time in Jay celebrating with my fam. The Part 2 post of our weekend will be coming shortly.


This is a total sidenote, but one of my favorite things about my parent's place is their driveway. Everytime I am over there I want to take a picture of it but I always forget. I happened to remember this time. It's not a normal driveway. Years ago when I was ALOT younger my dad decided to take some (or actually a WHOLE BUNCH) of these.....

And turn in into this....

It took a ton of hard work and time but I'm so glad he did it b/c I think it is super cool and different. It makes the place unique. I like that.