{july 24}

Yes, I know, this is a month late, but I'm trying to play catch up, so bear with me! This year was the first year that we have gone to Adrian's home town for the weekend of the 24th of July. We were the only ones of his siblings to spend the night, which we thought was pretty nice, because we got grandma and grandpa (Adrian's parents) all to ourselves. However, Saturday morning we realized why no one else came to spend the night. At 6:00 a.m. the fire station turned on it's siren and ALL of the fire trucks and police cars drove around town with their sirens on, as a silly wakeup call for the holiday...that they do every year. Needless to say it was completely ridiculous and woke me up, however the kiddos actually stayed asleep until the sirens went right by the house, and then Alexis woke up. By some miracle, Carter actually stayed asleep. That afternoon was the town parade. A few of Adrian's sisters came to town for that, and many of Adrian's cousins and extended family members were there. Most of the floats threw candy, so Alexis and her cousins were pretty content to sit through the whole parade and see how much candy they could get. It was a fun weekend, and always nice to spend time with family.
This was our first out-of-town experience with the 2 kids, and it turned out pretty good. Carter did sleep so well the first night, but seemed to get a little better each night that we were there. It was nice to come home though, it's always nice to get back to a "routine" after being away.

 Carter's first parade! He did really well, considering how long we were there and how hot it was! Doesn't he look just darling in his little hat?

 Adrian's mom, and Alexis' cousins, April and Spencer

(not the greatest picture....just ignore all of the extra arms in the picture:)

Parade pictures of Alexis and her cousin Alana. Her cousin Robyn was there too, but I didn't get any good pictures of the 3 of them at the parade. The horses were, of course, Alexis' favorite!

 Grandpa (Adrian's dad) grillin' up a yummy holiday dinner.

 The kiddos. (Alexis, Alana, Spencer, & Robyn...little April, Robyn's sister, isn't in the picture).

Alexis is a year younger than the girls and and a year older than Spencer. She sure LOVES spending time with her cousins. I'm so glad they have such a good time together!

"Make a silly face!" :)