The Summer Story: Part 2

We started the month of July with a visit from Matt's mom, his sister Joanna, and nieces Hallie and Rozalyn. We were also finishing up piano camp and scout camp that week. And it was Rockstars birthday. We celebrated her birthday with cupcakes at the pool. Matt's family left Friday afternoon and my sister arrived that night with her kiddos and in-laws Jeff and Glenda. They came to celebrate the Fourth with us Peachtree City style.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early for the parade.



We met up with lots of great friends and waited for the parade to start.



We love the parade. The kids love getting candy thrown at them. And Matt loves to heckle the participants. But he didn't come with us this year and it was definitely not the same.



Caveman had fun with his friends too. I barely saw him all day.



We went home after the parade and had lunch then Matt and Jeff went to play golf and the ladies went up to the city. I had to pick up my race packet for the next day and Glenda and Mar wanted to go to Ikea. Then we hurried back home to pack up and head out for fireworks. We met up with a bunch of our friends at the golf course and waited for the fireworks to start.













Lots of good times with lots of good people. And I'm sure the golf course didn't mind that our kids used their bunker as a sandbox.

The next morning Matt and I woke up super early for the Peachtree Road Race. We drove to the MARTA station then boarded a train to the city. The closer we got to the city the more crowded that train got. I couldn't believe how many people were crammed into that train.

We finally made it to our stop and met up with Matt's brother Brent. Then walked to the start. I hadn't run a race since high school and was totally excited. And a little nervous. And I couldn't believe how many people were there. Over 50,000. It was really fun. And hot. And did I mention how many people were there? Craziness. We met up with my sister and kids after the race and decided to wait until the trains were less crowded to head home. We took it easy the rest of the day, then made Rigatoni D for dinner. It was a good day.

My sister and her crew left the next day. (We're only five days into July, this is going to be a long post.) After they left, I talked to Ami and her brothers were in town. So the kids and I headed north for the day. But then decided to spend the night. We got home the next day just in time for me to get ready for a hot date. Matt was taking me to see Phantom of the Opera!

Matt and I go out on dates a lot but not very often do we get to dress up. And I didn't take any pictures. We went to Maggianos for dinner. So delicious! And then headed over to the fabulous Fox theatre for the show. It was our first time at the Fox and we both were amazed by it. It's a beautiful theatre. My favorite part of the night was watching Matt get so excited to show me our seats. He did a great job choosing them. It was perfect. We loved the show, it was my first time seeing it, but the guy that played the Phantom was having an off night, hit a couple bad notes. But other than that it was great. And it was the last time the tour is coming to Atlanta so I'm glad we got to see it. We definitely need to go to the theatre more often!

I spent the next day packing then Thursday we flew to Memphis. And I'm pretty sure we were bumped off at least one flight, flying was soooo bad this summer and all of our trips are running together. Anyway, we made it to Memphis. I mentioned earlier in the post that Rockstar had a birthday. Well it was her 8th birthday so it was time to get baptized. And she wanted to get baptized with her cousin Carly. Carly is about three weeks older than Rockstar and they were blessed on the same day. So it just seemed right for them to get baptized on the same day too.





My mom bought two baptism dresses a few years ago before the oldest cousins got baptized. She had to buy two because we have some twins. So it worked out great for these cute girls.



I love the pictures of them as babies smooching on each other. Too cute. And the picture in the middle was taken on their blessing day.





It was a great day. The girls asked Nana and Uncle Chad to give talks and they did a great job and the girls sang a song together. It was fantastic.

After the baptism we all went swimming at Aunt Dodie's house. She doesn't have a very big pool. And my family is huge. Four brothers, one sister, five spouses and 21 children. Oh, and my friend Pam came over with her four kids too. It was a lot of fun. And really great to reconnect with Pam! We grilled out steaks back at my parents house and just had a great day with family. We were flying out the next morning and all the kids were begging to stay longer. The oldest three were able to talk aunts and uncles into letting them stay longer. So Matt and I flew out the next morning first thing with only two kids in tow. That is so strange.

We thought we'd have a peaceful week with only two kids. Turns out we left all the easy ones in Memphis. The ones we brought home are the ones that make messes and need help with almost everything. But it was good. One day that week we got to meet up with some old friends. Mary Henrie, one of my favorites, was visting from Alaska. We met her and her family for lunch and it was so good to see her. Matt flew back to Memphis on Thursday to pick the kids up. He had no problems getting there but missed several flights back to Atlanta. They finally got home about midnight that night. And it was so good to see them. The noise was even nice. For a couple of days.

The next week was Sassy's 11th birthday. She invited a couple of friends to come to the pool and then sleep over. I can't believe she is already 11. She is so fun and loud and strong willed and tender and as much as I hate how fast she's growing up, I'm excited to see the person she becomes.

We finished up July getting ready for school to start, spending as much time at the pool as possible and getting as many sleepovers in as we could. We got to go the lake too. It was such a great summer. Too bad it had to end.