Independence Day 2016

Here's the 4th of July post....only a week late! ;)

After Thomas and Ryan left the beach, they came back home for a few days, then Thomas took Ryan up to his hometown in Virginia to see his family on Friday evening through the weekend. I stayed at the beach with Stokes and William until checkout time on Saturday and then drove home Saturday afternoon*. It was so sad to be at home without Dada and Ryan. They came home on Sunday late afternoon and it felt like we had been apart for so long...much longer than the 1/2 a week or so that it actually was! The 4th of July was Monday and Thomas's sisters & families were staying in Virginia until Monday, but I was so glad that Thomas and the boys came home on Sunday instead because I missed them so much! The family was reunited in time for Independence Day 2016!!

We started out the day with a trip to the pool. Our neighborhood pool is usually pretty quiet and sometimes we'll go up there and be the only people there. It's usually more fun if there are other families and kids for the boys to play with (and I like to talk to the other Mamas!). When we first got there on Monday, there were only a few other people there. We packed a lunch and ate at the pool so that we could extend our pool time. The longer we were there, the more and more kids showed up! We were bumping up against our typical nap time, but we were having a great time talking to neighborhood buddies and the boys were playing with the other kids and all was going so well. I really didn't want to leave, and we definitely stayed well past nap time, but we knew we had to get everyone down for an afternoon nap so that we could have our evening festivities go down without too much drama. The fact that all the other kids were showing up later made me wonder what their nap schedule is like. And should we try to change ours??? Anyways...

American family!
Picture at the pool - all wearing red, white and blue
Although Ryan looks totally "over it", he was actually having fun!

After naptime, we had the Youngs over for a cookout and to celebrate America! You may remember from this post from the 4th of July weekend last year that we got to hang out with them then, too. We decided that we will spend the 4th of July with the Youngs annually, with the exception of vacations that may arise. If we're all in town, we will party for the 4th together!

Thomas, the grill master!

William

Caroline + Ryan

He was playing with her hair :)

It's a love connection

Kid playtime!

Stokes was giving Caroline some water from the water bottle
This actually went surprisingly well considering
it was two toddlers!

All the kiddos:
Red, White & CUTE!

Cuties!

Brotherly love

Hugs for brother!

Heather and me (with a Stokes photobomb)

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Patriotic Trio

Heather made these comparison compilation pictures and it's so cute to see these kids together and to see how much they've grown and changed over the last year.

All the kiddos: 2015 and 2016

Ryan and Caroline: 2015 and 2016

*I noted above that I drove home from the beach on Saturday with Stokes and William. This was the longest solo road trip I've done with kids in the car. It went totally fine! I was concerned about doing a road trip this long, had Ryan been there as well, because I would not have had hands for everyone during stops. I would have had to hold Ryan and then I would have only been able to hold on to either Stokes or William, but one would have been without a hand...which makes me nervous (do I sound paranoid?). I kept wondering about what I would have done if I had to stop to use the bathroom somewhere since a triple stroller won't fit in a typical gas station bathroom! Regardless, I only had 2 - and 2 that can both walk - so my job was less demanding than it could have been. The only stop we made coming home from the beach was lunch at McDonald's. The boys did great while we were waiting for our food and despite all the people in there and all the commotion, they stayed near me and would listen if I asked them to come back from wherever they had wandered to. I managed to get drinks, napkins, etc without spilling the tray (yay me!) and we found a booth to eat. We ended up sitting next to this nice family from Missouri who had just been at Myrtle Beach and were driving back home. Talk about a long drive! It was 2 days worth! I almost felt bad saying that I only had 1.5 hours left of my drive...#grateful. Anyway, this family was so nice. The grandparents talked to the boys and asked them questions and didn't seem annoyed at all when they wouldn't sit still. When we were done and it came time to leave, they were incredibly nice and insisted that they would get all my trash for me and throw it away since I had my hands full. They truly made this nervous-nelly Mama feel better and more relaxed. It was a small gesture that truly meant a lot. Nice people are everywhere. We all need to keep this in mind! Especially during a time of such turmoil and violence. Love makes the world go 'round and we can all use more love.

**HAPPY 4TH OF JULY**

p.s. Who's excited for the Olympics?!?!?!?! I can't wait to see USA dominate!