Summer Fun

This has been one seriously busy month.

Normally I go to Mississippi every other weekend to visit my sister and nieces but July had other ideas.

The weekend of the 4th Matthew and I went over early Saturday morning and hung out with my sister, dad, mom, step-mom, aunt and grandparents and enjoyed a partially sunny day playing in the pool and cooking out, then headed to the beach that night to watch fire works. We stopped by and picked up his 4yr old niece Lexi on our way out of town and brought her with us so she could meet and play with my 3yr old niece Marley and get to see fireworks on the beach.

Of course none of the fireworks pictures came out but here are a few from the day.

Marley, her cousin Lauren & Matthew's niece Lexi

After it started raining they spent the next several hours running around playing with My Little Ponies until it was time to head to the beach for fireworks

We got to the beach early so we could get a good parking spot close to the fire works and while we were waiting my brother-in-law Tarron walked down to the water with the girls. I have no idea what they were digging for but they had fun doing it.

Marley & Lexi

I don't know if my mom caught them by surprise or if Lexi was posing?!

Me & Marley and Mathew & Lexi

Then the next weekend was the casting call for Biggest Loser AND my sister's 27th birthday, so after standing in the blistering hot sun for over 6 hours, we had to run home, shower, change and head to Mississippi again for a surprise birthday dinner for my sister with our family.

Me & the birthday girl / The birthday girl & our mom

Theresa & her husband Tarron / Tarron & his little sister Kayla

Marley & her BFF Sidda / Friends & Family

Matthew, Me & Paisley / Matthew & Me

(he was exhausted by the end of the night)

Then came the e-mail from Biggest Loser saying I'd made it to the next step in the audition process and needed to make a video of me with my family.... which of course you know by now live in Mississippi so once again we hit the road!

After making the trip two Saturdays in a row we decided to drive over Friday night and stretch this one out a bit. It's only an hour drive to Biloxi, but there and back in one day 2 weekends in a row is a lot of driving! Friday night we chilled and played possibly the most fun game I've ever seen. American Idol Karaoke style on the Xbox 360. You can play competition style, or sing duets with a partner and we had a BLAST!

We made it a bit more fun by playing teams, me and my sister against Matthew and Tarron and one team got to pick the songs the other team sang. All things considered I think the guys did a bang up job on Celine Dion. We have some video of that but I'm too nice to post it and risk making your ears bleed.

Saturday afternoon we went to the park for some fun and Biggest Loser Footage. I'm not sure losing a ton of weight would even help me keep up with Marley. Set that girl loose in a park and she'll play for hours!!

We tried to get some pictures of the girls before we got to the park. Taking pictures of Marley at any time takes an act of congress so getting her to actually sit and smile was a miracle!

Me, Marley & Paisley / Sisters times Two!

Like mother............. like daughter

That slide had one serious dip near the end!

She is fearless! Marley climbed up that rock wall like it was nothing!!

I was only supporting her with my hands. She really pulled herself up the rope.

Then Matthew showed her how to use her feet and she sailed up it!

Fierce concentration

I taunted Matthew that he couldn't climb the rope, which he did with no problem.

Once he was up there sliding was the quickest way down!

Then my mom had to get in on the fun too.

There was a birthday part at the park and they had one of blow up space walk things. The dad came around inviting all the kids at the park to come play and Marley ran to take him up on it.

After we were all thoroughly exhausted, well all but Marley we headed back to my sister's for another round of karaoke, then Matthew and I hit the road to come back home to Mobile.

Three weekends in a row effectively wore us out and we've decided to take a few weekends off to relax and recoup! Our next planned event is a mini vacation to New Orleans the 2nd weekend in August and we'll stop back by my sister's to visit the girls on our way home. Then it's back to school for me and the regular every other weekend visits will resume.

So even though July has without a doubt been the busiest month of the year for me, it's been fun and filled with experiences I'll not soon forget!