July 4 2011 (Continued)

Well, the day started with the hanging of a new American flag on the house, followed by a trip to Frank Brown Water Park....followed by a trip to the downtown marina with Nana to watch the beautiful firework display.  All in all it was a good day.

I love when she actually "likes" for you to take a picture

This rotten little thing....I'll just leave it at that :)

Me and my beautiful girls....we don't have many of these pictures as I'm always behind the camera....so, thanks Nana!

This being not only a rarity, but a pure miracle....it didn't even require any threatening!!

Not the cutest picture...but I love the way she's looking at the camera the whole time!!

Believe it or not....after being awake all day...playing in the sun....and not having a nap....they were quite excited to be at the fireworks and posed for lots of pictures!!

Taylor robbing Tori's seat as quickly as she could the second Tori stood up

What, they are kissing....surely not.....ha!!!

Oh Beautiful

And it all ended with ice cream at sonic....what a wonderful day

July 4th 2011

I am sooooo sorry it has been so long since I've posted.  Life has been crazy busy.  We have been spending a lot of time in the sun and water...so all my recent pictures will....look the same!!!  I love that the girls love to play in the water.  Taylor has become a little fish and Tori is very quickly following right in her footsteps.

I go back to saying....I know I'm partial....but these girls are absolutely beautiful.  Whereas they do have a few matching outfits, I'm not overly fond of dressing them alike very often.  But, when we saw these beautiful bathing suits in Target....they both had to have one....and let me tell you....they are soooo stinkin cute.

Just so you know, this pose required a little....ok....a lot of threatening.....but sometimes you just gotta do what ya gotta do!!!

ahhhhhhhh.......pure, simple, beautiful

Bryan bought Taylor this mask....and the rest is history.....swimming like a fish

Oh, here I go again.....I can't resist....they are so stinkin cute....they will probably hate me one day for this :)

The Dreaded End

Day 7 took us to church followed by lunch at the Red Elephant.  Nana joined us so she could see them once more before they returned home.  Danielle's response when we left....I love your mom....my mom's response on Monday.....man, I miss them already.

A WORLD of emotion flooded me that day....of which A LOT I refuse to express....but I will say....
I love you guys with ALL of my heart....I enjoy every minute we get to spend together.....I will always cherish them as they have been some of the best times EVER....I am still forever amazed at the bond the Lord has allowed us to establish....I sincerely hope it will continue to flourish.  I hope in all aspects you felt at home in our home and that you know it is open to you at ANY time!!

I hope you have some insight to the impact you guys have had on the girls lives.  They love you just as much as we do and have said at least one thing about you each day since you've left.
My last thought......lets not wait a whole year before we see each other again!!!!
LOVE YOU GUYS!!

(Aunt Danielle...I will update this post with our picture too if you will send it :) )

Staycation : Day 6

Day six took us to Mexico Beach.  It started out as a very pretty day.  Aunt Teresa and Uncle Shawn joined us for a while and then.....it began to rain!!  The girls enjoyed the water...although they were a little nervous of the fairly decent sized waves that were rolling in.  There were TONS of shells EVERYWHERE and we were sure to collect a few.  Tori and Uncle Chris got started digging a "bathtub"...Aunt Teresa and I finished it!!

Tori and Uncle Chris stopping the construction of their "bathtub" to pose for a quick picture!!

I'm not sure what my deal is with this...maybe I'm thinking of future blackmail shots....but here is my lovely all time favorite....hiney shot AGAIN!!

Ok....so Tori was scared to death of the water and would only go near it if you would hold her....and once again.....HOOK..

LINE....

AND SINKER!!!!!

Just one from the collection we gathered that day!!

"The Bathtub"

The picture does it no justice....it was a rather large "bathtub"!!!

Staycation : Day 5

So day five....the girls and I stayed in for the day because the plan was to eat dinner at Boon Docks about 5 and then take the sunset cruise on the airboat.  Well....about 2:30 the airboat people called and they were cancelling the trip.  So...we went to dinner anyway and followed up with a trip to Pier Park.

The most expensive life sabre's EVER

The most beautiful Ferris Wheel

Ahhhhh....pure, simple, BEAUTY

The DEAREST Aunt Danielle who was the ONLY one willing to ride the scrambler!!

Since I can't even stomach to WATCH the scrambler....I practiced some photography!!

I recon by this time she was sooooo tired of me taking pictures!!

Check out the $1.99 purse....they LOVED them!!

Staycation : Day 4

Ahhhh.....took us to the water again....this time, Frank Brown

We got a little bit of what I was thinking was a late start.  We headed out there about 1:15.  I thought that they closed at 5, but to my pleasant surprise, they did not close until 7.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day AGAIN.  The girls had a blast as they swam, ate snow cones, nachos & ring pops!!

We left there and spent the evening at the Gran Maze.  We did good on the first three checkpoints.  Checkpoint 4 we never could get to.....so what do you do....teach your children to break all the rules and cheat.....we crawled under the fence!!!

I know these two girls have completely worn out Uncle Chris.

They don't want me, they don't want Aunt Danielle.

It is ALL about Uncle Chris.

Well....except for this ONE shot!!!

This little booger LOVES to jump!!

And they really get excited when he pretends to chase them!!

The Three Musketeers?

This really was a good idea...and a lot of fun....until we just could NOT figure out how to get to checkpoint #4

If I tell her I won't hold her....then she goes to one of them....and again....hook line & sinker :)

Wow, she actually posed for me!

Look at those faces....another dead end!!!

I really enjoyed the first 45 minutes of this....it was the girls first time!!

Not so much a dead end this time....more of a "why won't you hold me"

The Three Amigos

Putt Putt Golf....what is that?

As I told Tori....I hope he doesn't have to POOP!!

They loved these giraffes.  The grounds here were actually VERY pretty.

They wanted pictures....well OK, I wanted pictures....by every animal!!

Posing again

So far.....I've managed one miracle a day!!!