our holiday weekend

Happy belated 4th of July, all! I hope the weather cooperated wherever you were celebrating. We were at Jeff's parent's house, and unfortunately, the weather did not get the memo about our party. We were stuck inside due to rain but still had a nice time catching up with family. And of course, Jeff's mom and aunts put on a delicious spread. I always eat WAY TOO MUCH when we're there. Oh well.

Today, the weather was awesome, perfect, bottle-me-up-and-sell-me terrific. Jeff & I planned a unique "date" this morning...we strapped on our shoes and went for a 7.5 mile run together while Emerson stayed home with Grandma & Grandpa. I think we all benefited from that time. Then, our good friends Mike & Adri and their twin boys Tyler and Lucas came over to play. We literally NEVER went inside! It was so nice to have the room to play and the interesting stuff to keep everyone's attention...between the sand pit, ponds, playhouse, and chalk everyone was busy having fun. I love seeing my kiddo playing with the children of friends that I've known for years. I don't think I'll ever get tired of that.

On to the pictures!

Grandma brought out of some of Papa's old cars and toys and Em was enthralled! She loved them.

Grandma scored a smokin' deal on this playhouse. We had to drag Emerson out of it when it was time to go.

There is a family of tiny frogs living in the pond. Em loves to see them and the fish in the water.

Sometimes, she likes to get a wee bit too close to those frogs!

We made our own parade in the driveway.

This is my favorite picture from the weekend...it captures Emerson's ever-moving energy and her LOVE of the flag. She's seriously obsessed with them and was quite excited to hear that they'd be all over the place on July 4th!

Jeff showed the boys the frogs in the pond.

Emerson was not excited about sharing the playhouse and quickly found herself in Timeout after trying to forcibly remove Lucas from the house.

But eventually, Em was able to come to terms with the fact that the boys were here to stay. She and Tyler had fun digging for, well, dirt.

Jeff's dad has a rain barrel on the deck, and this was a never ending source of entertainment for all 3 kiddos. It was also a perfect place to hose off after playing in the dirt and eating a messy lunch.

Make it a great week...it's going to be a busy one for us. We LOVE summertime!