We loved everything about this amazing day, cutie pie tantrums and all!

Art with the best!  They have no idea how much people pay to sit down and paint with their great aunt, who is teaching them right in this moment!  All I’ve got to say is, lucky!  It’s amazing to have a gift and have the best teacher… beautiful combination. 

  

 

My Mom’s (Rose Mary/Rosie/Rara/The Ra, lol) sister, my Aunt Joe, spending time doing art with the Anna Kate and Noelle = awesome!

 

Rose marches to the beat of a different drum!  I love this picture of our baby in the spotlight doing her thing!  I also adore this picture of Aunt Joe Anna with our Anna Kate (namesake of Aunt Joe)… they do look like kindred spirits!

Sweet, trouble, pokey objects, smiles, kisses, imagination, LOVE!

 

Our crazy family has so much fun together!

The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah!

 

This picture of Mike and me was taken right after mom asked us to take a “kiss” picture.  When we puckered up, she just waited and waited to click the button.  Finally, we started giggling, and by that time, Rara had already put the camera down and was laughing so hard she couldn’t stop!  She thought she was so funny, and she was!  We were all goofing off, smiling and having fun!  Sweet Rara always knows how to make everything fun!

 

More precious cousin/Rara moments 

This right here… mmm, mmm, mmm!  There is nothing more precious in all the world than a newborn baby, and right now, Saylor is our guest of honor!

 

And don’t you dare forget about Harper girl… she will cuddle and snuggle with the best of them!  I can’t wait to see these precious Banks girls again!!!

Pool talk with the baby sisters, Rose and Aunt E… I think these two have a lot in common, and if Rose turns out anything like her great aunt, we are good to go!  Love you, Aunt E!!!

Anna Kate pushed over a pipe in the hot tub, and Brother Man worked under water to try to fix it.  Anna Kate knew he was trying to get her out of a jam (trouble), so his trust was earned.  From this moment on, she let him hold her, and she doesn’t let just anyone hold her.  You are guilty until proven innocent with this Pond girl.  So now, Brother Man has  friend for life!

Gary and Mary’s beautiful girls

 

The girls and I watched the ants on this step (left) for at least an hour one night, and talked and talked about families/groups of people, and how we are stronger when we work together than we ever would be by ourselves.  At the top of this step, we had no idea what the ants would do with their treasured red bug.  But, slowly and surely, three little ants, held this big bug and made it to the bottom of the step.  See how there are two ants on top and one of the ants is just holding on to the other for traction and balance.  How do they know how to work together so flawlessly?  It was insanely fascinating.  So, although this picture might gross you out, and you would never watch ants for any length of time, these creatures taught me a the girls a great deal tonight!  I’ll never forget my little stories in action while the girls were watching first hand about all the life lessons I was trying to teach them.  Hopefully they were listening and picked up something they can take with them from this spontaneous observation… and then we were back to partying!  The Thurmans have these adorable saddle bar stools and the girls love eating their snacks, pretending to be cowgirls the whole time.

 

Noelle enjoying taking pictures of Saylor (wonder where she got that from, lol), and Mike loving on his big girl!

 

Noelle enjoying being Noelle and Saylor’s great aunts doting over her! (Aunt Joe [middle sister], Aunt Elsie [baby sister] and Rara [the big sister])

 

Harper had her birthday party the week before our trip, so we anxiously awaited seeing her to give her a special “H” book Noelle picked out for her that has a pad of paper in it to color to her heart’s desire!

Love this sweet curly haired cutie!

 

Backyard babies enjoying Rara’s zucchini muffins!

Beautiful girls ready for the fireworks, which were unbelievable this year!  My camera broke right as we were leaving to go to watch the fireworks, so I’ll describe my experience.  I had Noelle and Anna Kate both in my lap on a cozy lawn chair 10 feet from the lake, with the gentle waves in the background and the wind blowing on our warm faces.  It was absolutely surreal and perfect in every way!  One of the most favorite moments of my life, for sure.  And then the tears started flowing with each firework explosion reflecting on our freedoms and our strong love for each other!

 

Beautiful brown-eyed girls!  In the right picture, I asked Harper to find a picture of a cow for me, and she flipped through the pages and did it!  So cute!  Then we all moo-d really loudly!

 

Ring around the Rosie… we are so cute!  After they all fell down, Rose kept saying, “Let try again!”  That meant lets do it again.  “I try again!”  What precious memories I’ll treasure for always.

*Still no camera, and these are the last pictures our camera that we’ve had since Noelle was born will ever take again, but guess what?  The last two days of our vaca, I took pictures with Mike’s phone… so, he loaded them on my computer tonight, and lo and behold, there were 200… so folks, we’re back in business a little bit longer, lol!