The Young and the Restless

4th of July (Cabins and Cousins part II)

Sometimes things sound like a good idea in theory. Our theory was that it would be a good idea to drag all these kids out of bed early in the morning and take them to the 4th of July parade and festivities in town. The more we talked about it and the later the night went on we decided a better option would be to let everyone sleep in, make a dollar store run in the morning for craft supplies then let them decorate bikes and scooters and have our own parade. It was perfect. The kids had the best time and our not-so-small crowd even drew some of the neighbors out of their houses to come watch as we made our way down that tree lined street with the girls belting out the Star Spangled Banner while the kids threw out salt water taffy (which was later collected by the kids on the return route. Except for one unfortunate sucker that made a bulls eye hit in the back of John's head thanks to the maturity level of Tyler and Jason. Oh man, it was a good hit, the poor guy. They made it up to him later and bought him an .89 polar pop. Seems fair). We spent the rest of the day outdoors with kids running all over, a serious horse shoe tournament underway, a barbecue on the deck and a photo shoot with the girls. We all agreed it was so much better than fighting the crowds. We did make it to the fireworks that night and it was the perfect ending to a pretty much perfect 4th. The older kids played night games late into the night which made me nostalgic because night games were always my favorite part of family reunions growing up. 

Grandma has a hidden talent for under dogs. And so did Aunt Nessa who coined the phrase "Janessa dogs" and went forever down in Jolley family history.

Had to include this out-take because Ryder's face is the best

 

 

Squad goals right here. I think this photo needs to be reenacted 20 years from now. I seriously loved being a fly on the wall listening in to their play and conversations. Maddox and Shannon sat on this log for a solid 30 minutes planning to meet at this exact location in the middle of the night. It didn't happen but they sure had a grand old time planning it.

Julene was so nice and gave everyone gel manicures. She is seriously so talented. I wanted to get a picture of everyone's nails all together, unfortunately it never happened but they all turned out so unique and so dang cute!