FINALLY.....

We've made it home from vacation. WooHoo! It only took 11.5 hours from the time we left the beach until we actually pulled in the driveway. Whew! I AM TIRED!! The vacation was a wonderful ending to a jam packed exciting month of June! We had my mom here for two weeks, during which we did LOTS of running around. I counted it up and there were 10 days in a row we were gone for at least most of the day! Part of one of those days was spent at one of my favorite thrift stores where I hit the jackpot with a little bag of Strawberry Shortcake dolls. That might be the best $2.48 I've ever spent. I'm talking HOURS of entertainment for Emma. Also, during the time my mom was here I attended a weekend crop, which my friend Paulette coordinated. Toward the end of mom's visit I made a spur of the moment decision to ride the train back with her and visit my friend Tina and her kiddos. It was Emma's very first trip on the train, and I must say that I might start using that mode of transportation more often. It was so nice not to have to drive that incredibly boring 600 miles round trip. And believe it or not, it was actually CHEAPER to take the train than to drive. So, we got back from Picayune on a Friday and then Emma went to Bible school later that night. Bible school continued through the weekend and prompted me to attend my first church service in the last 5 or 6 years. And WOW, was it a great service. I will be going back! The whole idea of attending church in your flip flops and having music played by a band rather than an organ is somewhat of a shock to this Southern Baptist girl, but I like it!! Fast forward to the next day...my cousin and her two girls arrived via train for a much anticipated visit. Boy, those little girls (mine included) never slowed down! We went to the the inflatable playground, hung out on Emma's super cool new backyard playground (that's a whole other post in itself), and we made a trip to Alabama Adventure. My cousin, bless her heart, ended our theme park adventure with a severe case of motion sickness. Just picture her hanging her head over the edge of the medic's golf cart as they transport her to first aid. The poor girl couldn't even walk, much less stop vomiting! Once she felt a little better we, of course, had to make fun of her! Ok, so they were here for 5 days, then we left a few hours later for our annual beach vacation with the Holladay family. This year we decided to try something different and stay at one of those resort places on the bay rather than the beach. We figured since we don't really get that much time on the beach, then why not invest in a place with a super cool pool, water slides and a lazy river. Well, the lazy river left A LOT to be desired, but the water slides were a HUGE HIT! Still, we missed the sound of the ocean crashing into the shore way more that we enjoyed the pool, so I don't think we'll go back to the bay next year. I'll leave you with a slide show from our week of swimming and water slide bliss. Oh, by the way, my sweet baby girl learned to swim WITHOUT HER FLOATIES! (sniff, sniff)