Summer is Here!!

I am sure everyone is glad I am DONE blogging about Texas!! I know I feel better with that done and now I can move on to the rest of the year, haha.

When we got home from Texas, summer was in full swing. It still took awhile for it to get REALLY hot. Being gone for almost a month is no joke and it's kinda hard to figure out where to start with everything. I mean laundry and unpacking? Who wants to do that when it is pretty outside. So, instead, we planned lots of playdates, went back to work, caught up on some doctor's appointments, celebrated our 5 year anniversary, celebrated new babies, and celebrated Tripp turning three!! I mean, it's summer, who needs to worry about house work.

And man did we enjoy our summer. I love how it is just so laid back and go with the flow and do what you feel like doing when you get up. No schedule. It is nice.

When blogger loaded my pictures on here, they ended up being out of order, and I am too lazy to fix them, so here is what we did in June. In no particular order.

The Zoo!! We spent lots of time at the zoo this summer. One of our favorites. So easy, shaded, bring your own lunch. Fun friends. Man had we missed our Tripp!! Lyla could not wait to see Tripp once we got back from Texas, so that play date was scheduled quickly.

First time watching the bird show they have at the zoo. We had never stopped to watch it before and we probably won't again. It wasn't that great and the kids were not in to it at all. They were more concerned about snacks. 

Sweet Camille.

Such a happy girl!

These two are such sweet friends. I love watching them interact. They are just getting to an age where they are actually starting to play together, instead of just parallel playing. It is fun to see them have their own conversation and enjoy their time together. It is always sad when they have to leave each other. 

Next up, our POOL!! Man do we L.O.V.E having a pool in our backyard. The convenience factor ALONE makes it worth it. Put our suits on, walk downstairs, throw some sunscreen on and grab a towel. Walk outside. Yes please. SO EASY!! We quickly gave up taking care of our pool on our own. We have an amazing pool company whom we LOVE. They started getting it ready in May and by the time we got home, we had a sparkling pool, ready to use. They come once a week and do a seriously awesome job. Could not live without them. We will definitely continue using them each summer.

Gotta love this life. Weekends were filled with this....when is wasn't raining or cold. What the heck?? It rained almost all summer and like I said, the pools took forever to warm up. SO glad we did swim lessons with Lyla because the pool was never too cold for her. But since she was doing such a great job with her swimming, I could sit on the side and just watch her swim. Awesome.

Pawpaw and Lyla.

Family loved coming over to swim. I cannot wait for the coming years for this to be the place to hang out in the summer time. It will be so much fun as Lyla gets older and has friends over.

Allison and Lyla.

We also hit up the splash pad several times this summer. We went to our regular one at Riverside Park, but we found a few more around our house that we loved as well. East Roswell Park was GREAT!! Never crowded. And Old Atlanta Park we loved. That one is seriously great. Great shaded playground and the splash pad. Picnic tables to lunch. We hit that on up several times with Lindsey and Oliver, Jacqueline and Molly. We loved it. And you seriously cannot beat paying $1 or $2 to get in and enjoy it as much or as little as you want. It is nice to have a "water playground" instead of having to always be in the heat at the regular playground. But don't worry, we did lots of that too.

Lyla and Molly. This is when is was still freezing cold, so Molly was not so sure.

We did lots of sleeping in. So glad to have a child that loves to sleep!! And this picture is decieving. No, we don't let Lyla sleep with us. She would never actually sleep if we did and we never thought it a good idea to get in the habit of. This is on a Saturday morning after I had already gotten up and gotten Lyla. These two were being lazy and not wanting to get up. Lyla is only pretending to sleep, something she finds really funny. And it is, especially when she adds in the snoring sounds.

We went to Catch Air for Tripp's birthday. This was our first Catch Air experience and it was so fun. Lyla LOVED it. Adam came with us, which is a huge deal since he never attends little kid birthday parties with us. Most of the other dads were coming and this was a good "active" party for him to come to. He chased Lyla around the play structures and I was able to socialize. Hahaha.

They had a cute little dance party on this light-up floor for the kids at Tripp's birthday. Even Buzz Lightyear made an appearence. They loved this! Even though I don't think Lyla had a clue who he was.

Umm, can they stop growing up now??

This girl LOVES to dance. She dances all the time. 

Happy Birthday sweet Tripp. Cannot believe you are three??!!

The month of June really flew by because let's admit, time flies when you are having fun and you get home from Texas at the beginning and you head to the beach at the end!!

The Wedding and Heading Home

We stayed at a Comfort Suites for the wedding, and just like the hotel in San Antonio, this one was great as well. It did not have a separate sitting room, but it did have a little half wall in between the king bed and the pull out couch. That made it so Lyla could not see us at least. The staff was really friendly and they had a nice indoor pool.

The morning of the wedding, we really did not have any responsibilities (at least I didn't, Allison and my mom went and ran some errands for Pauline), so we slept in, ate our free hotel breakfast and then got our bathing suits on to swim for a bit before lunchtime. For some reason, the pool was freezing, I guess it wasn't heated?? But it was too cold for me. But I was the lucky chosen one to swim with Lyla, so I toughed it out until Adam could get in.

After swimming, we were hungry, so we went out to find some lunch food. My maps said there was a CFA close by, but we drove around and did not have any luck finding it. Turns out, my map took us the wrong direction cause we saw it on the way to the wedding. We found a Firehouse Subs, which is just as yummy and brought back food for everyone to eat. We ate lunch and put Lyla down for a little nap. I don't remember her actually sleeping, it is hard to take a nap, when we had to get ready for the wedding at the same time.

We got ready and headed to the wedding venue. This time it was on a ranch, outside, under a tree (like how I thought the rehearsal dinner would be). The weather was PERFECT!! It was not too hot and there was a constant breeze blowing the entire time which really helped cool things down. The ceremony was outside under a tree overlooking a lake and just breathtaking. The reception was held inside the barn and was gorgeous. Perfectly pinterest, vintage, shabby chic. Perfect. 

Really it is unfair to all of us whose weddings came pre-pinterest. There are so many things I would do differently. But one thing wouldn't change for sure and that is who I married!!

I thought Sarah's hair looked really pretty for the wedding.

We got there early for family pictures. Emily looked gorgeous. Her dress was absolutely amazing. She looked just radiant for her wedding day.

Uncle Kent, Aunt Pauline, Emily, Bryant and William.

Emily and Bryant with both sets of parents.

Literally just stunning.

Emily and my aunt and uncle.

Daddy and daughter.

Emily with her Granpap. 

My beautiful sister, the MOH. I absolutely LOVED the bridesmaids dresses. They were gorgeous. 

Emily and Nana.

Three generations.

Girl cousins. It's a little windy. Better than sweating though for sure.

My family with the bride and groom.

The girls. Lyla looks really happy....

Some water to cool her off.

Adam got the job of holding Sarah's flowers at one point.

This is probably one of my all time favorite pictures.

Beautiful Bride.

The lovely couple.

I love Bryant in the background here.

No such luck on a family picture.

Emily and I.

Allison and Emily.

The land between the ceremony spot and the barn for the reception. The owner was telling me that the grass had been several feet high that morning and he had to cut it all before that afternoon. They used a golf cart to get the wedding party back and forth.

Last minute touches. 

Emily and her flower girl, Anna.

Anna and Lyla had a blast!! Anna was a little younger than Lyla, but it was so much fun watching them together. Of course the first thing Lyla said when she saw Anna in her flower girl dress was "I want a dress like that too!".

Sweet friends. These two danced all.night.long together. They got the party started and Lyla was on the dance floor until the very end. She did not get that from me. At all. Seriously.

Practicing their moves. 

The ceremony site.

The groom and his men coming down.

Sisters. We did not want Lyla disturbing the ceremony, since they were recording it, so Adam stayed with her back up at the reception site during the ceremony. They played and danced and ate while they waited for us.

My sweet parents.

William walking his mom down the aisle. And can I just say how gorgeous I thought Aunt Pauline looked. From her dress style, to the color of her dress, to her hair. Perfection. 

Sarah.

Emily and her dad walking down the aisle. Can you tell the wind is blowing just a little??

Watching the bride come down the aisle.

Giving her away.

Their ceremony was full of joy and laughter. It could not have been a happier moment for the two of them. My absolute favorite part was when Bryant surprised Emily with a poem he had written for her/about her when they first were "getting together". He knew long before she ever did that he liked her and wanted to ask her out. Emily just thought they were friends. The poem was so sweet. I am always so amazed when people have something laid like that on their heart before it ever actually happens. 

Saying their vows.

You may kiss the bride.

Married!!

William and Sarah. Gorgeous.

Let's get this party started.

Allison and her sister in law Kiley. Since Dan could not make it, she had to represent for the Duncan's. It has been neat, since Kiley has lived in Dallas for her to get to know the Meier's and be a part of our family that way as well.

Introducing....

Mr and Mrs Belknap.

Literally. On the dance floor the entire night. This girl did not stop.

Dancing with the groom.

And the bride.

Photo bombed. 

Love.

The married couple with our Uncle Fred. He can bust a move as well ;)

Giving some great advice, I am sure.

Dancing with Aunt Pauline.

Sisters. 

Nana and Fred.

The cake. Yum!! And the food was DELICIOUS. It was a buffet style sit down dinner and it did not disappoint.

Firsts.

Speeches. Sarah gave an awesome one I must say.

Daddy daughter dance. And it was great. Uncle Kent made everyone guy that dated Emily sign a contract with certain understanding of how he would date and treat her. Uncle Kent got up to say a few words and had Bryant's contract. At the end of his speech, he told him it was now void. Such a cool idea!! I know my dad was strict when it cam to dating, but never had a contract. Sorry Lyla, your suiters might have a contract to sign. 

Even though I don't dance, I always love having a slow dance with Adam. And Lyla just looked so darn cute on the dance floor all night, I might have actually gotten out there with her and danced a song or two...

It really turned in to a dance party once people had eaten and had their cake.

Throwing the bouquet. 

There was a little mishap and it ended up on the beautiful chandelier. But they were able to get it down.

Next up, the garter. 

Someone was getting sleepy, but she didn't want to leave the dance floor.

We had talked about heading out to get her to bed, but she made it until 10pm and we really wanted to see Emily and Bryant off, so she ended up falling asleep on me (which never happens and I secretly LOVED every minute of it).

We saw them off with sparklers, I guess none of my pictures came out since I did not upload them. It was a beautiful day of celebration and we were so thankful to be there and be apart of it. It could not have been more perfect or beautiful.

We headed out the next morning after sleeping in. What can we say, we had partied hard. I had mixed emotions. I was SO ready to be home, in my own bed, in my own space, not living out of suitcases, and to be able to have a home cooked meal. But at the same time I was really sad to be leaving Sarah and this experience. Three weeks is fast and slow all at the same time. It was a wonderful, hard, growing, fun, full of new experiences, getting to know my daughter, tough, beautiful time, one that I will never forget.

We headed back to Gray and Andrew's house and got there in time for dinner. We grilled out which was awesome and had lot more time catching up with them on this leg of the trip. Lyla had fun playing with Tucker, who remember is about 4x's her size. Gray made homemade ice cream for us to enjoy. Is she amazing or what? It was great. We got up the next morning and went out to breakfast with them before heading back to Atlanta. We were welcomed with traffic and rain :) We got back right after dinner time, so we picked something up on the way home...our LAST fast food for a LONG time. 

And now you know what this means?? After 6 months of blogging about TEXAS, I am finally DONE!! Now on to our summer, which included lots of this:

Thanks for sticking with me!