4th of July Camping & Cannon

After finally getting our camper back from the service department for a cracked skylight, we were able to take it out just in time for the 4th of July. It was absolutely perfect weather and we really enjoyed relaxing over the holiday weekend. Our time was spent at the "beach" on the lake, cooking on the campfires, eating way too much food and riding our bikes. We even had some friends come visit us for the day on Saturday. Because of rain, we ended up packing up a little early...packing up in the rain is just not fun in our opinion.

"ganging" up on daddy

Spending time with friends

 Burger King for lunch on the way home

 Johnny proved that he was all boy on this camping trip....he picked up a hot coal from the campfire (blister that resulted is shown below), fell from the picnic table onto the gravel, hit his head on the asphalt while riding his tricycle, scraped up his toes on the asphalt because he refused shoes and blistered his opposite hand after touching the charcoal grill. I'm pretty sure he will be in bubble wrap for our next camping trip. 

On the actual 4th of July, John dug out his old canon to shoot off. He was so giddy shooting it off, you would have thought he was 12 again. The kids, as you can see, weren't big fans. 

Big Boy Bed!

 While the kids and I were in KC, John & Virginia switched the furniture between Johnny and baby boy's rooms. So when we got back, Johnny transitioned to his big boy bed!! He was super excited (Mellany was just as excited for him) and did (and is still doing) a great job staying in it. There have been a few instances where we have had to take a few trucks away to get him back in his bed (because it is such a fun game to get out and come find mommy, daddy or Mellany) but really for the most part he's done an awesome job. 

Night #1 in the big boy bed

We have also realized that Johnny likes to have a little time "unwinding" before he goes to sleep. Usually he is just playing with a few of his favorite trucks in bed, but this particular night, he upgraded a bit. It happened to be the 4th of July and I thought the fireworks were setting off his fire truck....turns out, he was just unwinding! :)

Kansas City Summer Vacation

Several weeks ago, the kids and I traveled to KC to spend the week with family and friends so that John & Virginia could spend the week painting our house in peace. It was such a fun week and while the three of us were sad to come home, we were anxious to see John and gear up for camping for the 4th of July! This is our week in snapshots! 

Ritual McDonald's lunch stop

Nap time (no worries, I've already been reprimanded by my safety husband for snapping pics of the kids while driving--even if there were no other vehicles or animals around)

Stop #1: Columbia, Mo-Thornton Homestead

The kids played and played (Johnny was in pure heaven with all of the boy toys), we visited the bookstore/Mizzou campus and it was so nice to have an actual conversation with Sam in person versus over the phone where I'm half in and half out while trying to manage children at the same time.

(In front of Jesse Hall--it was such a neat experience for me to get to explain to MEllany that this is where I went to school and spent a portion of my life. We also drove by the Theta sorority house where I lived for almost two years and she was just in awe over the size of it!)

Stop #2: Kansas City

(Sending a selfie to daddy to say "hi")

Uncle Brad & Aunt Mae-Mae's Capri's house for swimming and playdoh. The kids had so much fun playing in the water and the only thing that really got them out was telling them that their food was waiting for them. 

We helped Uncle Brad overcome his fear/obsession of using more than one color of playdoh and Mellany was sure to tell him that several of his cans of playdoh were too hard :)....the Barrett clan is always here to help with things like that

Selfie for John, Gammy & Aunt Mae-Mae telling them we wished they were here

Aunt Amy & Uncle Derek's Daxton's house to ride bikes, shoot birds and play with every single truck/vehicle, airplane, tractor, etc that he has and to make new friends with their neighbors! Again Johnny was in heaven with the wide range of boy toys (not a single princess in sight) and Mellany was ecstatic spending the morning with Daxton just doing whatever as long as she was playing with him. Mellany definitely cried when we left saying she missed her Daxton......I just love that they are so close even with living so far apart from each other. It is really hard to believe that Mellany and Daxton will be 5 this year....I just can't figure out how that happened! 

Gammy's House: Watching the police outside and having dinner with Great Grandpa Bob

After spending the morning at Fun Run (video below), we went to lunch at my favorite place Corner Cafe.....the kids get cookies with their meals and somehow my son ended up wearing his....all. over. It was in his hair, on his calves, behind is neck....seriously, all over. 

More fun at Gammy's:

Playing outside at Gammy's for about a good 5 minutes....it was too hot to do anything that day really (notice I'm taking the picture from inside the house that was nice and cool). So they came in and put together a puzzle.  

Johnny using his chainsaw from Papa and Teresa to saw the coupe into pieces 

Mellany getting pampered by mama

Watching Baby Einstein

Papa & Teresa's House: We had a fish fry, rode the golf cart, some of the guys shot guns and the three kiddos played/destroyed the house

Fun Run with Gammy, Uncle Brad, Aunt Mae-Mae & Capri to spend the morning in some A/C...these were Mellany and Johnny's favorite slides

This is how Capri, Johnny & Mellany spend their Saturday nights at Gammy's

The long trip home was pretty quiet as the kids slept for a majority of the 8 hour drive. Once we got home though, they were really excited to see what was waiting for them in the drive...