Fourth of July Weekend Recap {2016}

I love that Fourth of July was on a Monday this year instead of the middle of the week, but man...I sure do like it better when it's on a Friday or Saturday so we can sleep in a little bit the next day. But we had a super fun weekend!

Emery and Daniel went on a daddy daughter date night a few weeks ago at Chick-fil-A and they both had the best time. She had been asking to "go date on a daddy"  for a few days so Daniel kicked off the three day weekend by taking her on another date.

She wanted to go to "Reddy's" {Freddy's} and get a grilled cheese and "i chume with a cherry on it"!

It makes me sad that she is growing up so fast, but it sure is cute that she's old enough for things like this now.

We took it easy and stayed around the house on Saturday. It was pretty nice outside...hot, of course, but not as humid as it has been lately. Emery *loves* going outside, so we got out the splash park that we got her last year so she could play in the water. She *hated* it last year...

What a difference a year makes!! She loved it! She was a little confused at first...she kept saying "Take shirt off? Take shorts off?" like it was a bathtub. 

She just looks so grown up...

She wanted to push Daddy in the swing...so sweet. 

Time to cool off with a popsicle!

Sunday was another relaxed day. We went to church and then stayed home the rest of the day. Emery even helped fold a little laundry. She asked for a towel and we were shocked when she ended up with this!

Don't be fooled, though...she does way more unfolding than folding!

We started Monday off with a bang and went out for donuts at Krispy Kreme!  Not sure why, but this is the face we get when we tell her to smile! 

Emery loves sprinkles!!

We did a little shopping the rest of the morning and headed home so Emery could take a nap before our big night!

For the last several years, we've gone to my parents' neighborhood for dinner and a fireworks show. It's such a fun tradition! They have a little mini carnival for the kids and Emery got to do the bounce houses. To say she loved it is an understatement! She kept saying, "I bouncing, Mama!!" 

This bounce house started deflating when she was in the ball pit. I about had a panic attack, but it didn't bother her one bit! She didn't want to get out! 

Climbing up the ladder so she could go down the slide!

Taking a little break for some pictures with Mommy and Daddy. This girl and her faces!

Then it was time for dinner. Emery made the rounds and got lots of treats. A little chocolate with Poppa...

And some ice cream with Uncle DJ. 

The girls played together while all the adults talked. They are just too sweet.

Then we headed outside to get a good spot for the fireworks! So excited!

Hanging out with Nana, Poppa, and Uncle Steve while we waited.

Emery and Vanna both got their faces painted while we waited, too! Emery was really excited about it, but was super serious when it was happening.  Emery will pretty much try anything if Vanna does it first!

Then it was time for the fireworks show! Emery was completely fascinated with the fireworks! She kept pointing, naming the colors, and saying "Look, Poppa!"

Watching with Aunt Allie. 

And that's it...another Fourth of July in the books and it was a very sweet one!

  

Five Years!

We celebrated our fifth anniversary this past weekend! I really can't believe it's been five years. It feels like it went so fast, but at the same time, so much has changed in our lives so it kind of feels like a lot longer.

On Friday night, our actual anniversary, we went to dinner at Hot and Hot Fish Club. We really like to celebrate, and for us, that usually means a lot of food. ;) We had appetizers, our entrees, *and* dessert! Everything was so, so good.

Emery was spending the night at my sister's house, so we got to pretend like we were dating again and go to a movie at 10:00. I totally fell asleep for a few minutes...I'm not as young as I used to be.

Since five years is kind of a milestone, we wanted to do something extra to celebrate, so we went to Orange Beach for a few days. We've never left Emery for more than one night, so we didn't want to be gone for too long. She was in very good hands with my parents, though. I don't think they wanted to give her back to us!

We left on Sunday morning and as I've mentioned before, to us celebration = food! We had ourselves a little breakfast appetizer at Krispy Kreme {sour cream cake donuts!!!!} and then had a Croissan'wich at Burger King. I seriously had a Croissan'wich almost every Friday morning before work when I was pregnant. :)

Now that is a great way to start a trip!!

Then we were on our way to Orange Beach! We couldn't check in to our hotel until 4:00, so we had planned to go to lunch somewhere and also do a little shopping at the outlet mall in Foley. When we got closer, we started seeing billboards for Lambert's and I knew we had to stop. I've heard all about how they throw rolls. Normally, I'm not really into people throwing things at me, but when carbs are involved, go right ahead. We placed bets on our way on how many times I'd get hit with a roll. We thought they'd just be flying nonstop, but apparently there are designated times for the roll throwing.

Daniel strategically sat against the wall so he could see them coming and warn me to duck if needed!

He caught two rolls for me! My hero! :)

Once we checked in to our hotel, we headed to the beach for a couple of hours before dinner. I just love the sound of those waves and that ocean breeze. There is just nothing like it.

We went to a restaurant called Cobalt that night. We really wanted to go somewhere that had outdoor seating and was on the water and this was perfect. They had a huge outdoor seating area with palm trees, lights, and live music. It was right on the bay so we got to watch boats go by. It totally made us both want a boat.

Monday was our only full day in Orange Beach, so we spent a lot of time on the beach! We rented chairs and an umbrella and took little catnaps all morning while we listened to the waves. It was perfect. We took a quick break for lunch and a quick walk around the marina, then headed back to the beach for the rest of the afternoon.

We had so much fun on Monday night. We went to dinner at The Gulf which was probably my favorite restaurant we went to on our whole trip. The whole place is outside with a beautiful view of the beach and they have lots of picnic tables and outdoor furniture set up right in the sand. We loved it!

There were piers really close to The Gulf, so we walked down one of the piers to watch the sun set and got to see a dolphin! I tried to get a picture of his fin sticking up out of the water, but that guy was too quick for me. It was really neat to see, though! You can just barely see it in this picture.

After a quick trip to Publix to get a couple of things for breakfast, we headed back to the hotel so I could change because we were going to race go karts. Yes. You read that right. We're really just big kids.

Too busy buckling up to pay attention for a picture. Safety first!

Daniel claims that he just had a slow go kart, but I totally beat him. ;)

It was pretty late by then, so we stopped by The Hangout for some midnight snacks and souvenir shopping. The food there was just okay, but it was a really fun place!

We had to check out of our hotel the next morning by 11:00, so we really didn't have time to go to the beach. Instead we slept as late as we could...which is about 8:00 these days and ate powdered donuts in bed while we watched Royal Pains on Netflix. Pretty perfect morning...

We packed up our stuff and headed to lunch at Lulu's. We knew we wanted to go here because we've heard a lot about it {and we've seen tons of those t-shirts!} and it was definitely a fun place! It worked out well because it was on our way home.

We were in and out of there pretty quick because we were ready to get home to our little sweetheart! We weren't even gone that long, but we missed her so much!! We got to my parents' house around 4:30 so we had a few hours to play with her before it was her bedtime. The little stinker teased us and didn't even act excited to see us for a minute or two. :)

She loved her little purse we got her at The Hangout and wore it for a while. When it would slide off her shoulder, she'd swing her arm so it would go back up! Haha!

We had such a great time celebrating five amazing years and can't wait to go back to Orange Beach with Emery later this summer!