July

Rain is the one word to describe how July started out for us.  It started raining on July 3 and rained and rained.  The Collignon's were kind enough to invite us to the lake the for the Holiday weekend.  We did not arrive until July 5th but it had been raining before we arrived and rained the entire weekend.  After being in the house 24 hours, we took a trip out to go bowling and this is the only picture that I have from the weekend.  By the time we left on Sunday, the lake had risen 4 feet.  Despite the rain we enjoyed hanging out, eating, and playing games with our close friends.

The following weekend we drove to Kingsport to celebrate Mimi's Birthday.  Daddy had to stay home because he was starting his BIG trial on Monday so Ava and I made the trip alone.  On Saturday we went to the Natural Tunnel which was less than 30 minutes away.  Having grown up in Kingsport, we had never been and we were surprised to find this beautiful State Park so close to our  home.  To get down to the Tunnel we could have either taken a steep set of stairs or they had a chair lift.  I was so scared because Ava was  with us but Uncle Chace took her down on the chair lift and Uncle Matt brought her back up and she loved it.  Ava also got to see a live choo choo go by while we were at the park so it was a great day for her.  We later celebrated Mimi's Birthday with the biggest birthday cake I have every seen.  It was five full layers and it had to have dowels down the center to support the weight.

I LOVE bath time pictures!

The following weekend was Travis' Birthday and I do not have any pictures from this weekend.  We celebrated Friday night with an amazing steak dinner at Nana and Papa's and then had company in the rest of the weekend.  Aunt Karen, Uncle George and cousins Jen and Paige came in for three nights and we all had a great time visiting and catching up.

The last weekend in July was our 6 year Anniversary.  Nana and Papa were nice to watch Miss Ava so that Mommy and Daddy could enjoy a nice evening out.  We went to Silo and had 6:30 reservations.  We were home a little after 8 and were ready to call it a night.  Our lives have changed so much since we first were married but we would not trade our sleepless, busy lives for anything!