4th of July...OR Sould I Say 5th?!?

I was really disappointed that it rained on the 4th of July AGAIN this year. That is one of my favorite holidays. I remained optimistic for the better part of the day, but when it was still raining at 6:00, I knew that my plans were not gonna be happening. So, what did I do instead?? Went to the grocery store...BLAH! (On the plus side, no one was at the store and I love empty aisles!) I will say that the 5th of July was MUCH better. We have friends that live right by the city park where Moore shoots off their fireworks and they invited us to come over and watch with them. Can I just say, THAT was amazing! I have never been that close to the fireworks before...we always watch them from quite a distance. They were right over our heads...beautiful! I should say that we had quite a good time even before the fireworks began just hanging out with our wonderful friends and eating snacks in their backyard...we even shot off some fireworks of our own. It was a fabulous evening. It more than made up for the sad day before. Should we really let Brian play with fire?!? I don't know... :)

Celebration is in Order!!

Hello, blogger friends! I missed the date in my absent-ness lately, but I wanted everyone to know that this blog is now officially a year (well, technically OVER a year) old! YAY! When I started this, I prayed that it would not be a fad because I loved the idea, but sometimes good intentions are just not enough. However, I'm proud to say that I did it! This is not a perfect blog by any means, but I overcame the first obstacle and just got it out there. I can be a perfectionist at times, and the perfection can be crippling because it hinders me from starting MANY projects. My thought usually is that if it won't be exactly what I want it to be, then I just won't start it in the first place. Well, I am glad to say that I made myself blog somewhat consistently over the past year. There are times that it is just a couple pictures and a sentence or two...or sometimes, I even bore myself, BUT there are times that I have actually made myself laugh or just captured a really good moment. Regardless of the post, good or bad, I have managed to get some pictures out there and at least somewhat record a memory or two. I'm sure as the kids get older, I will look back at this with appreciation. I hope to get better about this as I go along. I would love to take time to make myself be the writer I know I can be. Perhaps even add a little more emotion and thoughts into the mix? Maybe even talk about even more than just my family?!? Who knows? I just wanted to let everyone know that it has been a year. I feel it's been a success and at this point, I think it's gonna stick. I'm looking forward to recording the next year AND improving my blog! :)

Duda/Ethridge/Marlett Zoo Day

I mentioned that my friend, Jamie was in town a couple weeks ago...well, not just Jamie, her entire family. They were only in town for a week, so we took advantage of all the time we could get with them...pretty much a different activity every day. This so happens to be a day that I remembered my camera. Well, let's face it, I generally have my camera in tow when we go to the zoo. It may well just be the place the Marlett's are photographed the most (only excluding our house...haha).
It was a really great day for the zoo. It was mildly hot (it was July), but honestly, not THAT bad. It also wasn't too crowded, which was also a bonus. Me and crowded zoos do NOT get along. Enjoy all the pics...we all had a great day!

Best Night Ever!

A couple weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get to see the midnight opening of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. It was an absolutely amazing night for about a hundred reasons.

#1~ It was my dear friend, Amy's, birthday...a reason to celebrate.
#2~ Our friend, Jamie, was in town...which was completely AWESOME!
#3~ We got to eat at the Melting Pot...all FOUR courses!
#4~ We had balcony tickets for the event, which means that while everyone else spent half their day waiting in line so they wouldn't have to sit in the front row, we had reserved seating in the best seats in the house.
#5~ This goes without saying...We are a bunch of crazy Twilight fans...and we were getting to see the movie we had been anticipating for months....this was a crazy good night!!! :)

I would just like to point out the obvious and say that I know it's ridiculous that a bunch of 30 somethings would love these books/movies so much, but don't knock it until you try it, because we are not alone, my friends. :) I absolutely LOVED this entire night from start to finish, the only thing that made me sad was that it ended. We had all looked forward to this evening for MONTHS! This was, by far, my favorite movie of the series to date. I loved the emotion...I must say that by now, I have seen it far more than once (that's all you're getting) and it makes me tear up every time. I think it may even get worse the more I see it. Thanks to Amy for letting me be a part of this wonderful evening. I love my friends! Sorry for the lack of pictures. I was having too much fun to think about my camera too much. I did take a couple, so I threw them in here because I know that it is very odd for me to have a post with no pics.

Amber and Jamie in the balcony anxiously waiting for the movie to start.
A very small fraction of my Melting Pot friends...sorry to the heads I cut off and the ones I missed altogether!

Swim Party

Shortly after we returned from Mississippi (I told you I was behind!), we went to a really awesome birthday party for our friend. It was his 40th birthday bash...and it was so much fun. It was the perfect combination of fun for the kids and the adults. As you can see, there were LOTS of kids and plenty of people for us as well. It was easy to be able to keep a close eye on the kids and still be able to carry on conversations with everyone else. The evening included swimming, great food, frozen drinks, lots of awesome friends, birthday cake...and even limbo! A good time was had by all.
If you look closely in the picture above, you can spot Chance and Ava in there somewhere...I promise. It's like Where's Waldo!
Token pic of me...they make the cut occasionally.

Brian is back there somewhere talking to someone. :)

Chance was very brave...He slid down the slide even though it was in the deep end. He was swimming like crazy by the time the evening was over.
Here's a couple pictures of Ava with her buddies.
Chance found a frog...his favorite. There were a couple frogs found before the evening was over...there may of even been a frog race or two. (See below...)
Ava loves LIMBO!
This was a happy picture of Ava jumping on the trampoline seconds before she jumped right off the side because she was trying to look at her picture. She got tangled up in the springs and ended up on her head. No pictures of that. We're glad she's okay!

One final shot of Ava in the water... night swimming is the best.

Here is a short video of Chance showing off his sliding skills...


Ava's video had to be broken into 2 parts because seconds before she slid down, she got squirted in the eye with a water gun (amazing accuracy!)...I thought we were going to have to abort the video, but she recovered, so I kept shooting...


Here is the rest of the video. She cracked me up because she thought I was taking a picture instead of video, so she would not slide because she was looking for the flash. I had to convince her that I knew what I was doing.

A Glimpse Into the Future??

The other day, Ava came out of her room with her pretend glasses on and I just had to take a couple of pictures. I thought she looked so cute. Perhaps a tad intellectual?? She looks like a little big person to me in this pic. I feel like I'm seeing her a few years down the road. lol

By the way, I think the house shoes are a nice touch!
Later that same day, Chance came out with his ninja gear...He always tells us he wants to be a ninja when he grows up. I guess he's practicing??

Blah Blah Blah

Hello, friends. I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't dropped off the planet. I feel like I've been a slacker blogger lately. I have been super busy this summer (but still taking lots of pictures!) I hate that I have been saving them all up and then do about 20 posts and then no one hears from me again for a month. I'm going to try to do better. I've been doing some stuff around the house and hanging out with the kids and I am way behind! Don't give up on me, I hope to get back to a regular blogging schedule soon! Until then, in a couple days, you can expect another 15 posts or so...the pictures are building up! :)

Mississippi

We recently went to Mississippi for the Marlett Family Reunion. We had a good time while we were there (it's always nice to get away for awhile). Brian had been gone a considerable bit before we left, so I was definitely looking forward to getting away from work and all of our busy schedules so we could spend some time together. Although we had a small wreck on the way (not our fault), it could have been much worse and we were still able to enjoy our trip. Here is a top ten list of pictures/events that happened while we were there, and if you want the unabridged version, I included a larger picture slide show at the bottom. :)

#10~ We spent LOTS of time playing outside...roaming around in the garden, spider hunting, playing in the water...there was tons of outdoor fun.
#9~ The kids have always wanted to jump on those crazy trampoline things in the middle of the mall...MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! #8~ Rest assured, there was tons of eating...this is Ava trying frog legs...she was completely obsessed with trying frog legs on this trip. I have absolutely no idea where she got this from!#7~ More eating! (I told you there was lots of eating.) This was a very cute little bakery on the square. They had some of the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever eaten. Another thing I love about this bakery, all of the proceeds help children. I love that! :)#6~ We took a little tour of the square. This pic is of the kids at the visitor's center.#5~ We went to the park. I included a little merry-go-round video at the bottom.
#4~ Brian's awesome cousin taught a painting class at the family reunion. It was so much fun and I think it was so great of her to bring supplies for all of us. I honestly could have painted all day.#3~ Chance played frisbee in the water...#2~ Chance played frisbee OUT of the water... (did I mention that this kid LOVES frisbee?!?) The bottom pic was a frisbee golf course at the campground. It was a lot of fun, but the majority of the course was covered in poison ivy. It's a wonder none of us got it!
#1~ Brian and I got to go on quite a few dates while we were in Mississippi. On our way to P.F. Chang's one night, we saw this awesome rainbow in the field. I thought it was so pretty. Brian had to find a place to pull over so I could take some pictures. :)
As promised, here are MORE pictures from our trip...

Here is a video of Brian retrieving his frisbee that fell in a spider-infested creek bed...it's kinda long, but it's funny.



Last, but not least, here is a video of Ava and Chance on the merry-go-round...lots of fun!





Thanks for listening to me ramble about our trip!