Happy Birthday America!

Almost every year  our hometown puts on a fireworks display at our local airport.  And the airport?   Why it is located just across the road from the warehouse that my hubby and his brother run their hay business out of  giving us wonderful access to private front row seating!!!  It is always the perfect end to our Fourth of July festivities!

  

  

             

And I must admit, our little hometown put on an AMAZING show this year!!!  There were fireworks dancing and shifting shapes and stunning us all!  It was one of the best shows I have ever seen!!!

These were also the 2nd set of fireworks we viewed this year.  Which is kind of funny because  we didn’t think that we were having fireworks in town at all this year and we were kinda bummed out thinking that we weren't going to see any fireworks this year.  However, as we were  coming into McRae on our way  home from our 2nd of July party, we began seeing fireworks over the horizon.  We got to just outside the city limits and pulled over to watch the show.  The boys were so excited!  And I was so relieved!  Yes, Virginia, we do get to watch fireworks this year!  It was one of those perfect timing things and we were thankful that we had hit McRae at just the right time!  It was the perfect ending to our day!

While we were watching the McRae fireworks Jesse exclaimed, “That one exploded like a big slice of pizza!”   Boy oh boy, how I love that boy!  He always puts a smile on my face!

Out of the pool…

How do you get six water babies out of the pool???

  

With bribery of course!!!

 

The five boys were easily bribed with a ride in the ranger down to the pond to feed the fish!  The only girl was easily swayed by the kittens.   Of course then the problem became getting her to leave them:-)


My boys (including my hubby and father in law) love fattening up the fish…they hope to be catching them and frying them up in the near future;-)

Three generations…
Johnny Philip Tyre Sr, III, and Jr!

Our Fourth

We spent the fourth doing my boys favorite things…swimming with family and friends and frying fish!!!

The boys (& girl) always have fun in the pool…

   especially when Daddy joins in on the FUN!!!

 

I just love summer time gatherings!

And my favorite photo from our celebration…
Jesse is such a ham!

My view

Whether my view looks like this…

or this…

there is no doubt that my heart always sees…

Flashback!

While we were up so close to our old stomping grounds, we went by to see our old house.

Phil and I built this house in 1999 and spent almost five years making sweet memories here.  A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into making this house our home and it will always hold a special place in my heart.   Above are my two boys on the day we moved out in 2004.

 
And here is “our” house today!  I can’t get over the size of our willow tree!!!  We planted it when Trey was a baby and you can barely see it in the first photo but boy has it grown!  The hedges in front of the house have grown a lot too.  But otherwise, not much seems to have changed.  And I was surprisingly teary-eyed riding through our old neighborhood and looking at our first home.  It was oh so familiar and reminded me so much of the friendships we formed, the block parties we enjoyed, the memories we made…

Blueberries!

We also spent part of our celebration day picking blueberries!

    

What a fabulously sweet all American tradition!  And since this blueberry picking adventure?  I’ve been inspired in the kitchen and have turned out many peach cobblers, blackberry cobblers, BLUEBERRY cobblers, and squash pies!  More on that coming soon!

A Boat Adventure

During our 2nd of July celebration, ALL the kids wanted to take a ride around the lake on the boat.  It was a HOT, sun-shiny day and boy was our ride an adventure!

No, it didn’t start this way!  And thankfully not all the kids felt this way!  But between the heat and the life jackets, we were all glad to hit land again!

 

But even with the tears.  And the whining.  And the tearing at the life jackets.  It was a wonderful adventure and beautiful memories were made (well at least memories that we won’t soon forget!).

Happy Birthday…

Aunt Dot!!!

Not only did we celebrate America’s birthday (a few days early) on the second of July, but we celebrated Aunt Dot’s (actual) birthday!!!
It was a cake kind of day, and Carlie couldn’t wait to dig in!