...but the greatest of these is love...: typical 4th of july weekend.....

What is 4th of July all about without a lake trip, cookout with family, swimming, watermelon and just all around fun!?! That's what we did! It was a perfect weekend!! {I took 396 pictures....but I'll spare you and just show you some of my favorites!}

While we were gone to Vegas, Michael and Juice picked up these cute boys at the airport in Amarillo...

The next morning, Michael got to hang out with Pax and Aunt Amy watching Uncle Curt fly his airplane. Michael was in heaven! :)

After a quick trip to Vegas, I left Thursday morning (Daddy had to stay and work) to meet up with Juice, Michael, Amy, Jett & Kai to go to the lake for a couple of days. We had a blast fishing, riding in the boat, wanting Juice to go 'faster' in the boat and just hanging out with these guys. This was Michael's first trip to the lake and he loved it! He loved the boat, loved getting in the water and walking on the beach.

This was also his first time to not sleep in a bed! I think we wore them out so much that he didn't care! They all zonked out within about 5 minutes of laying down and slept all night!

He even got to take a nap in the boat!! Don't worry, we were docked on the beach while he didn't have his life jacket on. He had it on and fell asleep, so we eased it off and he never even knew it!

We got back from the lake on Friday night. Saturday, we went to Uncle Dud & Lynn's house for food, fun and family time! Making his first debut to the big family cookout was this precious boy....and of course Meemaw had to get her hands on him! :)

Uncle Dud's backyard is full of fun adventures. Juice & Pa brought their big water slide, so all the boys had to show off their skills.

Michael tried the slide, but after this picture, I stopped to catch a boy! Whoopsie!

Michael had fun showing Uncle Bruce his gymnastics skills.

I do love my aunty and our cute matching hats!

This time, Uncle Bruce and Juice help the boy keep his feet up!

And he liked it much better!!!

Uncle Dud's worm got Michael!

We had fun swinging and enjoying the game of horseshoes in the background.

Michael loves his uncles! And they will do anything he wants to do! He's really having to use his muscles to swing Uncle Curt...

That's more like it...

Yes, I did wait until it was my turn to hold this sweet baby boy! And he does love his NieNie!

The next day was Sunday and we had a fun day at Juice & Pa's. Jameson, Amy, Jett, Kai, Pax, Uncle Dud, Aunt Laney and Jennifer all came over to play and watch the boys. Michael loved him some watermelon!!

Pax finally got his turn at the slide and loved it! He even got to where he'd go down by himself! That's what happens when you've got older brothers to try to keep up with!

It was a big water park in their backyard! They'd go down the water slide, then run to the little pool and jump in!

Pax finally just said, I'm tired of all this running....he just relaxed at the top of the slide forever and let the other boys climb over him and go down the slide.

The beautiful Jennifer!

Ummmmm.....Juice??? Going for a little swim?

Pax and Michael are such sweet friends/cousins. They played together like long lost friends!

The brother with his sisters....

Way past everyone's bed time, the wrestling started!! Lots of giggles and laughs coming from that pile!

Jett and Kai just wanted a picture with Kirby! Kai's face cracks me up!

After 10 days of being gone, Michael finally came home. And much to his surprise, his crib was gone and he had a BIG BOY bed in his room!!! He was really excited!! And so far, so good on sleeping in it!

This 4th of July goofball was excited to be home and ready to go see Grandma & Granddaddy.

So he played some golf and basketball in their backyard...

He wanted to help daddy put out the flag!

After the first nap in his big boy bed, he got to go swimming!

After swimming and snacks with Grandma, Granddaddy fixed mommy's favorite....smoked ribs! And Michael enjoyed them too!!

I guess swimming wore him out, because he slept all night in his big boy bed. The next morning, I made him a big boy breakfast. He loved his Tommy Turtle pancakes!!!!