4th of July Weekend--Part One

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a GREAT 4th of July weekend! I know we did! As many of you already know (because you were with us), we went home to good old Illinois to celebrate our country's Independence Day. I decided to split this weekend into 2 separate posts because we have a lot of great pictures to share!

We made the 7 hour drive to Bloomington on Wednesday evening after work. Then, on Thursday, I drove to my parent's house in Mt. Zion and spent the day with them. Unfortunately, the weather was not great, but we still got to hang out and visit which is always the most fun part for me anyway. Here are some pics:

This is me with Pepper. My dad brought her home from the "adoption agency" back in 1994 when she was just a puppy. She'll be 14 this year, but she's still going strong! She is hands down the sweetest dog in the world!

Here is mom and me. Mom was complaining about her hair that day, but I think it looks fine and I thought this was a really good picture so, Mom.... I hope you don't mind that I posted it :-)

This is a hilarious picture of my brother's dog, Lillian. My mom and dad were "dog-sitting" over the weekend and Lillian just decided she was going to hang out on the couch like a human. You can't really tell in the picture, but she had her entire weight leaning up against the back of the couch just like a person. She is too funny!!!

Here is dad and me. I have another really funny picture of Lillian jumping on us, but my dad looks really ticked in the picture, so I opted for the happy photo instead!

A great picture of dad and mom.

This is a really cute picture of our niece, Reagan. Greg and I were so excited to see her. We hadn't seen her in about 6 months and she has really grown. Isn't her dress adorable?

I wish this picture was a close-up because the goggles were pushing Reagan's nose up like a little pig. It was so funny. If you click on the photo, you might be able to see it full size so it will show it better. I must say, she is an excellent swimmer. She's only 3 1/2 and is pretty fearless in the water. She was jumping off the diving board too! I know I sure wasn't doing that at 3 years old!

This is another picture that I wish was closer. Reagan and I were playing a game she had called "Pretty, Pretty Princess". It's this cute little game where you get to wear a bunch of "princess" jewelry. We both had on several items of jewelry, but I got to wear the crown because Reagan said I was the Queen :-)

This is one of a few pictures taken where the subjects of my photo requested that they not be posted on the blog. Normally, I would abide by their request, but this is such a good picture that I couldn't help myself. Sorry guys :-) This is Reagan and her parents Kelly and Matt (Greg's identical twin brother). Aren't they such a cute family?

This is another picture where I received the request not to post. But, again, it's such a great picture, I just had to post it!! This is Greg's mom and dad, Jerry and Peggy. We stayed at their house over the weekend and, as always, they were wonderful hosts! A huge thanks to them!!

This is Greg's brother Mike and sister, Heather. I took this right before we left to go see the fireworks at Lakeside Country Club (I use the words "country club" loosely..hee, hee...sorry, Matt, I had to throw that in there!). Actually, the fireworks were great! We thought for sure we were seeing the grand finale several times but the fireworks just kept coming! After that, we went back to Jerry & Peggy's to set off our own fireworks that Greg and I had picked up in Missouri. Those were surprisingly good too!

I love this picture of Greg and Matt. The look on Greg's face is priceless.

Awwww....brotherly love! Aren't they cute??

This is one of my favorite pictures of the weekend. I wish I had gotten one of the whole family together! This is Greg, Reagan, Matt, and Heather.

Well, that's all for this post. The next post will have pictures of our visit to the Michael's homestead where we got to see Jon and Tiff and feed the quads! Also, don't worry, I'm still going to do a post on Dog-mate of the Year. It is just being postponed. So much to blog about, so little time!

Brooke