Long Time, No Post

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth. I am still here.
My dad had emergency surgery on July 27th and has been in the hospital until today. He is doing a lot better but still has a tough recovery ahead of him. I have been just to busy to even think about this blog.
The kids have started back to school and are adjusting very well. There has been a lot of sickness being passed around at the schools which Amy now has - sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, etc...
Pelham's first football game is Friday night and will actually be televised on the CSS station. Tune in and watch the band if you can't make it to the game. The half time show this year is Earth Wind and Fire. It should be awesome.

Until next time...

Gulf Shores

We are in Gulf Shores this week staying at the Lighthouse. We stayed in this condo last year, the very same unit to be exact. We loved it so much, we decided to come back for more. We spent our first day down here soaking up the sun, going from beach to pool to beach to pool. We are planning on going to Lulu's tonight to eat. I am excited to go there because I have heard so much about it. Here are a few pics from today:

A Wonderful Day

We had a blast yesterday on the 4th. We had about 35 people for our family's annual 4th of July cookout. Adam and I both had our parents here which is very rare for them both to be here at the same time.

Adam grilled hamburger and hotdogs and everyone brought food to go with it. We had WAY to much food and I was stuffed before to long.

I was extremely happy that my brother Joey got to come. This was his first big outing since he had his stroke last October. After his stroke, he was paralyzed on his left side and could not walk and was bedridden. He had regained most of his left leg abilities but still has a ways to go on his left arm. He is walking with a walker now with assistance and we were so blessed to have him here.
The kids enjoyed the pool...

And the adults enjoyed conversation and a good old fashioned gospel singing....

Everyone left at around 4:30 and we cleaned up real fast, rested for about 30 minutes and got ready for our friends who were coming at 6:00. Adam grilled chicken and we enjoyed our time with Karen, Steve, Al, Lacey, Lee and Luke. We ended the night with a few fireworks.

July 4th Prep

We are having a TON of family over for the 4Th of July so yesterday I decided what I could pull together as far as decorating goes. I found a few red candles and some napkins that I had in storage. I also found my lollipop tree with my patriot lollipops. I did a search for easy to make decorations online and found these glorious stars from Martha Stewart . It took Amy and I about an hour to make our star garland and they turns out so great! I am going to clean and do more decorating today.

I made this flag cake last night for church and will make another for Friday. It was yummy and easy!! You can find the recipe HERE

Monday Meme

I thought I would try a Meme because I enjoy seeing others do it like Leigh and Charnita
This post is Mute Monday, Trolls fabulous creation. The theme for MM is Summer.

Here is my interpretation of Summer...

It wouldn't be summer without Kenny Chesney's song "Summertime" which is my summer time theme song!!

Vegas Day 5

On our last day in Vegas, Adam and I got up and decided to walk as far down the strip as we could, making sure we had seen everything we wanted to see. We walked and walked and walked. We actually made it all the way down to the Wynn, going through all of the casinos along the way.

We made it back to the Luxor and decided to rest for a while. Since it was our last night in Vegas, we wanted to have a nice dinner. We finally settled on Fiamma which is inside the MGM Grand.

The atmosphere and food were both outstanding. The bill was out of this world, but what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas so we won't tell how much it was.

After dinner, we went to see MGM's Crazy Horse Paris show. I went in expecting it to be a bit risque, which is fine...I have seen boobies before. What I didn't expect was the shear boredom of it all. This show was horrible. Even the guys agreed, it was bad. Would not recommend it at all.

We made our way back to the hotel and hit the casino one last time. After loosing a little more money to the slot machines, we head to bed and get ready to leave the next day.

We really had a great time with our friends in Vegas. We got to know everyone a little better and thats really what its all about...friendship!

Vegas Day 4...finally!!

On day 4, we got up early, rented a van for 8 and headed toward the Grand Canyon. We drove to the Hoover Dam first and of course spent about an hour re-living the scenes from "Vegas Vacation" with Chevy Chase. We were on the "dam" road, taking the "dam" tour, looking for the "dam" bathroom...etc.

Well, after we took the "dam" pictures, we headed towards the west rim of the Grand Canyon. After an hour pit stop at the Double D grocery store, the long 14 mile dirt road, miles and miles of Joshua Trees, we made it to the Hualapai Indian Reservation where we had to board a bus to go onto the Canyon.

This was my 2nd time to see the Grand Canyon, and once again I was amazed at it's beauty. I could see it a dozen more times and still be in awe. I was afraid to go near the edge and Adam kept scaring me by getting so close.