The Pig and Hermit...

Before our trip to Destin, we went to the Maumelle library and checked out several videos for the boys to watch in the car. Apparently, we are not the superior parents we believed ourselves to be, because we somehow forgot to expose our children to the genius of the Muppets! How could this have happened? Both boys were absolutely rolling...truly, thrashing around in their seat belts with unsuppressed laughter! Of course, they had their headphones on so we couldn't hear what was causing the hysterics. We paused the movie and had Carter explain what he was watching. The result was a story about "the pig and hermit"...maybe we should brush up on our Muppet terminology!

**** Please take note that the Galbraith fam (i.e. Russ) has officially learned how to get video rolled over to the blog! Woot, woot! Watch and be amazed...

Jones Family Reunion...

We had the Third Annual Jones Family Reunion on July 16th. We have tons of pictures of our boys swimming, sliding and diving, but very few of the other family members. In all actuality we did a horrible job with pictures all the way around. I'm documenting this fact so I WILL do better next year! We needed a picture of all the grandkids to precede this one of the "next generation." Nonetheless, they are a pretty cute group...

Patsy, Natalie, Carter, Linley, Alex, Kennedy,

Anna Claire, Harrison, Madelyn, Jaxon

4th of July

I didn't do the best job with pictures this year. The battery died just as we were getting ready to watch the fireworks show. Nonetheless, here are few from the day. You get the idea...tubing, swimming, repeat...

Chris was good sport on this one! Hanging on with an 80 lb.

weight bouncing around on your back is no small feat!

Carter LOVES being a daredevil.

He is obviously lacking in confidence :)

Love this face!

Me sporting the truck driver look...

Bliss

A close up of my classy lake wear...

The canal that we take from Lake Thunderbird to Lake Sequoyah
.

Alex and Natalie

Trying their hand at fishing. So far, Natalie has caught two

in her three years of life...the boys have caught ZIP!

I'm sure he is trying to con Mimi and Papa into something :)

Trying a second round with Papa...still no success!

The boys loved twisting the smoke bomb stems together

to create a "new color."

For some reason, Lake Thunderbird has helicopters fly really

low before the fireworks show (they started this last year).

I suppose it's an added bonus...it is pretty cool.

The only firework shot I got before the battery died.

The boys both pretended that their sparklers were

wands from Harry Potter. I think a few spells were cast.

Beach Boys

July 18-25, 2011: We spent a glorious week soaking up the sun in our favorite vacation destination, Destin, Florida. We stayed at our tried and true Seaspray Condos with the extended fam. With over 600 pictures, it was hard to choose...below are a few that made the cut!

Could they be any cooler?

Playing football with Uncle Chris. Alex was in heaven with
a full week of football on the beach.

Alex zipped through 3 books this week...Carter continued

to memorize the pictures in this Star Wars book.

Tubing! I love this shot!

Chillaxin' under the umbrella with Mimi and Papa.

Check out Papa's crazy sunburn!

Time to hit the waves!

Alex loved boogie boarding...

...Carter loved to scream!

A true Jedi never leaves home without his lightsaber!

Dead fish starting washing ashore on the last day.

Gathering and burying were on the agenda.

LOVE THIS!

Having a serious planning meeting...

The end result...Sponge Bob! We are soooo commercialized!

Hanging at the pool with Natalie. Unfortunately, Carter still prefers

the pool to the beach. Chris and Wendy (the rockstars of uncles and aunts)

earned our undying gratitude for letting him tag along with them!

One of our favorite restaurants. Papa has the magic

ability to get us in without a wait!

We celebrated Wendy's 33rd birthday with a cook-out and whiffle ball!

We had one rainy day so we headed to Destin Commons.

Hard Rock for lunch then to the Rave for "Mr. Popper's Penguins."

Carter was so excited that he was finally old enough to DRIVE

the go-carts this year!

We had professional pictures made with the entire family.

I snapped a few while the photographer was snapping hers!

Too sweet!