we’re out. vacation. family. friends. small town carnivals. big ol’ lakes. sand. nieces. nephews. laughing. crying. maid-rite. meijers. hugs. home cooking. eating out. piers. waves. sun. cool lake breezes. alex’s pizza.

we’re on our way out to visit friends & family in missouri. we’re stoked about seeing our family and we get to meet our new nephew, tristin whose only 3 months old and so stinkin’ cute. we get to eat maid rite. (notice that i prioritized and didn’t mention the food first) we’re lucky because mark’s family and my family live in the same town so we get to make our rounds and see everyone. and my aunt, uncle and my cousin’s family are coming in from georgia. brenda’s driving in from springfield and amy’s coming home from lake of the ozarks and we all get to hang. i can’t wait. i haven’ seen the girls since novemeber at carrie’s wedding so i can’t wait. amy’s husband russ is coming home and he & mark get along fabulously since they can talk politics and not hate each other by the end of the night. plus i get to see my little brady man. brady just turned two so i get to catch a glimpse of what my life will look like next year at this time w/ p-diddy parker man. who by the way is sick. poor dude. let’s hope he stays out of crank-ville while we spend 15 hours in the car tomorrow.

mark is smoking crack because he totally thinks we can make this trip in one day. did i mention 15 hours? last time we made this trip parker was only 3 months old and all he required was a boob and an occassional burp and diaper change. these days he’s got me wondering if 11am is too early for vodka. and that’s in our wide open spacious home with all of his toys and lots of places to crawl in and out of. imagine the joy of being restricted to a car seat for 15 hours. i can’t imagine how he wouldn’t like that.

regardless, i’m still excited. after 4 days in missouri we’re heading to grand haven, michigan to see my dad, sister and brother and all my nieces & nephews there. i’ll get to go home to oakley to see my grandma and aunts and uncles too. the kids are super excited about this part of the trip too….they not only get to play with their cousins but we get to spend some serious time on the beach at lake michigan.

i’ll be working a bit while i’m on vacation….i plan to do newborn shots of tristin while i’m home as well as my sister’s belly pics. she’s about 7 months pregnant now and i already told to prep herself for some rolling on the beach fun. she was appalled at the idea but she’ll be fine. i can totally take her so i doubt she’s going to put up a fight. i kicked her a&@ when we were kids so I have no doubt i can still take her down.

happy 4th everyone! enjoy!