Summer Vacation 2011

We got back Saturday night from our family vacation to Tennessee. It was a great week! We did so much in 5 days and it was hard to narrow down the pics.

We stayed with Justin's brother, Jon and his wife Kelsey at their home in Murfreesboro. Kelsey got the boys lots of fun goodies like water balloons, swords, and silly string. We started off our vacation on Monday morning with donuts and a silly string fight in the front yard.

Then we went swimming at a friends house. We spent most of our time outside last week, so the boys have nice little tans now.
We had a fun and relaxing 4th of July. After swimming Justin and Kelsey cooked breakfast for dinner. Then we had a water balloon fight. I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids or the adults. Our kids loved watching us act like kids! We ended the day by watching fire works.

Tuesday we took a little walk to see the waterfalls. We were only there a couple of minutes when Sawyer slipped in the water.

After making a run to get Sawyer some dry clothes we met some fun friends for lunch and a play date at the Children's Discovery Center. The Spence's moved from Monroe to Murfreesboro last year, so it was great to reconnect with them.

That evening we met some more fun friends for a picnic dinner at the park. Amber and Amy are two AGCI adoptive mamas that I have enjoyed getting to know. Amy was so sweet to visit with us the night before she went to Ethiopia on a mission trip.
Jax really wanted to love on Elijah, but little E just wanted to play.
Wednesday we drove to Rock Island for a little hiking. It was so beautiful! We did not miss the hot and humid Louisiana weather at all last week.
The boys loved swimming in the freezing cold river. I preferred to stay on the rocks and take pictures. =)
We turned back when we saw dark clouds moving in, but we didn't leave soon enough. It poured on us the entire way back. I prayed the whole time that we would not be struck by lightning. We made it back safely and completely soaked.
Thursday, we woke up bright and early to drive to Santa Claus, Indiana. We spent the day at Holiday World and Spashin Safari. We had a blast!
Friday we woke up, ate donuts one more time, and packed up. We drove to Chattanooga to visit with my aunt, uncle, and cousins before heading home.
We all had fun at the aquarium.
The boys played in the fountains outside the aquariums while we visited.
It was a busy and fun week! Looking through these pictures really makes me want to go back! But right now I need to finish laundry, unpack, and start getting ready for our trip to Dominican Republic next week.