Aw, the good times we had this past summer. Neither I nor the boys took summer school and Sam had a couple of months between school ending and starting his new job at Sandia National Labs, so we were free to move about the country (all except Chad who had baseball tournaments and a summer job that caused him to miss all the fun).
We were able to attend this year's Britt family reunion in Mississippi and it was awesome. Sam had never before sampled Aunt Sandra's hospitality but I don't think it will be long until he's ready to sample it again. That woman can cook! I think I probably gained ten pounds in the three days that we were in Brookhaven. The other night, my sisters and I were watching Duck Dynasty and I said, "Don't you think that if Aunt Sandra, Paula Deen & Miss Kaye got together, they would be the best of friends?" My sister Emily replied, "I don't know, but I can tell you that I would like to be there if they decided to cook together." Amen, sister! My family got to stay in the house that Aunt Sandra grew up in. Her mother, my grandmother's sister, died a few years ago but they have kept her house in the family for when visitors come. It was really interesting for the kids to see how small houses used to be back in the day. The kids loved it and spent their time crossing the meadow to Aunt Sandra's and Renea's house to play with the grandkids and the dogs. Above was a scene from the potluck lunch and program. I am with four of my favorite people - my sisters Jane & Emily and my cousins Renea and Allison
Same scene with Aaron. This is pretty much the look he had on his face the whole vacation. Travelling without his brother did not quite cut it. I had to agree with him though. I probably called Chad three times a day to make sure that he was still sleeping and eating.
For one of our family reunion activities, we went to the Bogue Chitta River and went tubing. It was so fun. I didn't get a picture of the water, but above is a picture of the surrounding trees. We would definitely do this again but next time we will be beware of the bend in the river where Amber got sucked under a log and almost drowned. It was all quite dramatic!
She recovered however and after eating a ton of food at the family cat fish fry, it was time for kids' games. Yahoo. It was Survivor Britt style and above is a picture of Amber in a shower cap covered with shaving cream. Each team had to throw Cheetos at their teammate's head and the team who got the most to stick won.
There was also some sort of wet t-shirt activity that clearly happened while I was on a walk. I don't think it was the risqué kind. :)
Aw, the donut eating contest. Go team blue.
After we left Mississippi, we travelled to Kansas City via St. Louis. While in St. Louis, we took in some sights. We started with a river cruise. Captain Amber reporting for duty.
It was too hot to stay out on the deck for very long so we cooled off with a drink in the lounge.
Bethany taking a picture of a passing boat. I think you can see Indiana in the distance.
Here are a good-looking group of people in the St. Louis Arch visitor's center. We were glad that we would be staying at Aunt Betsy's house that night and not in a teepee.
At the top of the arch. The whole thing is a little claustrophobic but oh the view!
St. Louis from above.
Cardinals stadium. Of course I texted this picture to Chad. He so should have come with us.
And here is the last leg of our trip. We had a great time with our Kansas City cousins. We had homemade ice cream, we watched Holli's band concert, we played in the fountain, we took walks, we swam, we played Dance-Dance revolution and we went to World's of Fun (well Aaron and Gabe did, anyway). Good times! We had so much fun that Sam and the girls had to drive up to Colorado Springs the following week to see some of the cousins again. More on that next post. Anyway, we made it home safely to find the house intact and Chad alive and well. I'm ready to go again!
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