Savannah's Wedding Weekend & Father's Day Fun

We LOVE our trips to Alabama to see our people and we were lucky enough to have 2 visits within a 3 week period! 

As soon as we arrived, Aunt Manda had a fun activity planned (of course she did) and we headed to the Drive-In to see Cars 3. While it was possibly the exact same movie as Cars and Car 2, we did have a really fun time. I love, love a throwback to my childhood like this. 

Love them for always making fun plans for us and being troopers with our kids. 

The reason that we went back so soon was not only because we missed everyone, but because Savannah got married! We left the 5 kids with Noah's awesome girlfriend and headed off the ceremony. She played with them all in the pool, got them all dressed and drove them to us downtown. 

Dr. Cogen was there!!!!! CELEBRITY! 

Aunt Manda let me borrow my entire outfit (#nobodyissurprised.) It was so much fun to be able to spend time with everyone. 

Max really loved the entire process of the day-the fact that he got to wear a belt, dancing with Reese, getting new shoes, all of it. He asked, "Can I wear this to all of my weddings?"

Their love of each other is something fierce. 

Savannah!!! She looked so beautiful and we were so honored to be there on her special day!

Olivia's boyfriend flew in from Austraila (true story) and Anderson was so pumped to meet him. His first question was, "Have you seen a real blue ringed octopus?" Apparently, nobody has ever asked about that because most people just care about the kangaroos. 

Nicole was especially interested in this information. 

Pops made a balloon Savannah!

Seriously, going to Alabama is basically better than a vacation anywhere else. 

Max's new outfit of choice is "Lifeguard." 

My efforts to make Levi like/tolerate me are continuing at every visit. 

I love these nephews of mine for so many reasons, but one of the highest on the list is the fact that they play with my kids. 

We celebrated Father's Day with an awesome cook-out at Aunt Manda's. I found this Coke bottle for Pops!

Kyler, the grill master. 

What is happening with my hair?

Anderson has been SO excited about Brandon's present and he picked it all out himself. Brandon received a Transformers razor, Transformers shave gel and a Regal gift card to see the Transformers movie. Anderson couldn't handle the anticipation of giving the gift, so we had to give it to Brandon a few days early. 

We missed the first part of the day because we were still in Alabama, but we managed to make it back in time for dinner and delicious dessert at GG's. 

Brandon & Pappaw! Also, Brandon put that razor to very good use. 

Max loves talking to Pappaw; it's really cute to watch them together. Also, Anderson's glasses broke on the car ride home from Alabama hence the access to his eyes. 

I still cannot believe these boys are all mine. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZe7fGQXvEA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agQ6Q3LqCBc

Savannah

For the last 2 years, we have met some old friends in various places (Knoxville & Chattanooga) and this time we landed in Skye's home of Savannah! We spent 4 nights there and it definitely ended up being one of the highlights of our summer, for sure. 

The drive was a real thing-mostly because  thought it was only 5 hours and it was basically 8. We stopped on the way to eat at a really cute Chick-Fil-A. 

And, we stopped as soon as we saw the first palm tree in Georgia! Needless to say, they were PUMPED!

Skye lives in a community that has multiple playgrounds, pools and....lagoons full of alligators. I think it will only take one try to guess where the boys wanted to spend most of their time. To their disappointment, we did not choose the gator route and opted for the other sources of entertainment. 

She lives on Skidaway Island, off of Savannah, and the views were unreal. 

Of course there were lots of golf cart rides. 

This one area RIGHT BY HER HOUSE had thousands of fiddler crabs so we spent entirely too much time there every day. 

We did venture to those lagoons a few times and actually saw a few alligators from a very safe distance. 

We saw a few dolphins one night off of this pier! 

One of the main reasons that the trip was so successful was because Skye has 2 boys that are the same age as Anderson & Max, so her house was FILLED with toys and lots of fun boy activities. Not that we really needed them since we lived outside, but it was nice to know they were there in case of bad weather. 

"Mama, can we put this in my nature box?"

He found a dead snake on a trail and wanted to dissect it. Much to the dismay/shock/disgust of my friends, I let him. He loved it and kept talking about the beauty of it. 

Max was not big enough to go down the water slides, so I had to take one for the team and go down with him....27 times. 

You never know when there might be ghosts, so he was ready. 

Christina and her 3 kids joined us Friday night and added to the fun!

We drove to Tybee Island on our last full day and LIVED IT UP in the ocean.

We have been friends for over 20 years!

Don't worry; it was dead. 

After an entire day at the beach, we hit the pool for a late night movie showing!

On our way home we stopped at a Nature Reserve (of course we did) where the boys initially had mixed reviews. One guess who did not want to participate because he was so hungry....

It added to our trip home, but I am really so glad that we went because the scenery was beautiful, the animals were different than most of what we usually see and, most importantly, Max got some snacks and ended up enjoying himself, too. 

This alligator was out in the pond and literally swam right below us as soon as we got there. It was all levels of creepy and cool. 

Nothing ends a trip like an armadillo butt!!!

Crab Hunting

We had an absolutely amazing time and I am so grateful to have time off to spend with these boys!