4th of July

We spent 4th of July weekend @ my Mom's house this year! It was so much fun just hanging out & relaxing with my family. Olivia mastered swimming all by herself & we spent a lot of time at the park next door to Nana's house. On 4th of July we celebrated with a family BBQ and fireworks :-) We ate delicious hot dogs with every topping you could imagine! We also celebrated my brother's 13th Birthday with the extended family (since his Birthday is July 10th). It was a great weekend and the girls and I were so excited that it was the last weekend with Daddy gone @ OCS.

Olivia showing off her patriotism

Little Miss Independent

Mommy & the girls

Aunt Kate & Olivia

We thank God everyday for the freedoms we so easily take for granted living in America. And we are so proud of Brian serving our country as a United States Marine. We missed you Daddy & hope to spend the next 4th of July with you!!!!

Mall of America

Over Father's day weekend the girls & I went on a little road trip with my family. Our destination: Mall of America :-) We drove the 6 1/2 hours (7 1/2 with stopping) to Minnesota to the famous gigantic mall! The girls did so well in the car for such a long period of time; they really surprised me. The mall is absolutely enormous! It is 4 floors of shopping, restaurants, and activities all centered around an indoor amusement park. We had so much fun!! We went to as many stores as we could fit into the three days we were there. I made sure the girls had fun by taking them to the Lego store, The American Girl store, & Brooklyn even had her first trip to

Build-a-bear.

Here are some pictures from our trip....

The girls & I shopping.

Olivia was thrilled to meet "the real Dora the Explorer"

& her best friend Boots!!

The girls love the Wonder Pets, but Brooklyn preferred them at a distance.

Aunt Kate bought them the Wonder Pet capes @ the Mall of America

& they dress-up as these two characters (Olivia is Linny the "ginny pig" as she calls him & Brooklyn is Ming-Ming the duck) all the time!! It's adorable!!

Olivia really enjoyed the amusement park.

Brooklyn & Nana watching Livie on the rides.

Brooklyn with the dog she made @ Build-a-bear with Aunt Kate & I while Olivia went to the amusement park with Aunt Taylor & Uncle Denton.

The whole group @ Mall of America.

(We missed you Brian)

Mommy & the girls.

Thanks Mom for planning such a great family vacation!! We can't wait for the next one!!