Meat and backpacks and woodland creatures

I'm getting really close to being caught up with blogging again.  I know I always say that and then something happens to knock me behind again.  Looking through my pictures earlier I said to myself, "I'll really have to break these days up into a bunch of smaller posts because I'm going to run out of topics."  Yeah, right.  Me, run out of things to say?

Last Sunday, the 5th, we spent the whole day at Michael's parents house since his brother was still visiting.

I know Michael looks really pissed in this picture, but I promise he wasn't.  He was just watching TV and didn't know he was in the picture.

I was really taking a picture of Elliott, I just didn't zoom in enough.  He was really proud of himself because he was laying on the couch in his underwear with a blanket covering him.  Don't even ask me why that would make him proud, because I have no idea.  I do think that this is the best picture I've ever taken of him though.

I didn't take any other pictures that day, except for dinner.  Michael's dad took a 12 pound pork roast, stuffed it with 3 pounds of Italian sausage, wrapped it with 2 pounds of bacon and then slow roasted in on the rotisserie for 5 hours.

It really was as good as it looks.

We drove home Sunday evening and prepared for the first "normal" week at home in a long time.  Michael went back to work and the kids and I were on our own with no debit card to go do anything fun because someone stole my card information and my new debit card hadn't been issued yet.

So, on Monday we went to Target and used my Target Red Card to buy new backpacks. 

And then they got haircuts.

Oh, and I also broke my own "no more stuffed animals" rule and bought each kid a new friend.  Spencer named his Mr. Ham Burger and Elliott named his Jake.  Ham has feet at the end of his legs but I had to crop the picture because Elliott wasn't wearing shorts.  He's pretty much in only underwear all the time now.  I'm surprised he's even wearing a shirt.

Right before bed on Monday night Spencer and I took his 7 year 10 month pictures.  I came up with a great idea for his shirt and the location.

A test shot first.

And some goofy shots too.

Official

On Tuesday we went to Bass Pro Shops for their Family Summer Camp.  It's free and air conditioned.  

They have their woodland creatures carousel up and running again.

We also spent a lot of time in tents.

And shooting.

I had to edit this picture to add a giant, fake button because my shirt and the view was kind of scandalous and inappropriate.  But it's a good picture, so I made it work.  

Up next: more physical therapy, more IDEA museum, tiny bathing suits and I got to see my brother for an hour.

Back home and celebrating the 4th

Like I said in my last post, I had a 9:30 am appointment (on Wednesday, July 1st) with my plastic surgeon to take off the last four freckles/moles/suspicious spots on my body.  I had my first appointment in early May, so over two months he cut out 14 places.  That's 14 different areas of stitches plus one that he had to do twice because the pathology came back abnormal and he didn't get all the abnormal cells the first time.  By far the worst were these six stitches on the back of my head.

Spencer took this picture.  I won't zoom in because they're kind of disgusting.  Normally the area doesn't hurt after a few hours, but he cut so much out of my head that it hurt until after the stitches came out.

We came home after the appointment because I just couldn't handle going anywhere that day. This is the only other picture I took all day.  I love this tea towel that I bought from the gift shop at the Boston Tea Party Ships.  It helped with my post-vacation depression.

Michael came home on Wednesday night and thankfully did not have to go to work on Thursday or Friday.  We spent the whole day at home on Thursday doing laundry and letting the kids watch cartoons.  We're great parents.

This is the only picture taken that day.

On Friday we drove to Tucson because Michael's brother Raymond, his wife Jenn and their kids, Bryant, Cameron and Alyssa, were visiting from Florida.  We haven't seen them for four years. They had never met Elliott and Elliott had never met them.  

We went to dinner at Cheddars.

I recommended the drink The Painkiller to Raymond.  He kind of loved it as much as I do.

Blurry selfie with Jenn.

Alyssa had turned 8 a few days prior, so we had a belated birthday celebration.

It took a while, but Elliott warmed up to his aunt and uncle and cousins and there were lots of cuddles.

And the older boys played lots of video games.

Since everybody else was already staying with Michael's parents and they only have a two bedroom house, we stayed at my parent's house.  After the kids went to bed I made a patriotic pie for the 4th of July.

Pre-baking

Post-baking

Bright and early the next morning we drove back over to Michael's parents house to spend the whole day.

We started with mimosas.

The little kids went in the pool.

And we got a lovely mid-day rain storm.

FLASHBACK TIME!

The last time Michael's brother was here was in July of 2011.  Alyssa had just turned four and Spencer was two months away from turning four.  There was a rain storm on the 4th of July and the two kids played in the puddles for a long time.

I still love this picture where I caught Spencer mid jump.

I remembered that I had taken those pictures from 2011, so when it rained this year I insisted that Spencer join Alyssa in the puddles for some awesome comparisons. 

He wasn't thrilled about it.

I had to bribe him.

What kind of kid has to be bribed to play in a puddle?

It was worth it to get this side by side though.  I think Alyssa has grown two feet and Spencer two inches in the last four years.

Before people started getting too tired and outfits got ruined and just general debauchery happened I insisted on taking patriotic family pictures.

First I had to set up the background.

Then Elliott had a full and intense meltdown, complete with screaming, crying and a banishment to the back bedroom for a lengthy time out.

It took some candy bribing to get him on board.

I had to edit the stitches off of my forehead.  I did a pretty good job, huh?  Luckily you can't see the ones on my shoulder, arm and head.

All five of the grandkids.

Playing Uno with grandma.  

My kids are not used to having to share their grandparents with anybody.  Really with both sets of grandparents.  They have always had full reign of grandparent attention.

Adult time in the pool.

Somehow Uncle Raymond was talked into doing push-ups with Elliott on his back.

And they Alyssa and Elliott.

And then Michael and Elliott.

More cuddling.  Elliott has been talking about "my cousin Alyssa" for years, even without ever having met her.  He was very happy to spend time with her.

We did sparklers and fire works in the back yard.

And then went up on the roof to watch fireworks from A-Mountain.  It was a nice show, but I didn't take any pictures.

I did capture this gem at the very end of the night.  We're only missing Bryant, but he was skyping with his giiiiiiiiiirlfriend. Oooooooooooh!

Even though it was more than a week ago, Happy 4th of July everyone!