4th of July Palooza

The 4th of July is hands down my favorite holiday!  And this year was extra special and the entire Kerr clan was at our house for a weeks worth of 4th of July activities!!  We had a great time with never a dull moment!

Before the guests arrived Andy cranked through and finished grad school!!  I give him so much credit with the balance of family, upcoming deployment, and finishing graduate school close to two months early.   Whew... we're all glad that's behind us!

(We LOVED Madison though!!)

We kicked off the week of the 4th with watermelon

One of my favorite things of the 4th is the 4th of July parade!  Growing up in a small town in Iowa we had the BEST parade!!  I looked on the internet to try and find us a parade and had THOUGHT I had found one...(it was even on the news for things to do over the 4th...) so we drive about 45 minutes to the "parade" and it consisted of about five WWII trucks and that was it...  

Maybe next year...!!

Our week consisted of perfecting the perfect bloody mary

Our housing community has a great pool and is walking distance from our house.  There is hardly anyone ever there, which was a good thing for us...it was pool party 2013!!

Jeremy (my sisters husband) and Andy, had a great time together in the pool.....!

Jeremy flipping Andy off of his shoulders!

Raft races!!

One of the days the girls all went to a crab festival while the boys went fishing.  Afterwards we went to a fun seafood restaurant on the beach.  This above photo is a photo of all the napkins that one of my family members went through (I won't write their name...) in one place setting!!

Cards Against Humanity in the evening!

Andy, Jeremy, Cade, and Drew spent several hours fishing, even braving it in the rain and wind!!  It all paid off when they brought dinner home!

We had a great week with the family and ended it with awesome fire works in the neighborhood!

Al's Visit To The Deep South!

The kiddos and I have been in Mississippi without Andy from the end of May till the end of June while he finished up graduate school in Madison.  FINALLY he was done and his awesome dad met up with Andy in Wisconsin and drove down with him.  Drew and Claire were happy to see daddy, however ecstatic to see silly Grandpa!!!

Al was here for just a long weekend before he had to fly back.  However we put him quick to work with a few house projects and assembly from the move!

The first task  Al and I concurred together was to assemble the hammock... I think Al sat on the hammock  ten times testing his weight....

At last the hammock is safe!!!

Al booked his flight out of New Orleans, which means VacAtIon for us!!!  So we booked a hotel room and saw ALL of the sights in the 100 degree weather!!  We did it Vegas style with drinks in our hands out on the streets!  (Claire's cup had water....)

Thank you Al for helping out and making the road trip with Andy!!  We loved having you and sneaking you into our hotel!!

May Madness!

May has been one of our busiest months on the books!  We celebrated Drew and Claire's Birthday, moved out of our house, bought a new car, moved in with friends, ran a mud run, went to MN, drove to Mississippi,   Andy flew to California, and the kiddos and I moved into a new house!

Drew celebrated his 6th Birthday

Said good-bye to our house in Madison.

Drew and Claire ran a half mile mud run race in Madison!

Since all of our house hold goods were packed we stayed at our good friends house in Madison!  The kiddos had a blast!

Claire celebrated her 4th Birthday and Grandma and Grandpa's house in MN.

Two days later we jumped in the car for the twenty-two hour drive to Gulfport.  The kiddos did AMAZING in the car!

Back to the beach life we missed.

Exhausted from the crazy May month in the hotel.

And this past Wednesday the movers came with all of our stuff!

Whew, how I hope June will be a calmer month

Grandpa and Grandma Olsen Visit!

 Last weekend Andy's parents came for a weekend visit.  We had a great time touring around with them and enjoying the kiddos birthday party with them!

On Friday everyone had school (including Andy) so I tool them up to the local winery!

They also had brandy tasting.  Mary Lou and I acted like we were really interested and  gave it all to Al!

Claire just loved her grandpa  and he loves to act as silly as she does!  (Claire covering him up with all of the blankets in the house and he would jump out and scare her!)

Al still owns the first ever cell phone invented!!  The kiddos were amazed with it when we were out to dinner!!

Saturday was beautiful here so we hit up the opening of the farmers market at the capital.

Claire spotted Bucky the Badger from a mile away!!

Just chilling in front of the capital..

Al was such a sport and climbed into the third row and would just roll out...

On Sunday we had a bowling Birthday party for the kiddos.

Drew and his best buddy Rowe.

Claire tearing up the bowling.

Time for cake!!

And to sum up there trip here this last photo is of Claire feeling their poor dog Kai one. bite. at. a . time!!  Kai truly is the most patient and well behaved dog I've every met!