B-U-S-Y 4th of July

It has been a very holiday weekend...and it started as soon as we both got off work on Wednesday evening. I didn't even see Duffer after I left for work that morning. After I got off work, I picked up the kids and ran some errands and then stayed at my dad's until 10pm. The kids were having a blast with Vanessa, Ryan, Brooke and Ashley so we just hung out for a while. I fed the new goats and one ate out of my hand but the other two newest ones are still a little weary of people.

Duffer went fishing with his friend, Tommy. I got home around 10:30, bathed the kids and we went straight to bed....we were all exhausted!! Duffer came home and we were all four asleep in my bed and he took this picture...with his Blackberry....snug as a bug, huh??

On Thursday we had plans to go to the lake with our friends, The Clymens.

My intentions were to get up and clean the house and do most of the laundry before we went (at noon) but when I woke up with a migraine...that didn't happen. I laid around most of the morning waiting on my migraine medicine to kick in. I still felt a little bad when we left for the lake but after an hour it finally went away.

This is the look I get everyday...every time I ask Duffer something...who knows what he was fussing at me about or making fun of me for???



Davis and Allie building something on the "beach"...obviously pre-haircut (Tommy cut their hair that evening when we came in).



I kept joking and saying I was going to throw both Tommy's and Duffer's hats in the lake...they both were Jeff Gordon hats and I detest him!



Duffer and me...with Duffer pigging out as usual!



This was on the boat...Duffer was pretending that he was throwing Rylee overboard...her new little Blackberry phone that she was given at Verizon did however go overboard. :o(





Tommy trying out his new wakeboard...I got some really funny pictures of him...



He was jumping a wave here and it is blurry but I had to post this one so you would understand the next two...



As you can see...he wiped out....



...but then he stood up in the water as he was going down and did this...too funny!



Another jump...



...and another...

...and another wipeout...



...another jump...



...another wipeout....are you seeing a pattern here??



So then Tommy talks me into trying it...used to ski (many, many years ago) but I never could get up on the knee board so I didn't have much confidence that I could get up on a wake board...especially since I never got good enough to ski slalom...could only do it on two skis. Jayme was oh so kind to take some very embarrassing pictures of me! Not sure you can tell here but I was scared to death...and when I get scared I laugh a lot.



Smiling for Jayme...I think this was on the 4th or 5th try...I had trouble holding onto the rope because of my tanning oil that was all over me...



Rylee was very helpful in the boat letting them know every time I fell...haha.



This was the view they had the most...haha...my arms were starting to hurt so bad...once I tried to hold onto the rope with my arm in the rope at my elbow...not sure if that makes sense but now I have a very large bruise there!! One time I swallowed half the lake too and thought I was going to puke and drown...



Then I finally got up...woohoo!!! Seriously it took about 20-25 tries and when I finally got up my arms were so sore that I couldn't hold on for long...but hey I still got up! When I got in the boat my arms were shaking and I felt like I had been hit by a semi truck!!!



So then Duffer tried but he didn't have as good of luck as I did...he also didn't try as long...he tried about 6 or 7 times and gave up...



After our wake boarding excursion we were starved and we get back to the beach to find that Jett ate ALL the snacks...good grief!!! So Jayme, her step mom C.J., Rylee and me headed to get food. (Rylee only went because I knew she would fall asleep).

We went to Little Caesar's for some pizza and then to Subway for some sandwiches. I got very ill in Subway because they only had one person working and it was taking forever...and conveniently Rylee tells me she has to go to the bathroom!! I thought I could hurry up and order and then take her....there were 6 people behind me so I didn't want to lose my spot...she didn't wait...she peed all over the floor where you order!!! Then I couldn't get anything to clean it up with...the lady finally gave me 3 napkins...I sarcastically said that would certainly not help and that if they had them on the customer side I wouldn't have to be bothering her like this. Finally they gave me a roll of paper towels and I cleaned it up while Jayme took Rylee to the bathroom and cleaned her up...after I ordered 4 employees came out...gee if they had been there to start with it wouldn't have taken so long!!!! Then Little Caesar's gave Jayme's meat pizza away for the 2nd time!!!

So we got back, ate, the kids went tubing and then we called it a day. We took the kids and boys back to Jayme's house while she and I ran to do some last minute holiday shopping...for flag apparel. We got some really good deals at Target.

So on Friday, the 4th, we started out early...arriving at the Clymens' house at 8am...Davis had spent the night with them (actually all 3 kids wanted too and we attempted it but when Duffer went back with their clean clothes, Jett and Rylee decided to come home). Tommy made a PILE of pancakes and we ate then headed to the parade.

And let me just mention...since I do NOT like pain...that I couldn't move when I woke up and have bruises all over me from wake boarding!!! I only thought I was sore from tubing a couple of weeks ago...I can hardly pick up Rylee!!!!

Here is Jayme as we were setting up...

Rylee being stubborn about smiling for me...



Davis with his newly cut hair...he likes to wear it spiked...



The Wallen clan...Duffer gave me the hardest time for not wearing red, white or blue...my shirt was a 4th shirt but I just picked different colors this year...I happened to like it.




Mr. Jett



Jayme and Tommy



Duffer and Jett



Miss Allie in the parade with the Chargers JV Cheerleaders....she will be cheering for Davis this fall when he plays for the Chargers.



The parade ended with a monsoon but luckily Tommy brought his canopy so we stayed dry. We saw Daniel and Tina as they were running through the rain and they stopped to dry off for a minute.

We went home, took a nap and then headed to Duffer's uncles' for their annual cookout. We got to meet Duffer's cousin's wife for the first time...remember we missed the wedding a month ago due to me being sick with a migraine. Here is Andy and Jenifer (yes she spells it that way) when Don and Diane (Andy's parents) surprised them with a wedding cake...since they didn't have one at the wedding.







It started to rain again but that didn't stop the kids from playing outside...here is Jett soaking wet...



...and Davis...



...and Jacob (Andy's youngest son)

Jett and Jacob



Aaron (Andy's middle son) whose picture was just recently in Tri-Cities Sports paper.



Duffer



Seth (Andy's oldest son) will be a junior at South this year...we are definitely going to make it to one of his football games this fall.



We made one more stop at another cookout and then headed downtown to watch Kingsport's fireworks...which BTW were terrible!!! They may have lasted 10 minutes and that is it!!

I have no idea why Rylee is so goofy but...



Jayme and me



Davis



Breanna and Ashley



The kids swarming around Tommy waiting on their glowsticks (every year Duffer buys a ton from the Dollar Store and they are always a huge hit).



Jamey trying to hula hoop with his!





Ashley



Tracie, Sydnee, me and Jayme



Tommy doing something odd with his...



Allie and Jayme



Tracie holding Rylee and Sydnee



Where was Mason during all of this....in the car asleep...he wasn't feeling well. The others wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get decent pictures of them.



The funny part of the night was when I grabbed my water out of the car and asked Duffer how it got hot so quickly...he grabbed it from me saying that was the bottle that Jett peed into...OMG if I would have drank that I would have died!!!!

After the fireworks we headed back to the Clymens...you would think we lived with them...for a game of Dominoes...the game ended at 3:30am because I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore...we still had 2 more rounds to go but I just couldn't do it. All of our children were asleep so we just crashed there too.

We got up today and came home...did many, many loads of laundry...went to a birthday party....and have just chilled. We are really hoping to relax some tomorrow...according to Duffer we are doing NOTHING next weekend...funny how he says that every week...I guess you can rest when you die, right??? ;)

Davis took this picture before we went to the party today...I have been curling my hair for the past week just for a change...do you like it or not????