Happy Fourth of July, America!

Happy Independence Day.

Nothing represents America more than the summer beach trip with the family.

Here's my last few shots from Virginia Beach.

View from our room.

Biking seemed to be the activity of choice.

Shane and Owen are the two kids in the background.

What is a beach trip without photographing the local flowers? I think that I'm addicted to macro pictures of flowers. Yep. I'm pretty sure that I am.

Can't get much more beachy than umbrellas and chairs.

It took forever to get the sand out of Owen's hair!

The boardwalk is the happening place at the beach.

Elvis was in the building! Definitely as American as you can get.



There was an Elvis convention that weekend. Too bad we discovered it on the last night. This was one of the marketing people at the trade fair at the convention.

One last picture.



I don't want to gloss over the real reason that we're here today. It's because of our Revolutionary War ancestors who fought for our independence. So, a big thank you to them as well as to all men and women of the armed services who fight for our independence and freedom every day!

Happy Fourth of July.

Happy Birthday, Em!

Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday Dear Emily!
Happy Birthday to You!

Emily's birthday is today but we celebrated on Saturday night since we're going to be out of town. We went to Kybecca, a local wine bar as Emily is a wino - errr....loves wine. Then we made our way to J. Brian's Tap Room, a local pub because everyone else is a lush - errr...loves beer.



Ken, Scott (Emily's hubby) and I:



Hope you have a great birthday and a great time at Put-In-Bay!

The Great American Toy!

Did you have a slinky growing up?

If you did, you had it for about 2.5 seconds before you tangled it up to the point where it couldn't be used again.

I took the kids to the local park a few weeks ago where our local transit system was giving out slinkies.

It took Shane about 2 minutes to get it tangled up into the nearest tree branches. LOL.

But, I got my pictures before they ruined them.





Who didn't make a bracelet out of their slinky? That was the best part of a slinky.



The little girl is our neighbor and sometimes borrowed daughter. :)

I can't get the slinky song out of my mind now. And, I'm sorry to do this to you, but you won't be able to either.

Bye!

As some of you know, we're off to Pawleys Island for July. I have a few posts set up for automatic posting but then it may be sporadic until the end of July. But, that's okay because we *may* have a special mystery guest poster.

So, have an awesome July! Chat with ya soon.

Kim

"Our Couple"

Occasionally, I will introduce you to some of the people in our lives besides our kids and family. Please hold the applause and you're welcome.

So, ever have a couple that is "your couple?"

You know it if you have one.

You like the wife and the husband both equally. Both of you do. And, they would never be striken off of a party guest list. The wife isn't a nagging pain in the rump and the husband will gladly get his own beer or dinner (and yours too if you need one!) and isn't a complete know-it-all. Somehow it all just clicks and you are all on the same wave length so to speak. There's no drama.

Well, for us, that couple is Jody and Judd. Or, it could be. If they lived closer. But, no. They live in Grundy, VA. Yes. Grundy. I'm not sure where it is but I assume people are normal there. They are. LOL.



Aren't they cute? :)

Jody is outgoing president of the professional association that Ken is now president of. As tradition, the outgoing and incoming presidents and their spouses go to dinner the night before the convention starts.

So, we went to dinner at a quaint little local restaurant in Virginia Beach and after a leisurely dinner, we went to the Irish Pub where they were more than happy to humor me with self portraits.






After the self portraits, we did a few Irish Car Bombs. If you don't know what those are, you're probably better off. All I can say is "drop and drink" because it you don't, it curdles and is nasty. NASTY.



If they move closer to us they'll officially be "our couple." For now, we'll have to settle on seeing them when we can.



Because they are AWESOME in every way.