America America

I spent Fourth of July Weekend visiting with my oldest sister and her family. My parents are in Oklahoma again for the summer so it was weird being in Greensboro and them not being there, but it was so much fun to be a guest in my sister's home. I had so much fun hanging out with them. My nephew is two and a half and so much fun!

Thursday when I arrived we went to lunch at Stamey's barbeque and then did a little shopping. Riley got to pick out a treat that Aunt Kar bought for him... he found a fun cell phone.

Thursday evening we went to the local waterpark for a few hours and had lots of fun going down the slides. It was fun to watch my nephews playing in the water. It also made me feel a bit old since that was a popular place to hang out all summer during middle school.

Fourth of July morning we met up with my brother and his wife and my nephew, Mason and headed downtown for the fun fourth festivities which included a parade and carnival like rides and food. We didn't stay too long because it got really really hot. Mason is showing off his American pride and of course his Pack Pride! :)

Riley got to climb into a fire truck and put on the helmet... he looked so little up in that big fire engine.

Looking festive

After going to the 4th of July cookout that some of Erin and Michael's friends hosted we came home and I got to give Riley a bath and put him to bed. There is nothing sweeter than putting a baby to sleep. Riley loves to read and we got to read some books and rock in the rocking chair. The sweetest thing was that his dad taught him how to sing Sweet Caroline and he sang it to me, it was too precious.

Saturday Erin and I did some mega shopping and then the 4 of us had dinner at Outback where Riley was not so excited to see a "Croca-idol" (crocodile) on the wall above our booth. He finally touched it and overcame his fear.
Sunday after church we went to lunch in downtown Greensboro at a cute little restaurant called Natty Green's. We sat out on the patio which faced the train tracks, Riley was excited to see several trains during our lunch and is hopefully going to take a train trip to visit Aunt Kar soon!

Erin and Michael are gracious hosts and I had so much fun and felt so spoiled all weekend.

I decided that there is something to be said about Aunthood... I think it is better than being a grandparent. You see as a grandparent it means you had to be a parent at one point, as an aunt I get to love on my babies and spoil them, give them back, and I never had to have kids to do that. Although, I will say that sweet nephews sure do make the pangs for motherhood stronger!