Saturday's Very Special 4th of July!!

This 4th of July was very special because not only did I have my sister and her kids here to celebrate with, I had my husband here, home and safe!! The last 3 July 4th celebrations I was without my husband due to his work and overseas duties! As I would sit and watch fireworks I would worry for the safety of my husband but this year was different! I had my hero at home with me and the kids! He did have to work part of the day but made it while the sun was still out!! The kids were excited too to have Daddy/Uncle Jay there! I was a happy girl!!

I spent 4th of July with my sister and her kids about two years ago. It was nice to be able to spend it with her again. It's so much fun taking the entire day to just let the kids play while we anticipate some really cool fireworks!! Chatting with her and laughing over the dumbest things are what makes our time together so much fun!!

Happy Birthday, Jay!!

Today Jason turned 30! He finally caught up to me and now he can no longer give me a hard time for being so old, hahaha!! The kids and I spent all day preparing for Jay's birthday dinner surprise! We decorated the kitchen, made a cake and I cooked up one of Jay's favorite dishes that I had not made for him in quite some time....Manicotti!! I also made him his favorite cookies and his favorite Spinach Artichoke dip!! He came home from work and the kids and I hurried downstairs because we had our surprise gift waiting for him in the garage. We got him a new tool box. He's been needing a bigger one with drawers so we got it for him! He was happy!!! Then the kids rushed him upstairs to show him what we did. Caiti yelled out "surprise" as Jay walked into the kitchen!! It was fun!!

We were really happy to see Jay enjoy his birthday! He's never been one to want to celebrate so I made sure he had no choice but to celebrate! He's a wonderful man and we want to make sure he always knows how much we love him!!! Happy Birthday, Jay!! We love you!!!

Fun on Our Boat!

As most of you know, Jay got a boat for his birthday and this past weekend we took it out for the first time! We met up with our friends, Joe and Amy and headed out to the lake (after a big rain storm, haha). We started off a little rocky but soon got the hang of things. The kids really enjoyed being out on their own boat but did actually wish they could be on the boat with their friends! We tried anchoring the boats together but it was a bit choppy so it was impossible to do. We ended up having a really fun day out on the water!!

I even took a shot at driving the boat. I kept it pretty slow but I had a lot of fun driving it. I even got it up onto the trailer when we were done!! Scary but I did it!!!

Our fun in the water was cut a little short. Caiti and I went out on the water and ended up getting pulled out with the current. I tried swimming back in towards the boat but holding on to Caiti with both our lifevests on made it absolutely difficult. We just kept getting pulled further and further away from the boat. I started to panic and yelled to Jay to jump out and help us!!! He did and in the process, broke his phone and lost his watch (the watch that survived two deployments with him). So after that if the kids wanted to go in the water we stayed very close to the boat and held onto the ladder the whole time. They had to take turns getting in so I could be in there with them, hahah!! No more boats on windy days!!!
The bow of our boat sits up a little higher than our friends boat so Cory preferred to sit back here behind the window next to Dad, hahaha! Caiti and I sat up in the bow...she's our little thrill-seeker!

Jays Dream Come True...

Jay has had one wish the entire 11 years we've been together (and I'm sure much longer than that) to own a boat. Well, that wish finally came true for him today!!! We took a long drive out to Maryland to view a boat. It turned out to be a very exhausting day but everything was well worth it! We walked away getting an amazing deal on a very nice boat!! It is a 1999 Bayliner. So it is aged a bit but the boat is in great condition!! It can seat up to 9 people. The large bar going across the top is for wakeboarding/kneeboarding/waterskiing. A 3 person tube was also included with the boat!! The fork looking thing off the side is for the kneeboards, etc. I will have more pictures after this weekend. We are storing the boat at our friends house and will be going over there this weekend to clean it up a bit and I'll take some pictures then! I know this is going to bring our family a lot of fun and we can not wait to have our friends and family have the chance to be a part of it!!