Our Fourth of July & a Family Wedding

Bear with me. I accidently had "left side" on whenI uploaded ALL these pictures. (*sob*). So, to save myself time and frustration, I'm uploading the pics and story as it is. It may get a little confusing with the pics and writing going this way and that, but I hope you get the gist of it all.
Sorry :(

Where to begin? Well, we did a week long car road trip with CJ's brother and his family, along with Papa & Nana. It was exciting, fun, loving, tiring, exhausting, eye-opening, memorable: all those adjectives you think of with family. I loved our time together as a family and the kids really did amazingly well, for all the car rides we put them through. I think Kyla did even better than her 3 year old sister! Keifer loved having Abby share parts of our road tripping with her, and sleeping in hotels seemed exciting to her- because there were hotel POOLS and water slides!
We started our Fourth of July holiday at CJ's Uncle & Aunt's cabin. They recently redid their
main cabin, and we stayed next door in their old "small" cabin. It was so much fun! Great, beautiful, WARM weather and sunshine, and Keifer got to model MANY swimsuits, cute outfits, and sun hats. She also enjoyed a few hours in the NUDE one afternoon! The girl loves to be "naked baby!".

She had her FIRST boat rides, which she faced with some fears, but swallowed them to put on her brave face for her cousins. She passed out cold for the fireworks display, but both girls were up late each and every night for family fun times. Keifer also did VERY well, considering she spent a lot of time playing alone. Her cousin Abby is 9, so she's a bit older. Cousins Mason and Oscar were both 5,and both boys, so they had fun teasing Keifer more so than "playing" with her. No worries, though, because she did so well with the sand and the water and had plenty of adult attention to go around. She even kicked some booty in the card game "Uno" with Auntie and her cousins! :)



Kyla was a trooper, considering she had just been diagnosed with yet another DOUBLE ear infection the day before we left. You would never know the smiley, happy girl had ear problems. So yes, the antibiotics she was on? Yep, it caused some massive blow out diapers, so luckily our time at the cabin was spent with a WASHING machine - because she went through a few outfits a day, thanks to the medicine. She enjoyed crawling around, exploring the new places, and getting LOTS of kisses and hugs from her family.

Kyla also got to meet, for the second time, HER BIRTHDAY TWIN! CJ's cousin Betsy had Conrad the exact same day I had Kyla! Conrad's birth was planned and on time - Kyla's was not. Needless to say, the family gets a big kick out of our "Birthday twins'. Kyla is finally growing some hair these days, and it's (excited) coming in curly in the back, just like Conrad's is!

We had a great time, but sadly had to say goodbye to move on to our next destination, which was Bismarck for a stop over (night) and then Medora, N. Dakota. Post to come.

We finished our week coming back towards MN, stopping in Jamestown for CJ's cousin Kenn's wedding. It was a hot and steamy wedding, oh yes, and the church was filled to capacity with: no air! Lovely. Kyla, our dream baby, decided to flirt and chat with the baby in front of us, so CJ spent the wedding watching from the hallway with Kyla and big sis, who wanted to be with sissy. We finished the night at the reception, where Keifer danced longer than she's ever danced before, and Papa Jim was nice enough to watch Kyla until Mama came back to the hotel room.
We had SO much fun, but we were all excited and happy to be HOME again (especially the fur kids, who had stayed with Papa Dale & Nana Dian while we were gone). Home again meant exhaustion and laundry, but routine, which was nice to get back into.