The Motherland

Brad often refers to his hometown of Wilmington, Ohio as "the motherland," and we just got to spend a fabulous 4th of July weekend in this beautiful place. The weekend included many firsts for Nick, almost all of which are photographed and included in the above collage. On his first fishing trip, he and Brad caught a 3 pound cat fish, which Nick was very excited about until he overheard Brad say we were going to cook him and eat him. He wore big boy undies to the park for the first time. Brad came home with them in a plastic sack. He sat on a horse for the first time...but there's not a picture of that because it only lasted for 30 seconds. He ran into the back of Preston's head and got his first black eye, which doesn't show up very well in the picture but really was quite black and blue. And last, but definitely not least, he got sick and threw up for the first time, all over Brad. Fun for both of them! :)

Our trip also included lots of food, some games, rain, Jeff playing barbies on the couch with Ella, an excellent fireworks show on the 4th, swimming, playing and playing and playing with cousins, and a w o n d e r f u l night in the Zeigler's back yard around their fire pit, roasting hot dogs, making s'mores, and sharing experiences from the journal jar, my personal favorite. We love you, Jeff, Debbie, Phil, Mindy, Ella, Preston, Brennen, Mallory, and Miranda!

PS- Click on the collage to see the pictures in all their glory. The one of Nick crying after he heard they were going to eat the cat fish is well worth it. Incidentally, does anyone else's blog only let them publish 4 pictures per post? Any way to fix that?