The Fourth in the Flip

Last Friday I left Louisville to head down south to spend a week in Flip and enjoy some much needed time relaxing by the pool and hanging out with family. And this year I was super thankful to celebrate freedom....freedom from summer class that is! I now have about one month remaining of my summer before school starts and am excited that grad school will not be back on the radar until almost September. So this post is being written to you directly from the thriving metropolis of Fulton, Ky, while I sit at my parents' computer and drink coffee that Milton made before he left for work and the only issue I have to think about for the rest of the day is whether I should wear SPF 30 or 70 when I lay out today. :-)

We just enjoyed a great holiday weekend! Matthew came in from Cali, the grill was working all weekend, and we all spent too much time by the pool. And yes that includes Duke, our mini Dachshund lifeguard.

Friday soon after I arrived, we had a great dinner of steak, grilled squash, TWO kinds of potatos (Micah had both, by the way), mushrooms, and rolls. Dessert was brought by yours truly, a very special and hyped up red, white, and blue velvet cake. (The cake is soooo special that it will be getting its own blog post, which includes professional pictures taken by cousin Lauren!) We hung out on the patio after dinner and layed out all day on Saturday.

Saturday night we drove to Pilot Oak to eat dinner at Southern Red's BBQ. We ate outside, enjoyed the sweetest tea you've ever tasted, and had more fried food than we should ever admit to eating. Here are Morgan and Micah during dinner.

The gang at Southern Red's. The Worley-Dean's, Bell's, and Jones's.

Lauren and Mal agreed to pose with the sign!

Sunday morning we went to church and spent the afternoon poolside. With an endless supply of Diet Coke and bottled water we were prepared to beat that hot afternoon sun! Everyone was set to arrive at 6:00 for a dinner full of cook-out must haves: grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon, and baked beans.

Micah, Matthew, and Mallory enjoying our delicious dinner. I didn't tell them I was taking this picture, so hopefully none of them hate me for posting it to the web.



Our little cousin Allie! She'll always take time to pose for a picture. She and the other little ones kept us entertained all night!

After dinner on the patio, we headed to the other side of the house to enjoy the Fourth of July tradition of FAMILY BASEBALL! This event has been the source of patriotic entertainment for many years, as well as a source of some embarrassing moments. Micah and Morgan have always served as team captains. And Morgan may not run inside after being tagged out anymore, but he still is competitive, which makes it all the more fun.

Setting up the bases

About to pick teams and trying to recruit all family members!

These are the fans that decided to enjoy the game from the driveway.

A shot from the outfield, where I hid out trying to avoid any activity whatsoever. I've never really been good at what is referred to as "defense," but I did hit a double! I believe Micah's team won, but not without some minor injuries to our older veteran players and some good laughs along the way.

This is the family after the game! We missed everyone who wasn't there!!

After the game we went back to the patio for Karen's Fourth of July trivia game, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? Because mom teaches 5th grade social studies, she coordinated a trivia game for everyone that tested our knowledge of the history of Independence Day, the Revolutionary War, etc etc. I won't mention who actually won. ;-)

After trivia, Morgan helped the little ones have fun with some sparklers.



Isabella, Gabriella, and Allie had their time in the spotlight of course! Choreography included!



Aunt Sandra's traditional Fourth of July flag cake! We also enjoyed Barbara's Heath Bar Cake and Wanda's homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert!

Monday morning we had a delicious breakfast of sausage breakfast casserole, cinnamon streusel muffins, and fruit. We were greeted by a couple of hours of stormy weather, but it soon cleared out in time for some of us to catch a few hours of sun by the pool. Unfortunately Mal had to go back to Lex on Monday, but the rest of us were planning to spend the evening at Pontotoc Park in downtown Fulton. We took a picnic dinner to eat, including Mom's favorite apple dessert, and watched the fireworks with a few hundred other local residents. Believe me when I say that this show rivals both Thunder over Louisville and Cincy's WBN fireworks show. Be jealous that you weren't there!!


Pontotoc Park in downtown Fulton. There aren't many people in this picture, but by the time the fireworks had started the lawn was completely full!



Here is our picnic set-up downtown. Of course mom brought the patriotic tablecloth and the American flag to ensure that we had a very festive locale.

Happy Fourth of July!!!!