THE young FAMILY: I confess...

...that no matter how hard I try, I just do not get to blog as much as I used to. I think part of it is that I instagram so much and I feel like posting pictures there is just easier! So for those of you who follow me on instagram, many of these are repeats. But for those who don't, here are a few things we have been up to!

While Mimi had Carrie, Cy-Cy and I spoiled Hayes a little since she never gets to do the fun stuff all by herself! Here she is getting an afternoon cupcake before we took her to the toy store :)

When Mimi brought Carrie back, we took them on a little outing to the park and then to the library to see "Bobo the Clown." Here are my little monkeys...

The next weekend, I got lucky enough to have a girls' weekend away! Graham goes on a golf trip every December so some of us wives decided we needed to reciprocate :). So we went down to Perdido to my family's place and spent a long weekend away. It was so fun and so relaxing. I truly am so thankful that Graham encouraged me to get away and that his dad came in town to help him :)

Our favorite spot of the week was this really fun bar/restaurant right on the beach. We went there 2 out of 3 nights.

Our days were spent like this...heavenly.

We walked down to the Flora-Bama a couple times :)

One time we walked down late and had some drinks and dancing to some great live music. It had been awhile since any of us had done this and we had a blast.

Another shot at the Gulf...

We got back on Father's Day and my parents had my dad's side over for dinner by the pool. These are 2 amazing daddies right here!

We also had Carrie's end of the year Soccer party. She got her first trophy!

Some kiddos with their trophies.

And Ariel came to camp for Mermaid week. Carrie is still talking about it. It was her dream come true.

Carrie has spent much of the summer drawing. She is getting good at staying in the lines and at creating her own pictures. I get at least 5 pieces of artwork from her a day. I can't keep it all, but it is hard to part with these precious works.

Last weekend was the member-guest golf tournament and Graham and John come in for it so Paula and I got some fun time with our little ones! We see them probably twice a year and it is always fun to get the kids together and to get some yummy meals out, too. The kids get along so well and it is just easy and fun. Saturday morning, we took them to the splash park and they had a blast!!!

Jack spent lots of time caterpillar hunting. Carrie helped every now and then, but the rest of the time, she was in the water and Hayes was in the whole time!

Then we went to have some yummy mexican at Rosepepper and to get ice cream at Jeni's. That was Hayes' perfect meal and she had a messy dress to show for it!

I walk with a friend of mine, Leigh, a lot of mornings. One day Carrie looked at Hayes and said "Hayes, let's go stroll our babies and talk about things like Mama and Mrs. Leigh." Hilarious.

The girls have been into bug hunting so here they are looking at a bug together. C made that gorgeous cowboy hat at camp :). I just love how much they are playing together now. We definitely have our moments, but more often than not, they really do love being together and playing together.

And finally, as I am writing this post, I am supposed to be on a plane to Maine. Our flight was cancelled because of weather somewhere so we are now leaving tomorrow morning instead. But yesterday as I packed, Hayes found the life jacket I had packed for her for the boat and wanted to wear it. I was so scared she would hate it and it would make boat rides miserable, but nope! She loves it. She wore it for the rest of the morning, even playing outside. She calls it "backpack" so I think she thinks she is Dora :).