wonderful & wacky

Firstly, I hope that everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. We were very lucky to spend the weekend with Zach's family in Brownwood, TX. We drove up on Friday morning and came back Sunday afternoon. It was wonderful getting to see our family, most especially Zach's dear cousin, Bo, who graduated from Marine Flight School and was on break for a couple days before reporting in at Pensacola. We cherish all our time with him, and look forward to his moving back to Corpus. That will be wonderful! I already anticipate a number of cousinly weekends on the coast. I was very happy to spend time with my dear, darling Hannah (below). She's just about the coolest chick you could ever hope to meet! I love my cousin Hannah!

The 4th of July was fairly quiet and uneventful, except for a few incidents with sparklers. Dear Jackson decided to flip around his sparkler which had burning paper on the end. When he did this with too much zeal, the paper went everywhere, and one time a piece landed on his shirt. Lord, only Jackson Kennedy could catch himself on fire with a sparkler. But other than that it was a sweet, calm 4th. Cory made it to Brownwood a few hours after us and we were happy to share the whole weekend with him.

Saturday was the 8th Annual KDWall Ranch Barn Dance. KDWall being, of course, Aunt Darlene and Uncle Kirk. We welcomed even more family on Saturday, as well as my favorite girl in the whole, wide world, Miss Lindsay Gillaspie. The 5th was also Jackson's birthday so that was extra cause to celebrate. We had a great time, it was so good to sit around with Hannah, Lindsay, Cory, Gray, Bo, Tyler, Ashley and anyone else who drifted in. I think Gray and Zach had a good time, and the picture I snapped of the two of them cracks me up. Thank you, Gray, for a good laugh.



The drive home was somewhat tighter than it had been on the way up because we took Lindsay home with us. We were happy to have her, and the drive seemed so much shorter with Lindsay to chat with. I sat in the single seat in the back with the dogs, and they had issue with the fact that they didn't have the whole backseat. But at some point, they decided to spoon (see below) and Jethro put his arms around Shiner and she nuzzled down into the crook of his arm. OH. MY. GOSH. How totally cute! We also saw quite the car on the road, the Challenger! Its engine is bigger than the engine in Zach's truck and it's not even available on lots yet- Zach just about lost his mind. I snapped a couple pics, but the driver hit the accelerator as I was doing so... I was hoping for much better images than I got. But it was exciting for Zach, none the less.






I also have to celebrate in my own small way. The BIG fight that I've been waiting for since April took place on Saturday night. 'Rampage' Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin. I am the ONLY person I know who was rooting for Forrest, and NOBODY I know thought he had a chance in hell to win. BUT HE DID! HOORAY! I was over the moon. On cloud nine. Elated. You get the idea. Zach's liked Rampage for a long time, but I like Forrest the best, I'm not a big fan of Rampage and I'm disgusted by people who don't really know too much about MMA thinking that oh yeah, I'll root for Rampage because he's a sure bet. Whatever. So there, I was right and everyone else was wrong and I have to rub it in a little bit because I took a lot, A LOT of crap before this fight. Now I'm waiting for a Forrest vs. Chuck fight- Forrest will have to defend the title at least once before Rampage gets another shot at him, so I'm hoping they'll sign Chuck up- I'd really hate to have to root against him, but Forrest's my fighter. That's MY Forrest from now on. Team Forrest! All the way!