Family Ties.

I love my sister. Let's just get it out there. She and her wonderful husband used their long weekend to drive to Atlanta and spend the holiday with us, and what a fun holiday it was! We cooked a lot, played a lot, and looked at a lot of rental houses. They are troopers. Here they are with their favorite niece and nephew. (I can say that because right now they are their only niece and nephew.) Still, I think maybe they might keep the title....

After deciding we didn't want to brave Buckhead's "largest Fourth of July celebration in the Southeast," we headed to north to Alpharetta's shindig. We set up camp with our chairs and blanket and stroller and sent the boys across the street to the Dairy Queen for some showtime refreshments. Even Elizabeth got a brain freeze or two.

Ah yes, that picture is definitely a framer. I was struggling to get her to sit in my lap and in the midst of it all, forgot to open my eyes. Yeah. At least we got (partial) evidence of the Ant Invasion: over there to the left is Tony frantically sweeping about a thousand of them off the blanket. Sadly, his efforts were in vain. Those ants were relentless.

Jude, unworried by the Great Ant Attack, promptly fell asleep as soon as he got into his Uncle Sandman's arms. Sitting straight up. In the middle of the firework explosions and the drunk women's exclamations behind us. Elizabeth, on the other hand, was completely enthralled. (With the fireworks, that is.) She kept saying "Wow!" in varying levels of awe. It was pretty darn cute.

I was so sad to see the end of this weekend, but I suppose it had to come. They left after lunch on Sunday, and the rest of the night I was depressed thinking about how far away our families live. Boo.