beaches, bbq + humidity

i hope everyone had a great 4th of july celebration yesterday! 

we had a movie marathon, watching both  brave and the amazing spiderman, with a home cooked cookout in between. after the second movie, we watched some fireworks and headed home to let the kids burn through 12 boxes of sparklers! don't you just LOVE the 4th of july? i have to admit that it is my favorite holiday of the year. i think our flag is so beautiful, and i love seeing it proudly displayed everywhere..and yeah, i am that weirdo that cries during the fireworks when i hear the star spangled banner. 

anyway, we are back from our trip. 

we totally lucked out with the weather at the beach...the tropical storm headed east, and completely missed the area where we were staying. the weather could NOT have been more beautiful. 

we flew into knoxville, but immediately headed to florida for 3 days. after a whole lot of swimming, biking and eating shrimp, we headed to alabama for the next few days for a family reunion and an obscene amount of bbq. it felt like we ate at every bbq place in the entire state! the last few days were spent in knoxville, visiting more family and friends. it was the perfect mix of activities.
here is little peek at our trip:

lucky for us, the entire southeast was being basted in the most intense humidity i have ever felt. most of my adult life has been spent in the south, and i don't EVER recall it being as hot as it was when we were there. for REAL...there were heat advisories on the news warning people to stay inside---and dozens of records were set for temperature highs. it was HOT. like the kind of heat where you open the car door, and milliseconds later, sweat is running down your back. anyway, the humidity was a small price to pay for such a great trip. we hope we can come back every year and let the kids enjoy the beaches, some good ol' southern bbq, family reunions, and of course, a little humidity!