"Please bless Grandpa!"

My dad came to visit us here in North Carolina from July 3-7. He is our first official visitor and we were SO happy to see an Idaho face! It is also pretty awesome to live in a destination area, so when people come visit us we have lots of fun stuff to do! I think the heat and humidity were quite the adjustment for my dad, but we made many wonderful memories. Ashton was so incredibly happy his Grandpa Brad was here! He said, "Please bless Grandpa!" every prayer that whole week! My dad had a little shadow who rarely left his side.

One of Ashton's very best friends, Laura Kayte, was born on July 4th, so she had an awesome pool party! Ashton was loving the slip-n-slide!

Swimming was so fun! It is soo hot out here, so if you have to be outside, you better be in the water! 

Saying hi to Grandpa! 

Relaxing and eating some lunch! I think Beckham looks so much like Nelson in this picture. 

Our Fourth of July family! Due to blow-outs by Beckham, we all changed our outfits at least once that day...good thing we have a lot of red, white and blue clothes! :)

Birthday party fun!

We didn't want to brave the crowds at Wrightsville Beach to watch fireworks, so we drove to a smaller town nearby instead. We were very impressed with their great show! Ashton and Nelson played some games together while we waited for the sun to go down.

Ashton was LOVIN'  the bad mitten game!! He couldn't stop laughing!

This was Ashton's very first fireworks show and he was AMAZED! In past years we haven't let him stay up so late, but I'm glad he was able to enjoy them this year. 

Me and my Daddy-O!

Cute boys watching the fireworks!

The next day we took Grandpa Brad to the BEACH!!

Beckham ate sooo much sand...he was a mess!! It was difficult to clean out his neck rolls afterwards! Poor little guy! 

Ashton is my little beach boy! He loves the water!

Grandpa and Ashton building a sand castle together!

My dad ordered a cookie with his meal at Subway, so I HAD to get Ashton one too!

We did a lot of washer/dryer shopping and Ashton had tons of fun playing on the lawn mowers. He was {loudly!} singing, "The horn on the bus goes BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!"

The next day we ventured out and visited Airlie Gardens!

The boys with my dad in front of the 400-year-old tree!

They have a beautiful butterfly house with hundreds of butterflies flying all around. It is so peaceful and calm. 

I love this knotty tree! Can you tell the boys are getting a little hot and tired??

Ashton practicing some of his letters...here is H! 

Grandpa reading the Friend to Ashton. The Friend is Ashton's obsession right now. If we want him to do something, all we have to do is threaten to take his magazine away and he hops right to it! :)

We taught Ashton the song "Ten in the Bed" and he loves to reenact it. 

He sets this up around 5 or 6 times a day! "There were 10 in the bed, and the little one said, 'Roll over! Roll over!' So they all rolled over and one fell out!" 

The week flew by and we were so sad dropping Grandpa off at the airport. Thanks for coming Dad, come back SOON!!