'Merica.

so mostly i'll begin with saying i have no photos of our actual fourth of july.

but that means it was a good one, ey? 

i mean, SO good that you didn't even have a moment to take some snaps?  yep.  

but really.  it was swell.

on the fourth, we lounged by grammy's pool, took mr leifs little brothers into town to get snacks and greasy food and more firecrackers, and then we had a pool party.  

cheers to you 'Merica.

but i did take a bazillion other photos to document our fantabulous road trip home to the good life.  

and really, it started out great.  

theRomes had no idea we were about to force him to stay in his seat for the next 4.5 hours.  

yes, despite how many times he said "up up UPPPPP",  and how hard he tried to pull the straps off, 

the little fella was stuck in his seat.  poor dude.  he so has it rough, i mean...traveling with an ipad? 

surely, it can't get better than that.......

well, i guess he thinks it should.

because about half way there, he.was.DONE.

and thankgoodness for sandhills publishing, 

tractor house mag had this kid swooning in no time.

{so did the other two free dumper/semi truck for sale mags}

once we arrived, we hung for a bit, and then mr leif and i headed "into town" to meet up with some high school friends.
after traveling down memory lane for a couple hours,
we came home to a house full of sleeping family,
so we snuck outside to eat icecream cookie sandwiches and watch the moon

and then, for the next 4 days, we ate, played, and slept by the pool.
{not really, but almost}
and it was awesome.
because when you live in KC and don't have any family near you,
just having someone love on your child like a grandma, uncle, or papa?
 it's like, amazing.  and having those same people help entertain your child,
so he's not hanging on your leg 24/7? double amazing.

we spent some time teaching roman how to do the front crawl, breast stroke, and side stroke,

but we made sure to give him a rest, he perched up on the raft with momma.

and then one afternoon i made brownies.
my MIL has the pioneer woman's cookbook.
and, well, after i wiped my drool off the page, i settled on these bad boys:
knock you naked brownies

we shared our brownies, along with burgers and wings with our friends and their little ones :)

do you see mr leif and his class of '02 gang, crashin boards like it aint no thang? 

and then there's aj.  jumping on the trampoline eating smashing a cupcake :)

and the little cheerleaders. so proud of their daddy's trying dunk the ball. {yeah, i said trying}

and while they were eating cupcakes, and cheering for their daddy's,
romes took to the bag of chips and the kitties.  dude's an animal lover.
i didn't post a picture of it {for fear i'd gag} but he literally lays out on the cat, saying "night night".  makes me wanna sneeze.

 romeslice totally loved spending time with his uncles :)  

they tackle, chase, and do silly things to make him laugh.

what more could a little guy ask for?

it made my heart so happy to see them love him.... and he love them.

one lovely afternoon, i got my hairs did.  

ombre.  didn't know if it was still "in" or not.  

but i loved it.  and i loved sitting in a quiet salon for 2 hours.

and i loved knowing my little boy was in good hands, allowing me to completely relax.

and i loved looking at people magazine.  i didn't even know about tomKat.  

but hotdang.  they're all the rage in the gossip mags.

{note to self: less elmo, more E news?}

 and then, all too soon, sunday came.....which means we go home.

it's always hard to leave.  our family, our friends, not being able to see everyone we wanted to, their love and support and just being "home", it's so good.

but we do what we gotsta do, and we hit the road jack.

...

on the way home, roman declared this little girl to be called, "momma"

 i know, she's totally a creeperish doll.

but she has brown hair and brown eyes, so i guess i see the resemblance?

oh, and a visor.  i mean, i where visors all the time....so how could he not call her momma? 

oh, and knee highs.  momma loves her some tall socks.

{but i would sooo take the yellow shoes}