Cousin Camp, Carrowinds

Of course we were all very saddened by Nonna's passing but the beauty and strength of the Nelli family lies in their faith and their traditions. Even though we were sad that Nonna wasn't with us, we knew she would want us to continue all the beloved family traditions. Every year, the week before beach week, all the grandkids spend time with their grandparents and with each other during a very special week we call Cousin Camp.

If you look closely, you'll see David, Lia, Aunt Kathy and myself in the red hot air balloon. You might think the reason David insisted we choose this hot air balloon is because his favorite color is red. But actually, David noticed the hot air ballon is the Chinese flag. It is red with yellow starts. He knows this fact because his Daddy travels to China so much. Another quirky thing about David is that he likes to look at the flags for each country on our world map. He colors the ones that "aren't too difficult" and hangs them all over our house. ;-)

David's got his arms us in this one!

Annaliese took good care of her little cousin again this year. They were so cute together holding hands all day. Annaliese always made sure Lia got strapped in properly on each ride and then helped her get out when it was over.

Emily and Ainsley were so glad to see each other again this year. They were also very proud to be 48 inches tall and able to ride a whole new set of roller coasters for the bigger kids! It was so fun to see them finish a roller coaster ride and then run back around to do it again. They reported how scary the rides were but "just a little scary... not too scary!" It was cute.

My Daddy's girl.

Chris and his Dad. Pop Pop has the right idea with the ice cream. It was a hot day at Carrowinds but some storms blew through about mid-day and cooled it off for the evening. We were treated to an amazing light show at 9pm and fireworks at 10pm when the park closed. This made up for missing the fireworks on the 4th of July. :-)