Another Awesome Weekend

Another great weekend! Saturday was our annual camping trip down at Pittsburg (on Pomme). Most of our crew was there, minus those with children. It was a great time as always. I am not sure how many years ago we began going to "Yucca" weekend but it has to be at least 6 and probably more than that!

On Saturday my parents went down and Ben and I played some on the lake. Everyone else was out in Rick and Sandy's boat. After playing for a while we went back to the camp site, swam some more and just hung out. The weather could not have been better, it was cool but not too cold, no bugs, etc. Because it is Pittsburg, there was some of the typical....a gun shot really early (I believe shooting at the geese???), and some domestic arguments. However, the same reason those things fly is the same reason we go to Pittsburg. No one cares when we are super loud all night! I remember the first couple of years when we stayed up until 4 or 5 in the morning. This year we thought we were staying up late and we went to bed by 2 :).

On Sunday we got up early, went to Carson's for breakfast and then headed home. Jayme's wedding shower was at 2:30. We got home, showered real quick, and headed over to Jayme's to get everything ready. She didn't want a "typical" shower but that is what she got anyway. Lots of family and friends came over to celebrate her upcoming marriage. I hope that she had fun. We are all so happy for her. I took a lot of pictures, once I get them on my camera I will upload.

Another bonus of the shower, I got to see my beautiful Margaret. When she got there she smiled and ran up to me. After her living out West for the first two years of her life, I will always appreciate every second I get to spend with her and the fact that she is comfortable around me now! Little Red was there too but he slept the whole time...bad for me but great for Kat!

My sleep schedule is all messed up, I took a nap from around 8 PM till midnight and now I feel wide awake. This week I have to get everything ready for our trip, we leave Wednesday!

Ben's 30th/4th of July Weekend

This weekend was our first weekend in town in a while and it was also Ben's 30th birthday and the fourth of July. It was really important to me to make Ben's birthday weekend great and I was really anxious about it.

On Saturday, July 3rd, we started the day by going out to eat (well it was for lunch but we slept real late). Ben wanted to go to Old Chicago for some pizza.




After lunch, we headed to Roo and Shelley's for an Hawaiian party/birthday party.


At the party, there was a long slip-n-slide, Ben had never tried one! When I was a kid, we played on slip-n-slides all the time. I sat this one out but Ben enjoyed. Because there was not a pool at the end, there were many grass cuts (as evident on the picture of Brent's back).







At some point, Ben got a tiara for his birthday. He wore it for a while but then passed it along to me.


On Sunday, Ben's actual birthday, I woke up early and cooked him breakfast. Next, Ben opened some presents from me. I got him ladder golf, an itunes gift card, and a weekend in Kansas City to see the Royals and Tigers play! After breakfast and presents, we got around for the 12:30 service because Ben was getting baptized. My whole family came (Mom, Dad, Clay, Elissa, Margaret, and William) and most of the group did too. It was such a special day and Ben was really surprised to see our friends there. The baptism was in a pool outside of the services. It is really neat that Ben was baptized on his 30th birthday!






Right after church, my brother gave Ben his gift from his family. It was a really nice engraved study Bible.


After church we went home for an hour or so. Ben did his two mile run (his goal by his birthday) then we got around for the holiday celebration. This year all of my mom's family came over to my parents house. Brent, Kristy, Rob, Steve, Kathleen, and Cooper also came. My parents gave Ben his gifts and then we spent the evening playing games (corn toss), hanging out, and lighting fireworks. It was a fabulous evening.

The only thing that could have made the weekend better is for Ben to have been able to spend it with his family and Michigan friends as well. Luckily we are heading up there is just over a week.

The Tradition Continues

(Because this summer is so busy, I want to make sure I post about all of my fun things for our sake, if you would like to read as well then go right ahead but it may be boring :))

I was trying to figure out this weekend how many years I have been to the I-70 series in Kansas City. I think I began going with my friends in 2003 but I know I went with my family at least one year before that and probably two. Since I began going with my friends, we have always stayed at Roo's parents house. His parents are wonderful and are the perfect hosts. This year it just so happened that Roo was going to be out of town with his dad (among others) and Debbie still offered to let us stay there. Our typical agenda is to tailgate on Saturday because it is a night game. Well this year both Saturday and Sunday were day games so we had to get there early. Saturday morning Debbie made us a great breakfast and then we were off to the K. Although it was scorching hot, Shelley had a canopy so it was not too bad. There were 18 of us in all and tailgating was fun as always. After the game Saturday, we went back to the house (Debbie had left for the weekend), showered, ordered pizza and just hung out. Some people went to the casinos, some went to bed early, and others played games. It felt like we were high-schoolers throwing a party because our parents were out of town. Pretty strange since all of us have our own places now. Sunday was another game, much milder this time (and disappointing since the Cardinals lost). We enjoyed the game and then headed back to Springfield.

Now its a new week and next weekend there are more fun activities. The fourth of July which is also Ben's 30th birthday. Additionally, Ben is getting baptized and Holly and Shelley are throwing him a party!

That's What I Love About Sundays

It was such a beautiful weekend! Ben and I did a lot of work around the yard and went to church on Saturday night. On Sunday evening we decided to do something fun. Steve, Kathleen, Ben and I went out to my parents to go fishing. It was a wonderful surprise when I found out that Clay, Elissa and the kids were going to go as well. We were quite the crew trying to ride in the truck to the pond with 7 adults (one being pregnant), two babies, a few dogs, and all of our fishing stuff. We looked hillbilly (just note the above picture).



Once we got to the pond it did not get much better. There were 5 or 6 dogs out there. Molly kept jumping in the water and Baldrick got caught on a hook. As you can imagine we were not going to be catching many big fish but we did catch a ton of small ones. Just take a look at Clay's big catch of the day :)


When we got back to the house, we had mom’s wonderful lasagna and watched Cardinal baseball. What a great evening!