We are leaving tomorrow to meet the fam in the Smokey Mountains.
This was a picture from our last trip there back in July of 1999. Back in the days before D and before Ryan and Dana had Cole and Kate. So our lives are a little bit different now but we still love to get together and go on vacation together. I can't wait!

Summer

Kari is my best friend from high school who moved away to Florida a year ago. She was in town over the weekend and we got to hang out at Cracker Barrell. Here are her two cute boys.

Bryson and Austin

Playing checkers

We went out to eat for Mandy's Birthday last night. Here she is hogging all the cupcakes :)

Fun Times

Dog Days of Summer

Here are some pictures of the kids....

Ivan caught barking at the neighbor again.

Emily
All 3 dogs Demian always has some project to work on.
He had to re-route the sprinkler system because of a huge root that busted one of the pipes.
Ivan the Terrible
Sweet Reilly

4th of July

We went to Nebraska for a long 4th of July weekend. It was a blast but I've been hestitant to write about it because I have only one picture from our trip. Pictures are my crutch!

I'll give it a try...We left Thursday morning, drove straight through and got to Nebraska in time for a late dinner with D's family. Then we woke up early on the 4th of July to run in a 10k race. This is where my sunrise picture came in. It was gorgeous.

So after running that gave us the go ahead to eat whatever we wanted to the rest of the weekend and that's pretty much what we did. We stayed with his sister and his mom and other sister and family came in and we had a great time with everyone. This is the point where my camera battery died. We did fireworks Friday night (my first time to actually DO fireworks instead of just watching them at a fireworks display) and thankfully no injuries occured.

Saturday, after more eating, we headed about an hour away for D's 20 year high school reunion (he's old!). It was so much fun to meet all his high school friends and hear stories about him from way back. The reunion was at the VFW so it was very high toned. We showed up a little overdressed but then pretty much everyone is overdressed compared to a tank top. Yes, that is what one guy was wearing.

Then we got up Sunday and started heading back to Texas. We went the long way and saw some more Nebraska towns and lots of hay fields. But my favorite part of the drive home was stopping in Wichita to meet up with Ashley and her family for dinner. The kids are so precious! When we first got there I asked Ashley if I could hold Stahley and she came right to me. Then she looked at her mom and said "bye Mom". I wish I could have taken her home - she was so cute!

So that's the recap of the weekend - a week late but better late than never.

Father's Day

A couple of weeks ago D had the idea that I should go visit my family. I think I was very subtle in my approach...I'm missing out on every major event in my nieces and nephews lives! It could be worse but all the other kids in my family live no more than one hour away from my parents so I was feeling a little left out. Thankfully D took pity on me and sent me off to Baton Rouge for the weekend.
So I flew out on Friday night and because it just so happened to be Father's Day weekend we decided to surprise my dad with my visit. Ryan and Dana picked me up at the airport and we went to meet the rest of the family to eat. I walked in and dad just looked at me like it was no big deal that I was there. Then it slowly sunk in that he wasn't expecting to see me. So it was a great weekend and now I'll leave you with some pictures...

All the kids except Ryan

Cole
And Kate

Couldn't get many pictures without something in her mouth

First post for June

Saturday night we got to enjoy the company of Jennifer and Deborah from Houston and Austin respectively. And I almost forgot Stacy who came in from Tyler. It was fun catching up on old times and talking about all the people we used to know and even some that we don't know but feel like we do (I did come home and read her blog by the way). We went to eat at La Margarita and we learned that you don't mess around when the waiter is trying to take your drink order. Then Kristi, Roscoe and Bailey hosted us for dessert at their house. Thanks for the yummy brownies and lemon bars! I should have gotten a picture of the dogs but just go to Kristi's blog and you will see plenty.
So there is my post for the month! No really, I'm going to Baton Rouge this weekend for Father's Day so I will have some fun pictures of the fam when I get back.

Dana's Blog

Yeah! She started a blog! http://danasdayswithcandk.blogspot.com/