Travel Stuffs

Here’s a plethora of pictures from random little road trips we’ve been on this summer.  It’s so nice to get away on a whim, no planning and such, just “Hey, you wanna go visit so&so tomorrow?”  “Sure, why not?”

So all that up there was a little trip we took back to the homeland of Hutch.  Short for Hutchinson.  Short for Hutchinson, KS. 

And as you can tell, we ended the photo shoot with a nice picture of Uncle Rick, showing off how handsome he can be.  Thumbs up back at ya, Kenz.

Then later we headed up to Illinois to visit the Berry clan. 

The girl loves her some goggles.

As you can see, the kiddos got out a lot of energy in the form of hiking, karate, and sprinkler trampoline-ing. 

The sisters just drank a lot of coffee and did a lot of this.

That’s how we role. 

Homegirl Got Hitched

Yep, a BFF from high school tied the knot…. and my little boys had a supportive role in the wedding.

The wedding was gorgeous. I expected no less. The girl has good taste.

I love me a good wedding, but even more than that, I LOVE THESE GIRLS. 

Sometimes we sit on the bathroom floor all night long.  Laughing and crying.  They’re the best. Lately, we only get to be together 2 or 3 weekends a year, and that ain’t nearly enough! 

Fortunately for us though, we’re all gonna live together in a cul-de-sac someday.  The when and the where are still to be determined.  Minor detail, right?  (Dr. Nitschke, you should go ahead and figure that out for us. K, thanks, bye.)

But back to the wedding, the little boys had a mighty fine time on the dance floor!    They were shy about it at first, but once they found their groove, they danced ‘til the DJ gave up…. literally.  They shut that baby down.

Oh yes, the shirt came off.  He’s that hard-core.

It was a wonderful-est best shin-dig.  The end.

Before and After–Hallelujah

Perhaps some of you remember 15 years ago when I said the bathroom was about to be finished in two weeks.  Clearly, my timeline may have been a teensy bit ambitious.  I guess I forgot to factor in being tired after a long workday, weekends out of town,  frustration, and the feeling of being just plain sick of construction.   

So, incase you never had the pleasure of seeing what the bathroom looked like before, here ya go. 

The seafoam & gray tile, the carpet, and basically all the fixtures had seen their prime. 

Grant ripped everything out down to the studs….

and, TA-DA!

Grant literally did all the work himself.  I was only responsible for scraping the wallpaper and framing that print below.  I’m pretty handy, what can I say? 

Yes, bathroom. You do look lovely today.

Summer Weekend

For whatever reason, the four of us haven’t been home together for a whole weekend since I don’t remember when.

Actually, since April to be exact.

Anywho, this weekend we soaked up our time together.

And did lots of boyish things.  Cuz that’s what families with two little boys do.  Even though the mother sometimes gets grossed out or scared of things those little boys pick up.

Even so, no manis or pedis or shopping.  Just lots of good old outdoor stuff.  That’s all.

And when we couldn’t be outside, we camped out inside.

Play hard.  Sleep hard.  That’s how I like em.

3 days, 253 photos later

And that can only mean we spent the weekend with the cousins. 

 

And so we did a lot of cousin-y things

Like celebrating this cutie pie who is almost two

And then we did some more boyish things

Like wrestling

And catching turtles

And roasting marshmallows…

and telling ghost stories.

(Oh, and Henry, since you weren’t there, somebody might have scared the boys into thinking you are going to kill them in Mexico.  Sorry.) 

And of course they bathed.

This counts, right?

Thanks to the parents for hosting all of the crazy.

He didn’t have permission

But he went ahead and grew up anyway. 

Right before my eyes.  The nerve.

And there it is in black and white, his first diploma. 

So what’s that all over his face, you say. 

Well, for some reason the class celebrated the graduation with a Luau. They had beach balls and leis and all that jazz, and some pretty phenomenal face painting.

Yes, I’m a little smitten with that pirate of mine.

Cash got to enjoy the party, too.  But at some point in time, he got a little fussy about something.  I can’t remember what.  I was too busy taking pictures of his temper tantrum. 

Could I please love his fits-of-rage any more? 

He crosses his arms and goes silent.  Love. It.

Oh boys, just can’t get enough of them.