Keep on A Rockin' Me Baby

Yay for Steve Miller Band!!! I was so excited when I heard they were in town and I knew just the girls to go to the concert with! Liz and Brandy were in right away and equally as excited as I was - that's why I love them so! Liz and I kept texting each other in anticipation of the fun day. (I remember Liz got to see them in high school with her Mom and I was sooo jealous). It was so fun to re-live all our fun songs we used to rock-out to driving around town when we were teenagers.

I loved Brandy's cute shoes:

Making Liz dance with me:

Summer Blast

This was Haylie's first year in our church's vacation bible school and as usual she approached it with excitement and eager anticipation of the first day. She couldn't wait to find out what was in store for her in this new experience but more so she couldn't wait to see her friend Mia who she hadn't seen since school was out.

At the end of the week of VBS, there was a little celebration and we got to learn about what this kids did all week. Plus there was just a fun time with water slides and bounce houses, which the kids can never pass up:

James had more fun playing in a mid puddle, rather than going on the water slides:

Haylie and Kiley were so excited they got to go up on the stage this time. One of the days Haylie was at VBS I stayed to help out and I had the opportunity to sneak in and watch her during the music and story time. It was so cute watching her study the people on stage and perform every hand motion and sing every word right along with them. Then, when it came to story time they were telling the story about the fishermen on the boat and Jesus telling them to throw their nets on the other side. As they were telling the story (note - there were about 100 kids in the room and Haylie's class was seated toward the back) Haylie kept trying to jump in and tell the rest of the story and why they needed to have faith, and what Jesus told them. The teacher kept asking her to be quiet and not interrupt but I couldn't help but be a little proud :)

Haylie and Kiley were having so much fun on stage, I was glad to catch this spontaneous hug:

James got brave and decided to run up there too, even though he's not old enough for Summer Blast yet.

After all these years...

We have been celebrating our birthdays together for almost 20 years now and I am so thankful for these girls. They were so sweet to remember and take me out for my birthday. We spent several fun hours at PF Changs chatting, laughing and telling loud stories as usual. We tend to get a little riled up. :) When I count my blessings these girls are definitely some of the blessings at the top of my list!

15 years

I can't believe it's already been 15 years since we graduated from high school. To celebrate the occasion, our high school group decided to get together with our growing families and have a little picnic in the park. It is always so great to visit with these amazing girlfriends and watch our kids play together and become friends as well.

a couple of the buys from our class as well...

Fireworks with Friends

Our Bible Study group usually gets together every year for the 4th of July and we were glad we were able to make it back from the cabin in time to enjoy fireworks with our friends. The kids loved playing the sparklers and watching the fireworks with their best friends.

James loved the fireworks but he wasn't so sure about the noise...

All the kids doing their sparklers at the same time...

And here's Micah letting Haylie play with a big blow torch firework...

Happy Birthday America...

Happy Birthday America

Haylie woke up on the 4th of July so excited to celebrate America's birthday. She couldn't wait for the cupcakes and the presents and the party. We had to explain to her what America's birthday entailed which actually ended up being pretty close to what she had in mind. We headed out to the park for a local, Independence day celebration and the kids loved getting their face painted and trying out new rides...

The ponies are a must of course...

they are actually one of James' most favorite things now...

Haylie was so brave on the bungee jump:

I had to beat Raider in my favorite carnival game. I gave him the prize though :)

The Saga Continues

3 down, 1 more to go... It has been so fun getting together with girlfriends to attend the midnight premiers of the Twilight movies. We ventured out again at midnight to catch Eclipse, the 3rd movie in the series, and it was more fun than ever. There is never a lack of drama when you have hundreds of women tired women and teenage girls in one small area. At one point, before the movie started, but after we had been sitting in our seats well over an hour or two, some of the girls in our group got up to go to the restroom. When some women saw the seats blank they started complaining to the usher that we were saving seats. We tried to explain our friends had been sitting there for hours and had just gone to the restroom - he said he would give them 5 minutes to return or he would take the seats. We had to text them to get out of the bathroom quick!!

Other than that it was pretty tame, until Taylor Lautner came on the screen, but that's a different story...

SO glad you could make it Bran!! Love you!



This picture is missing 3 of our friends who came late - Jaime, Danielle and Tina - missing from the picture but not forgotten!! :)