Fun with Friends

Last week was kind of a crazy week for us, but it was fun, nontheless. Two of the days, we spent time with Carson's good friend Molly Grace and her family. She is the only other little person remotely close in age to Carson (she's actually a week older) in our branch, so we end up doing quite a few things with their family so Carson has someone to hang out with. We ended up having a play day in our backyard where the kids hooked up the sprinkler and ran through it and then we roasted hot dogs for lunch and had a mini picinic. The next day, we went to the pool and swam until the weather started to not be not so nice. Carson had a blast and I enjoyed it too...I got to get a little more sun and that is always a plus!! Saturday we had a garage sale...and man am I glad it is over with. I spent most of the week pricing all our stuff and set it all up on Friday. We had 2 other families in our branch bring things over, so it ended up being a lot larger than I had anticipated. I'm just so happy to have our junk out of our house, and now I can finally start to get the nursery ready for baby #2! Here are some pictures from our fun couple of days.



Carson and Molly getting ready to jump off the side of the pool.

Ropin'

The past couple of weeks Carson has discovered a new love for "roping" anything he can...especially his mom or dad. He's been using his dad's belt or his own belt as his "horse rope". Yesturday, he got a box in the mail from mema that contained a real horse rope as he calls it, so we decided to take it outside along with his rocking horse and practice roping. Of course, he had to have his towboy hat too. It was fun to watch him.

Afternoon at the park

Today, Carson and I decided to head to the pool and play. Carson had a great time at the pool...he had the whole thing to himself...no other little kids were there. Eventually a small toad found it's way into the pool, and Carson thought that was the coolest thing! We scooped him out and placed him on the grass so he could "go back to his family" as Carson said. Ever so often he would get out of the pool and go over and check on Mr. Toad until he wasn't there any more. After swimming, we enjoyed a yummy watermelon snow cone! It was lots of fun and I got some much needed sun! It's a good thing we went to the pool when we did because a nasty storm came through this afternoon. If we ever move away from Nebraska I will NOT miss all the crazy weather and tornadoes!

Keepin' It Real Tag

Ok, Ranee here's your pictures...it's kind of scary! It makes me realize how not clean my house is! Get Real Tag...the rules are you have to take a picture of all these things right now and you can’t do anything before you do, like straighten stuff up or fix your hair. Then tag five people.

1. The Fridge

2. My closet

3. The sink..this was right after dinner, so there are still dishes!

4. The toilet...whose seat is currently broken. I just bought a new one today, but I haven't had a chance to ask Christian to fix it yet.

5. My favorite pair of shoes...reef sandals. They are the most comfortable sandals you can own. I have a pair and so does Christian and we both love them!

6. What my child is doing right now...running around half naked...the boy's an exibitionist! (I'm not sure on the spelling)

7. My favorite room...the dining room. It's about the only place we always are together

8. Laundry pile...I will have you know that until Christian got home, I didn't really have a laundry pile...I finished all my laundry today...go me!

9. Self Portrait

More Salt Lake pics

Here are some more pictures from our trip to Salt Lake that my sister sent me.

Papa and Carson after dinner one night

My sister and I

The usual up close cheesy picture

Carson and Jason waiting for Papa ready to fire

The kids (minus my brother Kyle)

Playing with the "big strongs" as Carson called them

Riding the carousel with Auntie Butts. I love how she seems to appear to be enjoying the ride more than Carson!

A look at the courtyard from our balcony

The girls

Trip to Salt Lake City

Every year, my dad has meetings in SLC, Utah, and it's kind of evolved into a little family vacation. All of my family was there, except Christian. We were so sad he couldn't come...he never gets to party with us, but thankful he let us go...he's the best! My dad goes to meetings pretty much all week :( while everyone else goes and plays! Carson and I flew to Salt Lake Monday so we could hang out with everyone and got back last night. The flight to Salt Lake was pretty rough...just ask Carson...he puked as we were landing in Denver (where we made a connecting flight). We had so much fun, and as usual, got totally spoiled by mema and papa! We got to eat out at some of our favorite places, shop, shop, SHOP, see a movie, swim, and just be with family. It was so much fun! Here are some fun pictures from our trip!

squirt guns

playing animals with mema and butts

Watching the cool water display in the outdoor mall. It shot out water to music and there were tons of kids and adults running around in it. It was fun to watch.

Carson and his suitcase that mema brought him full of prizes. He would take it EVERYWHERE we went. If we went to my mom and dad's room, it came with us. If we were going to go somewhere, it came with us. By the end of the trip, he was pretty good at manuvering it. I guess we know that he can handle his own carry-on when it comes time to go to Hawaii next year!

The last night we were there, the company that my dad purchases all his inventory from put on a really nice dinner and then entertainment. This year, they had Leann Rimes come and sing (it was a different night and we ended up not going), and a comedian/magician. These are some pictures after the dinner out in the court yard of the hotel. The flowers were so pretty! My sister has some more pictures that I'm waiting for her to send so I can post them...she had some that for some reason...I didn't!

Camping

This weekend, we went camping with the young women in our branch and did some pre-certification for the actual girls camp that is in August. We went to some people in our branch's land in Maywood, NE, about 45 minutes from here. We had a good time. We helped do girl's camp stuff, cooked yummy food, had s'mores, went fishing, rode horses, and went for a walk. Carson was absolutely in heaven!! He got to be outside, play with some other kids (our YW president has the best kids and they love to hang out with Carson), play with glow sticks in the dark, and got to collect ALL the sticks he wanted!! We had a really good time, but I'm glad to be back in a real bed tonight!! Here are some pictures from our trip:

Setting up our tent

Carson, Rulon, and Scotty hangin out in the boys' tent

The Young Women (yes there were only 3)

Carson and Rulon waiting on dinner

Fishing

waiting...