First day faves

The gangs back together! Here's hoping they will forgo their chattiness & demonstrate their kind, helpful, creative selves to help Miss Bryant have a fabulous first year, we want to keep her around.

4th, 6th, & 1st, last year these 3 will be together

Yes, Mrs.Sandmann, you can't get rid of us, we will be visiting often

my kids have had some art withdrawl, so happy to see Miss Smith!

Mrs. Quintanar has been both of the older 2 kiddos teacher, we are blessed with her again this year! (And Jude is pretty pumped with lots of his friends in his class from last year as well as some new ones)

 Xander & Mr.Hendricks. We told him our goal for Xander by the end of the year is to teach him some meticulous lawn care (he is also our neighborhood lawn master)

 After school party of 25 on the porch, I think there was some great people watching going on from inside.

 Xander, Mitch & Brady currently sit by each other, not sure how long that is going to last!

and its up to me and Strudel to entertain this guy!

To grandmother's house we go

My parents have retired to Hamilton, Mo where they both grew up. They have fixed up my dad's childhood home into a complete dollhouse, I need my mom to come deep clean mine, she is the best! I love that they are so much closer now, but they have been busy with lots of house/yard projects so we had to go check out their work for the weekend!

 the kids love the rides on the mower, the yard is perfect of course, yep we could use some help there too:)

We had dinner with Granny, I haven't got to see her since she broke her hip a few months ago, she looked great and we loved visiting with her.

The worst part of Missouri, too many smokers! At the restaurant we ate at there was seriously a smoking section, we will have to go on Sundays I guess. The roads are awful there too, we got stuck in some construction and Jimmy navigated us into a few close crashes.

tell me this belongs to a lactation consultant??

 Potbelly on the plaza, I have only been to them in Chicago, love them! Pretty sure I have my own potbelly after eating there 2 days in a row, definitely not low cal.

 My parents kept the kids while we stayed on the plaza for a night, they took lots of pictures and gave us updates, the kids loved the simple life, no tv or wifi there!

our roomies on the plaza:)

and yes most of our weekend revolved around eating as usual, we did manage to get a couple of short runs in. 

In lieu of the kids request for Worlds of Fun we stopped at Skyzone for 30 minutes on the way home.

 We had heard great things and Im all about the kids being tuckered out in a half hour.

Thank you for a great weekend Grampy & Grandma Susie!

MHS 20 yr reunion

It was Trav's 20 year class reunion last weekend, seriously where did the time go? 

He had the best class in high shool, such a fun group, several that have remained close. 

5 of these boys pictured 25 years ago below on Bee Bop Braves:) I think John has grown out of his jersey a little.

we opted out of the dinner at the Hilton Garden Inn, for Harry's:)

Casey came from Nashville, we missed Holly!

after party at Farrel's, just like old times

thank you Robinsons for letting our hubs act like kids again

 Maren, Taryn, Chloe & Roe (thought the rhyming order was pretty cute:)

some of the boys

the weigh in, a contest to see who gained the most since high school

Moley band in the middle, where is Kurt?

 Friday night Palmgrens arranged dinner at Bolos, fun to hear them reminisce



Jen & Trav haven't changed a bit:)

Ponds in the House

 I feel complete when the Utah Ponds are here. They got to stay with us for 5 short nights.

 We tried to whoa them with kids camp at church:)

 the union bowling alley

 varsity donuts

 discovery center water park

wish I would have taken a picture of this bum

 even found a sitter for date night at Taco Lucha!;)

 game nights are a must of course,

 sacrificed nap time

  took my first trip to the city pool

 Riley County Fair,

Kingston got lots of attention from Stellie Bean

It would sure make our family vacas easier to plan and my children happier, if you brought your family here:) Im sure the little apple needs a chemical engineer for something!

Mills Lake

From Alberta Falls, we hiked with the oldest boys up to Mills Lake & 

we joked this was the supplemental nursing system

We found this elk along the trail around the lake all by its lonesome,  so fun!

Since Roe wasn't with us, I had to do bust out the handstand for her, my form needs work, but the rock was not flat either!

 We can move mountains:)

 BEAUTIFUL!!! (elk bottom in background)

Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn

 The water was so clear and cold, but refreshing for sure. We found some bikinis up here too, not pictured...

Levi & Xander attempted some handstands as well.