Tuesday, August 26, 2008

A Little Trip Down Memory Lane

So last Sunday, Tami and I took a drive that we know all too well.........well I know all too well. Apparently Tami couldn't get us there if her life depended on it! ;-) We went to Monon, IN. Where I grew up until I was 5 and where our grandparents lived and our aunt and uncle still do. This drive brings back a lot of good and bad memories. Bad memories included, being hungry and not getting to stop on the way out because we would be eating as soon as we got to Monon, being cramped in the car with my sisters and wanting to sleep and having no room to lay down, getting into many fights, being freezing because we forgot blankets and my dad would be too hot if we turned up the heat any higher. Ahhh, those were good times! :-) Then the good. Meeting grandma and grandpa in Gilman(the halfway point) to spend the week with them for VBS, stopping at McDonald's in Kentland for some "breakfast" on the way out, getting treats at the gas station, hearing my dad tell stories from his childhood and show us places he used to work, getting DQ in Watseka, and getting to sleep when we got a bigger vehicle that was large enough for us all to lay down!

We were feeling a little silly and decided to take some pictures to remember Grandma's house one last time. Keep in mind again, we were being silly!
So Grandpa used to stop along side the road at the Welcome to Indiana sign and being totally serious would roll down the window and tell us to sniff the air! He always said the air in Indiana smelled so much better than Illinois. I tried to act cool and act like I knew what he was talking about, but to me the air smelled no different than a second ago when we had been in Illinois!
This is where I grew up until I was 5. However back then the garage was not green, there were no cars on the lawn and there were not horses and chickens in the sideyard(horses and chickens not pictured)

Grandma's House, next time we see it, it will be Philip and Stephanie's house


Rachel and Jason, Jason is very funny. He is going to try and get Rachel to start liking country music! Good luck with that!

We would be the last two "older" cousins yet to get married. It pretty much has gone in order based on age. Sorry Tam that would mean I'm next! However my luck in that department well pretty much sucks, so you'll probably be first! :-)

Tami, are you rubbing your nose?! :-)

Aunt Jacki and Uncle Brian, they took us out to eat and then Uncle Brian was nice enough to last at Grandma's house for at least a couple hours while Tami and I just wandered around. He gave up on us after that and we spent the last hour or two by ourselves! :-)

Um Tam.......why do you have a dish towel on your lap?

Timed photos, you got to love them! You never quite know what the people around you will come up with in those 10 seconds that you're waiting with baited breath for the camera to go off!

Trying to get into Juno with the instructions, but having no keyboard made it difficult!

I love my president!

I used to be such a superfan of these guys! I thought I was the coolest kid in 4th grade when I wore my sweatshirt to school with all of their autographs! I was shocked when my classmates didn't know or care who The Cathedrals were! :-)

Feeling patriotic and paying our respects to President Reagan

Tami just chillin with some china dolls. No biggie!


Tami was a little behind on her silver linings, so she caught up quick while we packed the car.

One last look at grandma's house before we left. However her house would have never looked this messy. We kind of helped with that going through all the pictures!

So how many tries does it take to get this picture so me and the sign show up? Apparently 6! :-)

Something about this place makes me crave a dipped cone everytime I drive past! This was grandpa's favorite spots. It was the first time I ever had a butterscotch dipped cone!

Grandpa always told me this was the nicest gas station between IN and IL. I must have talked about it a lot because Tami asked me to point it out. It was unfortunately closed so I couldn't how Tami how cool it actually was, but we got a picture for memory's sake anyway!

Overall it was a fun day to be able to catch up with Rachel and Jason, remember some of our childhood and see Grandma's place one more time!

Monday, August 25, 2008

A Family Affair

So what started out as a baby shower turned into a baby shower, two wedding showers and a family reunion. Kory and Rachel are expecting their first baby October 6th and were home for the weekend so we took advantage of it and got everyone together. In the meantime, Rachel and Philip got engaged, so we decided to combine all the showers together for one big day.
Here's the baby shower decor. Everyone gave me way too much credit for what I did. I put everything together that morning, and delegated all the food out to Heidi, Rebekah and Sharlin. I can't really take too much credit!

You would think the fridge was supposed to be in the picture the way they are both posed as if it's the middle person, but I don't think that was truly the intention!


Heidi, your face does NOT look fat!

Doozer in her little cherry swimsuit

This would be Darci trying to lick Tami, not once but A LOT!

Little Faye looks like a girl version of Smudge. Such a cutie. Oh and Tami snuck in about every picture I took Saturday! :-)

Our soon to be new cousin Jason. Love him! He will be a great addition! He says exactly what's on his mind and sometimes says what everyone is thinking and no one says aloud!

He lost his pants and were still not sure where they disappeared to!

I love this little guy. However my camera case may not feel the same way. I was wringing out slobber out of the strap hours later! :-)

She totally posed for me! Baby Aria, so precious and those gorgeous eyes!

Baby Claire, she looks just like her brothers!

Talent, being able to fit both hands in your mouth at the same time!

Don't you miss the days when you were flexible enough to be able to suck on your own toes? :-)

Kory and Rachel, doesn't she look great for being eight months pregnant?

She's such a little peanut! However I don't think she looks very comfortable here. Poor thing, I should have propped her up a little better!

Jarod showing off his child tossing skills

This looks like a loving embrace between the two of them, but Jarod was actually trying to dunk Heidi!

Darci plugging her ears even though there was no loud noise!

Josh and Collin attending to the "sick frog". I think it was closer to a dead frog after the kids carried it around all day and "held"(more like squeezed) it.

Darci was limping but seemed to have no injury once inspected.

Without even being asked, she pulled her chair up to this little table to eat her carmel apple

Smudge liked all the chairs in the pool rather than outside the pool

He would fish them out with a noodle and then throw them back in!

He took throwing the chairs in the pool very seriously! Very warrior like here!

Josh and Avi perfecting their canon ball skills

Take 2

Finally got them together

Yet another picture Tam has slipped into! ;-)

Oh the life! Wish I could sit in a swing with my food propped up to my mouth so I could fall asleep whenever I want!

A Grandpa's love!

What do you know? Here's Tami again! I think she just hung around me all day so she could be in EVERY picture! Just teasing Tam! Tami was Heidi's masseuse and hairdresser all night which is actually kind of surprising because Tami about passes out when she touches bones!

Not sure what the conversation entailed but with this group, I'm pretty sure it was probably about trying to solve the world's problems! :-)

This was one of many of Smyth's sleeping positions.

We timed the picture until we realized there were people all around us that could just take it for us. like the pacifier and teething ring in the photo as well?

Where's Rebekah?! Were missing the rest of our group!

Heidi, are you part of some French abolitionist group? No, it's just JCrew! :-)

Can't leave this two alone for a second. Never know what kind of inappropriate things they will come up with!

Tami, what happened to your eye?

Um, can we cut and paste Will into this picture? I'm thinking possible Christmas card photo!

Jarod's not really sleeping. He was peeking inbetween picture takes!

Jaret and Jarod
All the way down to their name, they're like twins
Poor Wil had to be woken up from a dead sleep, however he was still smiley just like his mom when she's woken up out of a dead sleep!