Family Road Trip ~ Indiana Bound!

I, seriously, couldn't wait for this trip.  It had been almost two years since we had been to Indiana, Kris just moved into a new house and Alex graduated from high school.  Despite the 10 hour drive, I couldn't wait to go!

Of course, nothing we do can go smoothly.  We had the van in the shop to get something fixed before hitting the road.  Wouldn't you know...it wasn't ready in time.  Ugh!  We decided that we would just get a late start.  Who says we had to be on the road at 6:00am?  Ok.  I was ok with that.  Well, after talking to the guy at the car place, Jon found out that our van wouldn't be ready to be picked up until 1:30ish.  Seriously?!  Ok, that meant a serious change of plans.  I really didn't want to wait another whole day to leave.  I was dying to go!  The packing was all done and we were, literally, just sitting around waiting to leave. We talked about leaving after picking up the van and just driving halfway.  But then that would require paying for a hotel.  Bummer!  Oh yeah!  "Jon, do you have any hotel points we could use?"  "YES!"  Phew!  Jon's travels to the rescue!  He had just enough points for a hotel stay!  Sweet!!  Thank you, Lord!  On the road we go!

Stopping halfway was a great idea.  Breaking up the trip made 10 hours in the van not seem so bad. 

We finally made it to Indianapolis and were ready for the task of getting ready for Alex's graduation party.

 Everyone helped!  It is so true that "many hands make light work"!  Kris couldn't believe how fast everything was getting done.  I was just happy to finally be able to help.  The one thing I hate about living far away is that I am never around to help.  I was so happy!

 Ok, so maybe not everyone helped.  (:  The girls had to paint their nails for the party!  To be honest, I was couldn't be happier to see these three painting their nails together.  They don't get to see each other often enough. This is, totally, what they should be doing together!

 These kids had so much fun playing together!

It made my heart so happy to see them all playing together so nicely!

Aunt Kris was more than willing to take a break to snuggle with Luke as he woke up from his nap!

Grammy took the boys to her house for a sleepover.  Fun times!

One of the things that Ben was most excited about on this trip was to get Aunt Becca's old saxophone.  He couldn't wait to try it out.  It needs some serious work since it hasn't been played in 16 years, but he was excited, just the same!

PARTY TIME!!

It was so nice to see so many people that I hadn't seen in so long!  There were some people I hadn't seen in so long that they had never met Luke!  Crazy!  I hate that it takes a big event to see some people, but it makes the time together that much more meaningful.

I love this girl!  I can't believe she is done with high school!

After the "formal" graduation open house, family and close friends headed over to Kris and Scott's house for more visiting time.  Thank goodness for their amazing back yard!  So much fun for everyone!

Uncle Brian bought all of the boys Detroit Tigers shirts and had to have a picture of all of them.  Could these boys be any cuter???

Since we don't all get to be together very often, we (well, it might just be me...) hate to miss an opportunity to take lots of pictures.  The last time we did this was at Nolan's first birthday, so it was definitely time for some updated pictures!

It took a lot of tries to get some pictures that actually turned out good.  

Here are my favorites:

Beth, Kris's best friend since elementary school, and her son, Collin,  were so much fun to hang out with.  Some of the nicest people I have known!

I forced the cousins to get their pictures taken together too.  Seriously SO cute!  I love these kids!!  (We are missing Haley, or this would be all of the cousins.)

Silly pic (:

Grammy and my boys.

We went over to Grammy's house and played for a little bit. (:

The girlies :)

Taking advantage of snuggles!

Oh. My. Goodness!  I just love looking at all of these pictures!  I love my family SO much!  I hate living so far away!!

Abby liked to make sure we knew that it was her birthday week.  We decided to have a little surprise party for her since we were with family.

She was pretty surprised!

I can't believe that this girl is going to be a teenager in a few short days!

This is where we spent a lot of time for the week.  The perfect place to hang out!

I really wasn't ready to come back home!  I had so much fun all week long!  I was so happy to hang out with family.  I was thrilled with the way that all of the kids got along.  Even Luke was a pure gem!  He always had someone to play with.  Nobody ever complained that they were bored or that anybody was being mean.  It was just awesome!

I couldn't be more thankful for the time that I had to spend with family!  I hope it won't be too long until we can all be together again!

Missouri: Christmas/New Years

I've said it a million times.  I hate living so far away from my family.  I still believe that living far away makes our times together that much more special.

Since we live so far apart, and we were all able to, we met halfway to celebrate Christmas together.  There isn't much to do in Sullivan, Missouri, so we were able to spend our time together just being together.  (:

Of course our time together started out (rather quickly) with lots of pictures being taken.

Of course, who doesn't love opening presents?!  That's always fun!  We all exchanged names, so it was fun to see what everyone came up with for the person that they chose.   The gifts were great!  We are so blessed!!

I'm telling you, it was SO nice to get to just hang out and visit!  I was so happy to just get to be there with my mom, sisters, brother-in-laws, nieces and nephew!  (And my husband and kids, of course!)  I didn't need to do anything.  I just wanted to be with them!

We saw our first snowflakes of the season (Yes, at the end of December!)while we were in Missouri and Luke couldn't have been happier!  That little guy couldn't get outside fast enough!  He wanted to "make footprints" in the snow.  Grammy was happy to take him out and Luke was able to convince Daddy to take him out again later.  Luke loves everything about being outside, no matter how hot or cold it may be!

We didn't do nothing the whole time.  We played a lot of games!  I laughed SO much and so hard!  Gosh, I love being with my family!!  We have so much fun together!

We had dinner at a local eatery.  YUM!!

See, more playing.  This is actually how we spent New Year's Eve.  What could be better?!  The people working the front desk at the hotel probably weren't thrilled that we made ourselves at home in the breakfast area, but it was so nice that we were able to spread out and hang out without being all crammed in hotel room.

And, of course, there were more pictures!

 

It is always hard to leave and drive in opposite directions, but I am so thankful that we were able to get together and have so much fun together! It was the perfect way to end 2012 and start 2013!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Back in September, when we were in Indianapolis for Kris and Scott's wedding, I asked their family to come out for Thanksgiving. I was thrilled when I got the text on the way back home that they would be coming! It had been a long time since they had been out to our house and they had never been to our house in Oklahoma! I started the countdown! I couldn't wait!

After talking to Kris about when they would be leaving their house, I figured that they would get here really late. I was so happy when she called and told me they were able to get on the road a little bit early! Hooray for happy surprises!!

Thankfully, Thanksgiving Day was a fairly low key day. It was great to be able to just sit around and hang out with family. We opted for a later dinner time which meant that we didn't have to spend the whole morning in the kitchen. We played, talked, watched the parade, checked out the Black Friday (or Black Thrusday...) sales, watched football, munched on snacks, watched The Brady Bunch...

I had some fun making some festive little place cards for a fun and festive Thanksgiving table. The bottom picture is of the kiddy table. I think it helped the bigger kids not feel so bad about sitting at the "kiddy table".

Turkey success!
I know I had made a turkey breast before, but can't remember if I had ever done the whole bird. I have to say it turned out great! Super moist and delicious!

Time to eat!
I have so much to be thankful for, but this year, on this day, I am SO thankful that I got to spend my Thanksgiving with these special people!

Ben and Alex each requested a turkey leg... (gag!!) Man, I think they really enjoyed them! There were many sounds, jokes, and just plain grossness that went along with those legs! Kris, I know you know what I'm talking about here! I'm sorry, but it was just plain nasty to me! (I am not a fan of bones in my meat!)

Our Thanksgiving feast was amazing!
I got brave and tried to make a pumpkin roll. I love to eat them but have been too intimidated to actually try to make one! After seeing a friend do it and it looked easy, I thought I would give it a try. When I was putting it together on Wednesday night...well...it didn't go so well. I made another one just to try again and have enough for eleven people and it went even worse! My cake didn't want to come out of the pan. Then it didn't want to roll without cracking and the filling oozing out. Let's just say there may have been a tear or two. Despite all of the trouble and stress, the pumpkin rolls turned out super! I will definitely attempt them again! (I would actually love to try some other flavors!)

I am a Black Friday shopper! I love Black Friday! I really wasn't thrilled about the stores opening at midnight (or even earlier). I really don't mind getting up at the crack of dawn and heading out in the cold to get a good deal. I actually look forward to it! With the stores opening at midnight, I wasn't sure if I would even go. Well...after looking at all of the ads, it was hard to resist! Kris and I made our lists and headed out! I had never been shopping with Kris on Black Friday, so I was looking forward to it even more!

I just have to say that I believe that having the stores open at midnight sure brings out A LOT more people! It was, by far, the craziest Black Friday I have ever experienced!

We had a great time and scored some great deals! We got everything on our lists for the day and were happy to take advantage of Walmart's ad matching benefits! Going shopping with my big sister was the best way to start my Christmas shopping!

Since the weather was so great, the guys decided to do a little bit of hiking out at Osage Hills.

While the guys were hiking, we tried and tried to come up with something crafty to do. We finally headed out to Hobby Lobby, but got sidetracked. We ended up going to lunch and then on a tour of Bartlesville. (Since Kris and the girls had never been here before.)

There are a few places you just have to stop on a tour of Bartlesville. The "big train" is one of them! Of course I had my camera with me!

I love it!

While we were at the train, Jon called and said that he and Scott were going to head up to the airport to go for a quick airplane ride. What?! He wasn't going to take the rest of us?!? I asked everyone with me if they wanted to go for an airplane ride to which I heard a resounding "YES!" Sooo...to Independence we all go!

I hadn't been on a ride with Jon in way too long! Isn't that how it goes? I figured if Jon was going to give rides, I wanted to get in on it!

Not only did I want in on it, but Luke wanted to go too! He knows that Daddy works at the airport and that he flies airplanes, but he had never been up in one. This was his lucky day!
YAY!! Luke's first airplane ride!
To say that he loved it would be a complete understatement! The little guy was in love! He couldn't really see anything out the window, but he didn't really care! He was up in an airplane!

This is how Luke felt about getting out of the airplane. He can't wait to go again!

We played a rousing game of Guesstures! Lots of fun! Lots of laughs!
"Underpants!" ha ha ha ha!!!

I bought these jammies for Luke on Black Friday. I still can't get over how stinkin' adorable they are! Could my little Luke be any cuter?!

Scott made some delicious omelets on Saturday morning! YUM!!!


Saturday we headed back to the train to take a few family pictures.

Something like this could be showing up in your mailbox very soon! :)

We "Love the Ville!"

If you are an avid reader of my blog, you know that I believe that no trip to Bartlesville is complete without a trip to Frank & Lola's. Jon and I knew that Kris and Scott would like it as much as we do. We decided that a double date was necessary! I think Frank & Lola's lived up to all of our hype. Kris and Scott really liked it! It was so great to hang out, eat amazingly delicious food and have great conversation. We had the best time! It was a super way to end our weekend together!

Not thrilled to be woke to get on the road...

Kris, Scott, Lex, Kortney, Reilly and Erin, thank you SO, SO much for coming out for Thanksgiving! This weekend lived up to all of my expectations and more! I had such an amazing time spending time with all of you! (We all did!) I wish we could see each other more often, but I think it makes our time that much more special! Thank you for taking the time and spending the money to drive out here. I know that we created memories that will last a very long time!