Best Friends!

Life changed when we met the Pursley's! We became instant friends! For the first time ever Jon and I found a couple that we could hang out with. All four of us got along great!

Then they moved. :(

I was beyond thrilled when Laurie called me and told me they were planning to come for a visit! YAY!!!

As soon as I knew for sure when Dan, Laurie (and the girls, of course!) would be here, I set out to get a babysitter so the four of us could go on a double date! We had a super, amazing time!





We love you guys and miss you SO much!! Thank you SO, SO, SO much for coming for a visit!! We can't wait to do it again!

Washington County Free Fair

Last year was the first year Abby entered anything in the fair for Girl Scouts. (We had never even known anything about the fair!) After her experience last year, she was eager to do it again this year. (Abby was especially eager due to the fact that if you win a first, second or third place ribbon, you win a little bit of cash!) We came up with two things that we thought would be great for the fair and then, at the last minute, Abby threw in another entry that she had made at Girl Scouts this year.

She did great!

First place for her Girl Scout!

Third place for her rag doll and honorable mention for her pillow. (Let's not get started on the pillow! It was great! Definitely deserved better than honorable mention!)

Abby and Miss Joy, Abby's sweet Girl Scout leader.

Luke was pretty excited to check out the (few) animals at the fair!



Turning corn...

...into cornmeal.




Abby made a rope. Cool!


Any trip to the fair wouldn't be complete without some kind of food! We opted not to eat at the fair, but we did pick up some cookies!

The fair is very small, but it was fun for Abby to participate and it was fun for me to take Abby and Luke for a little while.

The wheels are already spinning thinking about what Abby can enter next year!

Labor Day Campout

We opted to stay home and camp out in our own backyard for Labor Day. (We weren't sure when Jon would be home from his trip to make plans ahead of time.) Jon was thrilled to finally get to use our tent this year! With the intense heat we had all summer, we really couldn't even think about going camping. :( We had all the fun of camping with the conveniences of home. We cooked our dinner over the fire, enjoyed sitting around the fire and slept in the tent, but were able to do dishes in the kitchen and use a nice, clean bathroom. :) One of the best things about the weather over the weekend was that the temperatures actually got quite cool. We had to break out the hoodies! We woke up to a crisp 53 degrees on Monday morning! Hooray for fall weather!







Oh yeah, one other luxury, movie time in the tent. :)



Jon's Mississippi Mud dutch oven cake turned out AMAZING!!

I love these kiddos!

We had a super time camping in our own backyard! We are looking forward to doing some real camping now that the temps have cooled down!

He's Home!! He's Home!! He's Home!!

One of the benefits of Jon's job is that he occasionally gets to go out of town. Occasionally it's not just out of town, but out of the country. A while back Jon found out that he was to be going to South America for three weeks! Jealous...YES! It's not like he was just going to one country in South America. No, he was going on a South America demo tour. (His boss would be doing demo flights of the airplane.) Jon started out in Argentina, then headed north to Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Guatemala and finally Mexico. Sad, huh? I kept having to remind myself, "He has to work while he's there...He's going for work...This is not a pleasure trip..."

Thanks to Skype, we were able to see him and talk to him every day that he was gone! It made the distance and the length of time a little bit more bearable for us all! (Until he told me about one, of several, hotel rooms right on the ocean where he listened to the ocean waves all night long...)

Obviously, we were all very anxious for Jon to come home! Thankfully he came home a few days early! YAY!

Luke and I made a welcome home sign on the driveway. Well...I guess I made a welcome home sign. :) Luke loved the idea, but wasn't so fond of the actual drawing or getting his hands all chalky. Jon loves when there is sidewalk chalk all over the driveway!

Here he comes!

Getting closer!

We couldn't get out there fast enough!

Luke was completely obsessed with the airplane the entire time his daddy was gone! He told everyone that Daddy was in South America flying a Caravan! Luke was thrilled that Daddy was coming home, but he was just as excited to see the airplane that his daddy had been flying! He couldn't get up in the cockpit fast enough! Perhaps we have another pilot in the making. ???

One of the best parts of any trip...Souvenirs! Jon brought home some amazing mementos. Textiles from Guatemala, pottery from Mexico, jewelry from Peru, a authentic Panama Jack hat for Ben from Panama. Fun stuff!

We are SO thankful to have Jon back home! Now life can proceed as normal!

Thank you, Lord for protecting Jon on his travels and for bringing him home safely to our family!

One Last Hurrah At Kiddie Park

As soon as I found out that Kiddie Park would soon be closing for the summer, I knew I had to take Luke one more time! Jon was in South America and Ben had no desire to go, so I headed out with Abby and Luke for one last hurrah at the happiest place in Bartlesville! Obviously everyone with small children had the same idea. The place was packed!

We got in line for Luke's first ride and waited...
and waited...
danced and waited...
We waited in line for 45 minutes!

But it was so worth it! Luke loved the bi-planes!
(They weren't open any other other times we were there this summer, so they were a must tonight!)




The three of us had a super time at Kiddie Park! Luke asks almost daily to go back! If I could only get him to understand that they are closed until next spring... I see many more trips to Kiddie Park in our summer next year! What a fabulous place!

Boys...Boys...Boys...

I love this sweet, silly, happy boy!!

Kitchen Fun

I am so addicted to Pinterest! I can spend way too much time on there before I realize how much time has passed! I found some really cute ideas for my kitchen and figured it would be something great to work on while Jon was in South America.

Here is what I found and had to do.

Ready to go!

The process was a bit tedious.

Measuring and drawing lines.

Taping.

And painting.

I even pretended I knew what I was doing. I know Nate Berkus does this, so I felt pretty cool. :)

Of course, in all of the fun of doing a project there had to be some issues. When I went to hang my "E", I discovered that the hole that had been drilled in the back had been put in the wrong place. If I had hung the "E" where the hole was, it would have been upside down and backwards. :( Also, while I was in the process of making the curtains, my sewing machine broke. What the heck?! SO frustrating!! I was really bummed to think that the project that I wanted to get done before Jon got home, might not be. :(

Thankfully I have a friend that was more than willing to let me borrow her sewing machine! Score!! My curtains would get finished after all! The "E"...not so fortunate.

Yay! One curtain hung! I LOVE IT!

I had this muffin tin up before, but it was black. I LOVE this re-do!

I am pretty proud of this too! I took a picture of each of these bottles of pop and made a collage. I love how it turned out!

And the second curtain is up! This is what it looks like during the day when Ben and Abby are at school.

This is how it looks everyday after school. :)

I still want to get an area rug, paint the chairs and some other fun things, but I am happy with how things are looking so far!