Wedding Season

I love weddings! My cousin, James, was married yesterday to his long time girlfriend, Brie. It was so gorgeous and a lot of fun. Very windy, though. Sophia loved running around the grass with her arms out in the wind like she was flying.

Chaotic moment trying to get an extended family picture in the windstorm:



The events took place at the Trophy Lake Golf Course/Country Club in Port Orchard. James and Brie looked so happy!


Brie was absolutely gorgeous (I believe it was Vera Wang)! Such a beautiful gown!
Sophia hammed it up and had a great time. So did Kyle and I.

Best wishes to my little cousin and his new bride. They are great people and I know they will both do their part for a long, happy marriage. Thanks for such a great time.

Ride 'Em, Cowgirl!

We had a fun time at the Swede Day Parade yesterday in Rochester. Sophia was ready to go on a pony ride!
Not so sure about the bumpy ride... Hang on, Daddy!
She needed to get off a little early before the ride was over and decided to watch instead.

Gardening

Last year I started to do some landscaping and now that's all I can hardly think about. We had a big blank canvas to start with, so I did a lot of research on plants and planned it all out. And now of course I have different ideas from when I started and I will probably never be "done," but here's what we've done so far.

Before and After of the front of the house. We still need to bring in dirt for lawn seed this fall (hopefully). Then next year we should have a better area for Sophia to play on.

Before and After of the center area of the circular driveway. Before was a well head, hose, propane tank, flagpole, and then the kind of randomly placed cherry tree. Lots of random things I thought would look better grouped somehow. I will get more cherry trees one day so the one we have won't look so out of place. And the shrubs should grow up quickly to screen the propane tank. Joe helped me shovel lots of dirt and dig a lot of holes. Thanks, Joe!

Yesterday we drove out to Porter to the Briggs Nursery giant plant sale. Every plant in a 1-gallon container was one dollar, 3-gallon containers three dollars, and so on. Unbelievable. I got six rhodies, two lucothoe shrubs, three fothergilla shrubs, and two different lilacs all for $33!!!! Now I need to decide where they will live. Lots of work to come - ooooh, I just remembered, Joe is on summer break... :o)

Father's Day Weekend

Our weekend felt like it started Thursday night. Joe had a football jamboree at the high school so we went and watched. It was a little chilly, but fun to see Joe back in action. Sophia loves watching "JoeBall"!

Saturday we went to Piper's first birthday party. Thanks Brad & Echo for a fun party. Sophia loves baby Pipes. Happy Birthday, little girl!

Father's Day turned out to be beautiful! Finally - it feels like June. Sophia and I went out early and bought some doughnuts and coffee so we could surprise Daddy when he woke up. After we ate we all headed out in the Chevelle so I could see my dad. He is still in the hospital recovering from surgery. Then we stopped by Centerville to pick up a shirt for Kyle's Grandpa Hussey, and we ended up each buying a new pair of boots! Now we are all ready for the summer rodeo circuit. :o)

After Sophia's nap at home we headed up to Kyle's parents' to celebrate with his family. We had oysters, steamer clams, steak, and lots of sides and desserts. What a treat. Sophia played with her new water table and splashed everyone while we all visited. It was a lot of fun.

Sophia took a little break after dinner to watch Strawberry Shortcake. Does she look like a little princess or what!

Anniversary Weekend

A couple weekends back Kyle and I celebrated our 4th anniversary with an overnighter to Alderbrook. Sophia stayed with Grandma and Grandpa, and Auntie Kim was there, too. This was her third or fourth overnighter at Grandma's house and she did great.

Kyle and I got a semi-early start and headed towards Shelton around 11:00. We stopped at the casino to watch the Belmont horse race, played some blackjack, and I had a few drinks. Then we arrived at Alderbrook, got settled, and headed down for a wonderful dinner! We followed that up with a soak in the hot tub and then enjoyed the view from our room the rest of the night. It was really relaxing and really fun.

This was our room (Deniece & Don treated us!) with a great view from the 4th floor.
Here's a pic of Kyle at dinner, I took it because he asked to substitute out the sweet potato/corn hash for fries and they still presented the salmon on top of the fries and it just looked ridiculous. Deniece also treated us to dinner, and Kimberly treated us to a bottle of champagne! Thanks ladies!

What else do I have to do all day...

Welcome to my new blog! I love reading Kimberly's, Jinx's, and Leah's so I figured it was time to create my own. I don't know how often I will post, but I'm sure I'll squeeze it in during nap time. I'm just learning how to do this, so be patient... I will add lots of pictures and video clips of Sophia. I love to hear back from everyone - so please add comments or send e-mails. I also just realized I started almost every sentence with the word "I". Sorry - I've never claimed I was a writer...