Louisiana!!

12 days….. we just spent 12 days in Louisiana and packed a whole lot in! Most of the time was spent with family and the kids had a blast! We swam at “Uncle” Keke’s house, we swam at Grammy and Paw Paw’s neighbors pool a LOT, we went to a Family Fun Center and played Laser Tag and other arcade games, we had a Crawfish Boil for Bruce and Mary’s combined 60th birthday party and saw a lot of family we never get to see who drove in from Mississippi for the event, we celebrated the 4th of July at both Grammy and PawPaw’s and Keke’s (talk about amazing Fireworks in your own front yard!), we had cousin sleepovers, and we ate lots and LOTS of food! My kids love getting together with their cousins and they always make such sweet memories with them so that’s always a highlight.  They got to spend a few days and nights with Peyton and Murphey, but also some of their 2nd cousins came into town for the Crawfish Boil and they loved that too. 

(By the way, the Crawfish Boil was amazing as always- it’s one of my favorite meals EVER.  But Crawfish Boils are a bit salty.  It’s pretty much equivalent to eating and drinking gallons of salt for hours while standing in the hot sun and heavy humidity. So while I was doing ok bloat-wise all week, I blew up the day of the party and stayed bloated until we left. You might notice that in the pictures I look normal at first, and then NOT so normal at the end of our trip. I’m still trying to shed that water-weight…..*insert eye roll here*)

Anyway, although we had a good time while we were there, I’d have to say, FOR ME personally, the highlight of my trip was seeing Garth Brooks. And that’s because he has been on my Bucket List for as long as I can remember.  My whole life I’ve wanted to see Garth Brooks in concert because, hello, it’s GARTH BROOKS.  And let me tell you, HE DID NOT DISAPPOINT.  He was absolutely amazing.  Such a great entertainer! Acted like it was a small intimate concert, not a huge arena.  Like, he allows people to bring posters into his concerts to hold up their song requests.  So a lot of people did and he would point to them in the audience, say hi to them and tell them their song was up next.  If I would have known that I would have brought in posters!! It was awesome! And he started off his concert saying “I know you guys all came here to hear the old stuff, not the new stuff, so tonight I’m playing all the hits!” It was SO much fun!!!  He played EVERY song that I love, AND since we were in Louisiana for it, the crowd went NUTS over his “Baton Rouge” song.  Oh. My. Gosh. It was one of the coolest things ever. It was SOOOOOO fun to hear that song in the Cajun Dome in Lafayette.  So much energy.  And he sang for 4 hours and we had good seats! I was so thankful that Bruce and Mary and Aunt Christa watched our kids overnight so that we could make the 3 hour trip over there and make a little getaway out of it. It was seriously the best night.  I will NEVER forget it. (I’ll also never forget finding a Ranch store in the middle of nowhere on our way to the concert and stopping to pick up some Country clothes. It felt like fate was directing us there, haha!  We found a clearance bin and came out with perfect outfits for the night. It was pretty funny!)

And now we are home sweet home, but only for 13 days. We leave for Boise next for another 2 week trip! Summer is just flying by- I can’t believe it!  I cant believe I actually have to go start getting our school supplies soon! AHHH! I hope the rest of Summer will slow down just a tad, but I highly doubt it…..

Oh well, it’s been a fun Summer so far. Can’t WAIT to see my Boise family next!

Best Friends Forever and Father's Day

There's always that one friend in your life who makes the biggest impression on everything in your life.  The one who leaves an imprint on your heart and makes you a better person and loves you for you.  That person for me is Christy.  The first friend I made in Colorado and the girl who will be my best friend for the rest of my life; of that I am SURE.

When I left Colorado, I literally felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest when I said goodbye to her.  It still makes me cry just thinking about it.  And from that Summer (4 years ago THIS WEEK) up until 2 weeks ago, I had only seen her one time in between.

Well, it just so happens that last Summer she moved back to her childhood town of Meta Mora, Illinois and we moved to Jenks, Oklahoma and the two cities are only 8 hours apart! That was the closest we've lived by each other in 4 years! It took us a whole year to finally get our acts' together and make it happen, but 2 weeks ago we each drove 4 hours toward the other and met in the middle in a city called Rolla, Missouri.  It is a junky town and there's not much to do there, but we didn't care!  We jumped out of our cars at the sight of each other and hugged for the longest time! We cried and laughed at how dumb and dramatic we both are, but then hugged and cried some more. Haha, I just love her with all my heart!  She is like a sister to me.

It was such a short trip and I wish so badly it could have lasted longer, but with husbands' who work and kids to take care of, all we had was the weekend.  Plus, it was a very last minute trip; we decided to do it last minute because we both had a free weekend and that never seems to happen these days. 

So in the middle of nowhere, we found a place to hike a few miles (and of course get ourselves lost, haha!) and went out to eat at a pretty gross Mexican restaurant, stayed in an old hotel, and talked and talked and talked.  We stayed up half the nights talking and on our last day together we decided while we talked we should go do something.... We had gone to brunch and after 2 hours sitting at the cafe table we knew we had to go.  Christy looked up activities in the area and we found a skating rink to go to! Hahahahaha we were laughing SO hard! I haven't rollerbladed in maybe 18 years?? We rollerbladed for almost 2 hours! Around and around and around and laughed so hard.... and afterwards we went and played Laser Tag against a couple little punks who totally kicked our butt's..... I walked out of that Laser Tag room dripping with sweat! Man, I'm pathetic! HA!

Anyway, it was so good to see her and have uninterrupted girl time. No kids, no husbands, just us.  It was the most perfect weekend ever. And now we have a new tradition! We want to do it every year! I think we NEED to do it every year! It was so good for my soul.

Anyway, yesterday was Father's Day and Shawn wanted to just spend the whole day doing fun things with the kiddos since he hasn't spent more than 3 days with them in 3 weeks :( So we let them decide what to do and they chose to go bowling and also to go fishing in our pond.  We had a blast!  Shawn and I each took turns losing at bowling (the kids beat us each game!) and then later we were catching most of the fish while the girls' decided they wanted to hunt for ladybugs instead.  It was such a nice day.  That man is a good one and we are lucky to have him.

Today he left for yet another week.  It has been so hard for us to have him travel so often.  In New Hampshire he travelled every week as well, but it was just 1,  2 or at most, 3 nights.  Here it is 5 nights every week. Sometimes he doesn't get home until Saturday and then he leaves again early Monday morning.  It's really hard on all of us :(  We miss him a lot. I know I shouldn't complain, but it's a lot. I'm really, REALLY excited that this weekend we are going on a little get-away in Louisiana. We are dropping the kids off at his parents and then going to see Garth Brooks in a city a few hours away (something I get to check off my Bucket List!).  We get to have a couple days to ourselves and we really need it! I seriously miss him every single day. The kids do too (it's the hardest on Piper), so thankfully, after our weekend away we will go back to his parents' house and he will be working "remote" while staying in Louisiana with us.  That means we will get to see him every morning and every night for over a week! Then the Gilley's are having a big 60th birthday party the next weekend and we figured, while we were there we might as well stay for the 4th of July!  So yeah.....we're gonna be in Louisiana for 12 whole days!  We come home for 13 days and leave again for Idaho for almost 2 weeks. Needless to stay, we will be VERY busy for the 6 weeks. And then before we know it, school will be starting. Sheesh.  Where does the time go?!

It's been a whirlwind year and it never seems to slow down! But I can't wait to see family members that I haven't seen in years so being busy will be so worth it!

Oh yeah. 1 more things. Our neighborhood had their Annual Fishing Fest and Piper caught 4 fish!! ALL BY HERSELF! Lucy caught 1 and was so grossed out by it, but Piper had fun holding the slimy things and showing them off to everyone, hehe. They're so different but both so cute!

Ok. Off I go to bathe my smelly children :)

Thank goodness Monday is almost over!