Movin' on down to Searcy

After spending the first part of our trip with Adam's family we moved on down to Searcy to see my family. On Saturday everyone that was in town came out to mom and dad's house for dinner. It was good seeing everyone again, I just wish the entire family had been there. Jenny and Mary Evelyn were at church camp, Matt, his wife Beth and their son Brisco live in MI and weren't coming to visit until a few weeks after we left, and Craig now lives in VA where his fiance is going to law school. Hopefully one day soon we will all be together at one time again, but it's hard with so many of us living out of state and having different schedules.

Here is the kids table which is getting increasingly larger each year.

From L to R: Andrew, Caroline, Lydia, Eden and Ava

We were missing Mary Evelyn, Brisco and Jack Henry who was at the house, but he's not quite big enough to sit at the table. In October we will have yet another addition to our family when baby Harper comes.

Ava checking out baby Jack Henry. He was born on July 5. We are finally starting to add some boys to the group of great grandkids. We are up to 5 (soon to be 6) girls, and 3 boys.

I just love this picture. I was trying to get Ava and my Grandmother with Jack Henry (you can see his foot) when Sarah kissed her sweet Lydia in the background. Talk about perfect timing

Present time! Gigi (my Aunt Betty) and Granna (my Aunt Marilyn) brought Andrew and Ava b-day gifts. They had missed Andrew's birthday in May and of course Ava's is in a few weeks.

Andrew loves his new game. We have played it several different times since we've been home

Ava reading her new book with Gigi

Ava loved looking at Jack Henry, but she wasn't crazy about her Nana holding him

Andrew, Caroline and Eden playing in the sunroom

Sweet Cousins





A day or two before we headed back to KS we drove down to Little Rock with my parents and took the kids to Playtime Pizza. It's a lot like Chuck E Cheese, only better (in my opinion). They have a pizza buffet so we all ate lunch and then it was off to play games.

Andrew and Adam practicing their ski-ball skills

Of course Ava wanted in on the fun too

The kids had a great time. I wish I had taken more pictures, but oh well. I was a little distracted playing the games too :-)

After we got back to Searcy from Playtime Pizza we went over to my Grandmother's new house to see her one last time before going home. The kids love running around and playing at her house and of course she loves watching them.

Running, running everywhere

Andrew desperately wanted a picture with his sister in the recliner, but Ava would not be still. I think she was afraid she would fall asleep at this point if she got too still

Giving Grandmother some goodbye loving

We had a good visit with family but it was good to get home again. Hopefully we will be able to go back around Christmas to see everyone again. I promise to take more pictures next time :-)

Picnic at the park in Mtn Home, AR

The last 2 weeks of July was Adam's block leave so we headed down to AR to see family. For some reason I didn't take many pictures at all during this 2 weeks, but I didn't manage to get a few. Our first stop was to see Adam's family in Mountain Home. One afternoon we picked up KFC and met Adam's Grandma Billie, Gretchen and Sydnee at a local park to let the kids play. Sydnee is only 2 months younger than Andrew so they always have a good time together.

It was hot out that day, but the kids had fun running around and burning off some of their excess energy. We also saw Adam's mom and friend's the Davis' while we were there, but like I said I didn't get my camera out very much so I have no pictures of them. I will have to do better next time we're in town. Oh, I also have to say a HUGE thank you to Wayne and Carolyn Camp for letting us stay at their house whenever we come to town. I have known them since I was a little kid and was best friends with their youngest daughter throughout high school. Without their generosity we would probably have to stay in a hotel when we come to town (Adam's family doesn't have a lot of room where they live). It's so nice having a "2nd family".

Girls Weekend

When you first move to a new Army post one of the first people you meet are your new neighbors. There is usually a 50/50 chance that you will like the people you move in next to. More often than not they are people you can tolerate, but no one you want to spend a lot of time with. When we moved to Ft Riley we hit the neighbor jackpot. We could not have hand picked better neighbors, and now best friends. Adam and Jeremy enjoy hanging out and go to play golf ALL the time. Andrew and their boys Lucas and Matt have become fast friends and play together almost daily. As Lucas says we are all "family-mates". This post, however, is not about the boys. It is about me, Jackie and the amazing group of girl friends I now have thanks to her. Below is a picture of the 5 of us.

From L to R: Mary, Jackie, Kim, Mandy, Me

I love this group of girls! There is never a dull moment when we are all together. In fact we have started a quote book where we try to keep track of all of the crazy statements made by one or all of us. One of these days, maybe we'll make it into a book. The purpose of this weekend get together in Wichita was because Kim turned 30. We had a big party for her at Mandy's house and let me tell you it was a blast!

Kim and Jackie decided to do the Chicken Dance in front of the house in order to welcome Kim's brother James to the party. Before you ask, yes, the is completely normal behavior for these 2 :-)

Me and the Birthday Girl. Don't you just love her pink sparkly crown? She was such a good sport about wearing all the silly birthday stuff we bought.

Me and Jackie. Love this girl and I can't imagine finding another friend or neighbor like her.

Ahhhh...Mandy the hostess with the mostess! She always opens her house to all of us when we come down to Wichita.

Mary, Mary....She would kill me if she knew I posted this picture. This girl is BEYOND crazy and that is why we all love her.

Kim with her cupcake tower. In case you're wondering, yes, there are 30 candles on top.

Jackie shoving the pink cupcake in Kim's face/up her nose. They have been best friends since high school. Can you tell?

Icing anyone?

Ok, allow me to explain this picture. The temperature that day in Wichita was around 106. Granted the party was at night, but with so many people in the house, Mandy's a/c had a hard time keeping it cool. So Jackie decided to hug one of the ice blocks from the cooler. We later found out that Mandy's a/c was broken and had to be replaced so it wasn't just because of the high temps and large number of people in the house.

All in all it was an amazing weekend (it always is with this group). I am so thankful to have met these girls. It has been a long time since I have had a group of friends like this one. I'm sure there will be many more posts with these girls this fall so stay tuned for our crazy adventures.