Monday, June 27, 2011

Weekend With Austin

We spent the weekend with the best nephew ever!  Austin came down to spend Saturday and Sunday morning with us while his mom went to a wedding and his dad was out of town.  John and I had a blast playing with him!

We ran errands soon after he came down to the carpet store.  We were only 5 minutes on our way when we realized that it was going to be lunch time soon.  It was obvious we weren't used to having schedules!!  So after our stop at the carpet store, we treated Austin to some BBQ at Zardas. 



Austin LOVED his chicken strip but wasn't much of a fan of my beef.  He was so cute dipping his chicken in the ketchup!!

After lunch we made a couple more stops before he fell asleep in the car.  (Apparently it was nap time.  Again with the scheduling!!)  We headed home, Austin napped (we worked in the garage).  After nap we played outside, saw a snake, stopped playing outside.  Before we knew it, it was time to cook dinner.  Austin had fun playing in the Tupperware drawer while John and I cooked.


He liked stacking them all together!!

Austin also helped John grill out on the deck for a little bit and also found the dogs' water bowl!



After dinner we went for a short walk before bed time. 

Sunday morning we played in our room first thing (with the door stops!) before eating breakfast.  We had just enough time to play with Aggie and come up with a really fun game of throwing toys down the stairs before Austin's mom came to pick him up.


Austin loved to throw Mr. Man down the stairs and watch Aggie chase it. 
Here's a video of him and Aggie; unfortunately, I forgot that the camera I was using doesn't record sound but his face is priceless!


Overall we had so much fun playing with Austin.  He has such a cute little personality and is such a happy little boy.  It amazes me that someone so small can already have such a strong personality.  We are lucky to be aunt and uncle to such an adorable nephew!!

Water Damage Repair Progress...

I came home to water dripping in the garage almost 2 months ago and we've been living with the house a mess ever since.  Carpet gone in the upstairs hallway, upstairs hall bath out of commission, and the worst of it all the garage was torn up and the opener was not working.  (Who'da thunk that I would be complaining the most about the garage?!)
FINALLY some repairs were scheduled to happen while we were oot camping.  But, that was only the Sheetrock repairs.  So now the holes in the bathroom and craft room have been replaced and the garage is no longer torn apart.  We still have no flooring and we need to do some touch-up painting (or total repainting like I think we will in the hall bath).  Flooring is being negotiated now between a couple different companies and will hopefully be replaced in the next couple of weeks!!
But for now, I'm ECSTATIC to report that my car is now parked in the garage!  John decided to take the opportunity to organize/clean the garage while it was all torn apart.  And we finally did it this weekend.  Here are some picts...
Look at all that junk-I mean stuff!





Almost done but working in the dark.  The goal was to pull the truck in for the night.

Well, I don't have any "after" pictures because, like so many home projects, it's still not technically done.  While both cars are currently in the garage, the bikes need to be hung and several things need to be returned to my FIL.  Hopefully "after" pictures will be posted this weekend! (Fingers crossed!)

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Bennett Spring Trip in Pictures

I'm still here, just barely staying afloat in my mountains of school work.  With one class down for the summer and 1 week of one class left, I felt I could (should) actually take the time to blog. 

So here is an easy one!  We went to Bennett Spring State Park (in the Ozarks of Missouri) for a long weekend of camping and fishing.  We had a GREAT time and hubs has been talking non-stop since about going back.  He even went out and bought a fly fishing rod!!  So, now I'll let the pictures talk! (But not necessarily in order Ü )
John and his catch Saturday morning.

Hiking

The closest Mollie was able to get to the water!











Hubs cooking up some dinner.

The Hatchery where they "raise" all of the trout before releasing them into the spring.

Look at all the fish!!


Park Store

This is the spot where John caught all his fish




Trying to set up the tent in the dark.  It took us a little longer to get there than we thought...

Cooking again.  Breakfast this time.

Poor Mollie spent the whole weekend on her leash/chain.  BUT, she was a WONDERFUL dog!


Campsite...a little blurry

Hatchery again.  Told ya they weren't in order.




Sorry for the sidewaysness.  Mollie was upset she couldn't be in the water too.

How John spent his weekend...

and how I spent mine!

We had so much fun and can't wait to go camping again!