Harpy Bipthday, Daddy!

Today we celebrated Daddy's 53rd birthday! I was in charge of putting the candles on the yummy lemon cake that my grandma made, and if you look closely at the picture, you'll see I had a bit of dyslexia whilst putting the candles on the cake! Yep, that's right folks it reads, "Harpy Bipthday"! Sam and I got Daddy accessories for his "new" charcoal grill (and by new, I mean Sam's old grill) and mom gave him a new digital camera (and by gave I mean she bought a camera for herself and then "gave" it to him under the guise of his birthday!) :-)



Mom and Daddy cutting the cake!

Yum...homemade strawberry icecream!



Daddy getting ready to open his last gift!

Awwww...old folks trying to figure out new technology...how cute!





Us singing "Harpy Bipthday" to Daddy! Yeah, um...we couldn't get the candles to stay lit outside in the wind so Daddy just "blew" out unlit candles. Nice. Also, note how grandma doesn't quite get the concept of the difference between setting the timer on the camera to take a picture and recording a video. Notice how she's looking directly at the camera the whole time. I guess I've threatened her a little too much to make sure she's looking at the camera when I take a picture of her. Good times.

Mom being...uh...mom. Bless her crazy little nut-head heart!

Here Comes the Bride!!!

Tonight we celebrated Kristen's upcoming nuptials with a fabulous bridal shower! We started with a wonderful dinner of cornish hens (made beautifully by Kristen's mum, Diane), stuffing, salad, and rolls! We dined in the fading sunset outside, on Shelli's beautiful china and gorgeous table setting! The weather was perfect and we had a great time together!

The beautiful table setting!

A shot of the rose centerpieces (thanks to Isabel for picking out the roses!)

Kristen with all of her gifts!

Kristen's mom, Diane, holding Kristen's new fire place mantle picture!

Kristen opens up some much needed kitchen utensils!

Yea, baking pans! Brian to Kristen: "Get in there and make me some brownies, Devil Woman!"

Hummmm...I wonder what's in this one!

Ooh la la....something slinky...and red!


Nice! Instructional flash cards!

Kristen looks through mom-in-law, Paula's, super sweet gift - a scrapbook of Kristen and Brian!


Girl Talk!

Kristen and big sis, Shelli

Listen as Kristen describes her very first kiss with Brian!

Movie Review: "Wanted"

I've been waiting for this one for a VERY LONG time! James McAvoy is awesome and Angelina is a crazy sexy, butt kickin', hardcore, Chuck Norris, tough chick as usual! What surprised me most though, was seeing James in his role as a bad-ass assassin! To be honest I wasn't sure if my lovely James who's played both "Mr. Tumnus" the fawn (Chronicles of Narnia) and "Tom Lefroy" (Becoming Jane) could pull off this kind of high action, stunt filled, assassin movie...but, man did he ever! He was completely believable...and quickly becoming one of my all time favorite actors! I loved the movie (although, as Dan will say, I like almost anything) but Sam liked it too! There are a lot of slow moving bullets and blood spray (which I LOVE) and some pretty graphic violence...not for the very squeamish. It also has a lot of stunts that I believe are completely plausible, but Sam rolls his eyes at (Think: The Transporter...like flipping your car so that it rolls completely over the top of a limosine so that you can shoot the person in the back seat through the sun roof! Like I said, completely doable!) So if you're like me, and you like that kind of action/adventure, you're gonna love "Wanted"!

Click here to watch the trailer for "Wanted"

http://www.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK//video/screenplay/vi184287513/

Camping at Turkey Run!

We're all loaded up (finally!) and ready to go! With Lindsay home for a visit, I thought it would be fun to go on a little family vacation again - just like the good ole days! We packed up a ton of stuff and all five of us piled into the van (with a little help from a huge bundle of gear roped to the top of the van!) We got a bit of a late start, and Lindsay had unfortunately surpassed the very specific point at which she needs to be fed as to not turn into "evil" Lindsay! So a quick stop by Taco Bell and we were on our way to Turkey Run. Lindsay's good friend, Jen and her husband Russ, joined us for the night, along with their beautiful yellow lab, Haley! We had a great time together, and with the exception of a bit of rain on Saturday had pretty good and not terribly hot weather!


Packed up and ready to leave!


We made it about 10 feet out of the driveway before we had to stop to clean up a spill!


We've arrived! Sam working at the fire!




Oops! Russ and Jen forgot their tent poles! That's alright...the more the merrier!




All rested up and ready for a hike through the ravine!



We start our ascent up the creek bed, which is usually pretty dry!




Haley needed a little encouragement to cross this narrow path!


The Punch Bowl waterfall

The picture simply doesn't do this impressive sight justice! This huge tree came down in the recent storms and if you look closely you can see that when the tree in the foreground splintered and fell, it came down right in the crook of the tree in the background, splitting it clean down the middle!

Packing up to go home! We just beat the rain!

It's been a long weekend!

Lindsay's Home!

Lindsay came home Wednesday from Pahrump for a visit! She'd been a bit sulky about the fact that she never got to have big family dinners "like I do all of the time" so I surprised her by having my grandma and aunt and uncle come down from Muncie to join us for dinner! She was very suprised and it was fun for the whole family to get together.