{Cole & Cason (1/2)}

It seems like it's been forever since I've blogged but so much has been going on in my family it's been overwhelming. I'm not going to dread on that but I wanted to share about one of the greatest weeks I've had of my life. Josh & I got to have Cole and Cason for an entire week while Amy & Jeremy had to go to Kentucky for work/house stuff. We started off by meeting them in Topeka before Josh, Cole, Cason, and I went north to Omaha, Nebraska. I've never been to Nebraska - and well, on my "Bucket List" is to go to the 50 states. So we set forth on our 2.5 hour long drive to Omaha. Holy corn - corn was everywhere once we crossed the state line. No I'm not stereotyping, just being honest. Corn, Corn, and More CORN! Once we got to our hotel, we decided on dinner - "The Amazing Pizza Machine" - the food was terrible but the boys had fun playing the games. The favorite game by everyone was the shooting gallery - by the end of it, the boys were all doing really good. We ended up with 232 tickets :)

Cason, Cole, & Uncle Josh
Cole, Aunt Amy, and Cason

The next morning was the whole point of the trip - The Omaha Zoo (07.11.11) - I'd always wanted to go. I'm a huge animal lover and we've been to quite a few but I wanted to check this one off our list and I figured the boys would really enjoy it too. I did a little research before we went so I knew the penguins were going to be fed at 10:30 - so that was our first stop. By far the best penguin exhibit I've been to out of all of the zoos I've seen. They had probably 60 penguins. After spending time with the penguins and in the aquarium we did the Zoo farai ride - it was like a gondola that went over the animals - it was the coolest ride I've ever experienced at a zoo.

Cole & I rode togetherUncle Josh & Cason rode together

We walked around the whole park looking at animals, posing for pictures with the statues. The cat complex was neat - there were a lot of cats in here. Many different types and even one that had only 3 legs. She lost her leg in 2003 and was still able to have babies and gets around fine.
We even were interviewed about traveling up to the zoo. I guess along I 29 there is a lot of detours and closings because of the flooding. We didn't have any detours on our way, just a lot of traffic. We ended with eating lunch at the jungle cafe. We're hot, tired, and hungry so it was satisfying. We spent the evening in the pool at our hotel and dinner at Fuddruckers - very delicious! The next day we went to the Omaha Children's Museum - complete waste of time and money. $38 for nothing. The boys were bored and it was complete chaos. Everyone says it's soooo good --- lie, lie, lie. It's AWFUL! The boys enjoyed the ball area - that's about all we did. We paid $2 extra for their "Dinosaur" exhibit - the boys would have got more information from Jurassic Park.

I hope to get the rest of our week blogged this week before heading home for my Uncle Kris's funeral. He passed away last Tuesday evening. He was only 44 years old. It's a very sad time yet again for our family. I also had to say bye to Cole, Cason, and Amy yesterday as today they are moving to Kentucky. I know it's good for them and a new place to travel but I'm so sad to see them go.

{Show Me Your Mean Face}

So 2 weeks ago this Thursday I got to have a mini photo shoot with my two favorite models. Let's face it, besides Gracie (our late pug) they were my first photo models. I used them every chance I could since they were babies for my photography projects in high school and college. I'd taken their pictures at everything but nothing like I used to. I love photographing these guys! Here are some more of my favorites!
I'm biased I know - but I really do have 2 of the cutest nephews ever. They're definitely going to be heart breakers when they're older.

{When I look to the Sky}

When I look to the sky, something tells me you're here with me and that everything will be alright. - Train

Today has been one of the worst days of my life and hoping that my Tylenol pm will kick in at some point I'm going to get today off my chest (or attempt to).

So this morning, at 9 a.m., one of my best friends since 2nd grade called me to tell say that her mother had passed away this morning. She texted me at 5:19 - which I didn't hear - saying "Amy, she's gone." When my phone rang I knew something was wrong. Once I saw it was Shalayne, I knew what had happened before reading the text and calling her back. My heart automatically sank.

I've known Peggy for as long as I can remember. My brother, Josh, was friends with Shalayne's brother, Gary since they were young and the first memory of Shalayne and I becoming friends was when she sent a picture of her over saying "I guess we can be friends" on the back. Still to this day cracks me up.

Peggy was a wonderful lady. I can't how many times we've talked about anything and everything. I remember going with her to watch Shalayne cheer at a WSU game the night before I got my wisdom teeth out and we went for my "last meal" to Braums to have burgers and ice cream. I had the privilege of taking their family photo two years ago - it still seems like only yesterday. I remember going out to the lake on the boat, sitting with her at WHS football games while Shalayne cheered, and spending my 17th birthday at the Wellington Relay for Life with them, her wonderful smile and laugh. One of the saddest things I've ever witnessed was when I was home for Christmas break my freshman year and Peggy was starting to loose her hair again and she had Shalayne cut it in front of me. The braveness that Shalayne and her family have gone through throughout the last 13 years of Peggy's battles with cancer are amazing to me. They're all heros - Peggy is a hero.

I can't even imagine loosing my mom, nor do I want to - so I can't even begin to feel what Gary Sr., Gary Jr., Shalayne, Kayla, Karissa, Kasiaha, Sawyer, Mason, and the new baby bean to be here in Jan. My heart goes out to them as they go through this time.

Every time I think of her my eyes fill with tears. This will be one of the worst trips back to Wellington I will have to make. When Curtis passed away, my mom was sick and couldn't go with me to the viewing - Peggy & Shalayne were right there with me for support and love.

“Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy.” - Eskimo Proverb

{Cole & Cason} Sneak Peek

So I've spent the last 6 days with two of the most wonderful guys in my life...Cole & Cason. I was there the day both of them were born and remember them both vividly. I had asked my sister in law, Amy, if I could take the boys to the Omaha Zoo before they moved to Kentucky and then last week she told me she had to go to Kentucky with Jeremy and her mom so she asked if I could watch the boys til they got back until Friday. I'd never had the boys this long. Well, no one had. Amy had only been away from them about 4 days when her and Jer went to Vegas. I was excited and VERY nervous. I know how rambunctious these two can get when they're not busy. I had a week of activities to do to keep them busy. *I'll do the next post about our week, but for now I wanted to share two of my favorite images from our little photo shoot we did last night.

Cason & ColeWe got lucky and the gate to the stadium was open.
Go State!

{One Year Anniversary}

It's so incredibly hard to believe that our one year anniversary has already came and gone. It seems like yesterday I was working countless hours on planning our big day. We'd planned on going to the Rangers vs. Mets game since our trip down to Texas last October/November-whenever they posted their schedule. I would have loved to have gone to a night game, but it was a 2:05 game - in June - in Texas. Woof. It wasn't too hot. Just the sun. Oh the sun. I came home with a lovely sunburn on my legs, shoulder, neck, and nose. We had a blast though going. We sat in the Lexus club level (2nd level) which gave you access to the Quervo club - which we had $7.50 hot dogs and fries for lunch. At least our pops were free. It was great to go to a stadium again and watch a ball game. Being to a million games before in my life -- it was nice to go to a new stadium (even though they needed a little help on their dirt work :S) but other than that it was nice.Josh & I in our new Texas gear before going to the game. He wanted a jersey and we found this and my shirt (a tank top) the day before. Such a smart idea -- mine was cooler. His, well, not so much.

Walking up to Rangers stadium

View from our seats

Josh & I with the stadium behind us
After the game .. the Rangers lost :(

After the game we went to the Movie Tavern & had dinner and movie. (Cars 2)

{Small Claim to Fame}

So I'm going to continue my blog post about our anniversary weekend....

Josh and I were able to go see our friends - the Thieving Birds (www.thievingbirdsmusic.com) for their CD Release party. Granted, we've had their CD since February - before radio stations :) Needless to say - I've had every song memorized since February. Haha! It's an AMAZING CD! My favorite --- which, I'm very thankful they released --- "Hey, Leigh" --- LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! PLEASE go listen and buy their music. They're AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!

Josh & I at Wet Willie's (6.25.11)

Fish & Josh doing their before show jagerbombJohn & Josh doing their before show jagerbomb

I'm pretty sure too many jagerbombs were consumed by the end of the night by these 3.

So I didn't take my big camera to this show - probably should have, but I just wanted to have fun and take a few with my point and shoot. It's much easier and I didn't know how smokey the bar would be. The last time I took my camera into a smokey bar (Spencer's Corner) it smelled for days.

Josh, Rachel, Me, & John - John & Rachel are the next to get married this October!

Asscheeks -- Inside joke but that's them. It took about 2 hours to get this photo - as you can see, I'm the only normal one of the group :) This was after Beau tried to get everyone to pack up his drum set, Josh tried to pick up Rody, and who knows what else. It was such a great time being able to go to their CD release show.

But the best part about their CD Release (minus the CD) -----Our small claim to fame -- we're in their Thanks yous --- well, twice. Rody put in a Thank You to us also. When they were up here the last time they told us they were thanking us like 4 times but they had to condense it down. I am still flabbergasted they thanked us in there. We just love supporting good music.