Parks and Rec themed, summer Fun-Splosion!

Our awesome friend out here decided to throw a Parks and Rec themed party!  We were supposed to dress up as one of our favorite characters from the show.  Mark wanted to be Ron Swanson, because he had a mustache at the time (if he would've been given another week or two, he could have had a really good one).  The girls of Parks and Rec are hard to dress up as, so I came as Orin, April's creepy friend that wears a cape.  Justine did such an awesome job putting everything together and providing a superb summer bash party!

Mark as Ron Swanson!

Me as Orin!

We had Calzone's courtesy of Ben Wyatt...

JJ's Waffles were delicious.

Snake Juice really got the party moving!

Not much of this was eaten.

John Ralphio and Mona Lisa graced us

with their presence. 

At the end we treated ourselves to a gift bag from 

Entertainment seven twenty.  It included Sweetums 

candy, Mouse Rat CD, a signed Duke Silver photo, 

and Tommy Fresh Fragrance.

Dreaming of Julie Andrews!

My favorite or one of my favorite movies is The Sound of Music, I have too many favorites.  They did a showing of it at an outdoor amphitheater in Papillion, and it was a magical evening.  They had food and a dress up contest, so there were a few children dressed up as the von Trapp children.  They left the subtitles on to encourage singing and you better believe I sang my little heart out, and so did Mark.  We were going to go with friends, but I'm kind of glad that didn't happen because Mark wouldn't have sang if we had.  Everyone around us was singing and just having fun.  It was just a good family, friendly evening.  I love simple things like this.

I am not sure why there was a steak mascot, 

but I wasn't going to complain.  How many of

 these do you get to see in life. 

Mistakenly Remodeled!

We have been wanting to repaint and redo our spare bedroom.  We always thought we would have children while we were out here, and we would turn it into a nursery.  Things haven't worked out how we've planned.  So we repainted anyways, it had to happen we used the walls in that room as our paint tester wall.  So it had 6 different colors from all the other paint samples we'd used in the past for our bathroom and kitchen.  And it was a dark blue room.  While Mark was at work I decided I would do some touching up to surprise him when he came, home.  Boy oh boy was he surprised.  Our paint can had a pouring spout on it and apparently it wasn't securely fastened to the paint can and when I went to pour it in our paint tray, it spilled everywhere onto the carpet. So we tore the carpet off the room and the hallway and we decided to just take it off the stairs too.  So Mark was super surprised to come home to that.  I am now banned from painting without his presence, but the room turned out well!

1st National, 4th of July Concert!

For the 4th of July or around that time, Omaha gets a few older, popular bands to come play for their fireworks show.  Since Jeanne and I are known for going to free concerts we decided we would go together.  The weather was awesome for a July day, so we went early to get a good spot.  We got there at 2:00, even though the show didn't start until 6:00, we scored.  I am so thankful I have been able to make such great friends out here.  Oh yeah, Mark came later but didn't show up until after work/school.  We had the pleasure of revisiting my late elementary days/middle school days of music.  We saw Uncle Kracker, Smash Mouth, Sugar Ray and Blues Traveler.  I love me some free entertainment and good company!

Last year of CWS, maybe...

So I was able to make it back from Utah to watch a few College World Series games.  We had a blast, even though the heat was excruciating.  I was never a big baseball fan, but there is something different about going to an actual game that I have found quite enjoyable.

Marquee sign

While we were in Utah it was my niece's 12th birthday.  My sister decided to throw Jessa a surprise party, she did an outdoor movie night in my parents backyard with twinkle lights and Chinese lanterns, it was pretty cute.  Tallie had lot's of amazing friends that helped set things up, but I wanted to do something a little special, and I made a marquee sign with Jessa's name.  Mark was a trooper and he helped me with the drilling and cutting, I did the easier stuff and was the mastermind behind it all.  We both were pretty happy with the end result, and Jessa and her friends loved it (it's always nice having the approval of 12 year olds).

The Birthday Girl!

 I had to use the picnic table to stand it up, 

so it's really just the board.

Utah Summer 2014

Mark and I spent some time in Utah, playing, working and helping family out.  Before we got there we made a small detour to Denver and stayed the night with my lifelong, bestest friend ever, Julie!  It was so good to see her, and we finally watched the last twilight movie together.  We have seen every single one of the movies together and our schedules just never lined up for us to see the last one, until now, and man was it so not worth the wait.  I mean it was hilarious in the over dramatic, twilight, awfulness sort of way.  The only thing good about it was watching it with Julie, I just lover her, but the movie itself was no bueno.
When we got to Utah we went to the Bennett's first and had a blast, we were always treated to good food and a fun activity for the day.  We even went to the Dinosaur quarry in Vernal, I haven't been there since I was a Junior in high school.  They finally fixed the structure that the quarry is in and it's a lot safer and a whole lot cooler.  It was so much fun being with them.
After that we went to Logan and played with family there.  I love being with family, I love Sunday evenings playing games, roasting s'mores and eating food as a family.  We had a blast being back.  It was a good time to be home because my dad was made 1st counselor in the Stake Presidency and I got to be there when he was set apart.  This thwarted a lot of plans that my mom and him had, like serving a mission, building a new home, but I think Heavenly Father knew our family needed the blessings right now and I know my father will be amazing at building up the Mount Logan Stake, he is a strong, faithful giant.
My family is in need of many blessings right now because Tallie, my oldest sister was diagnosed with breast cancer.  They caught it very soon and she will be able to be treated and be okay.  At first she was going to just do a lumpectomy but there was a change in plans, she was diagnosed with a gene called BRAC 2, basically the chances of the cancer returning were very high unless she got a double Mastectomy along with her already planned chemo, possibly radiation and she will have to take her ovaries out as well.  With her having this gene it means that every person in our family now has to be tested for it.  There is a 50% chance that each one of us have it.  With the boys it means a big chance of getting prostate cancer or breast cancer and they could pass the gene to their children.  With the girls it's a high chance of breast or ovarian cancer and also the possibility of the gene being passed on.  The Huntsman geneticists would like us all to get tested, and it is in the works for all of us.  This was a bit of a plague that has hit our family hard.  I was glad I could be there to help out with Tallie after her surgery, I love her so much and I know everything will be okay, she has great faith in our Heavenly Father and his plan.  There is a purpose for all things, even though it may not seem right or fair during times like this.  We have to stay strong with unwavering faith and everything will be alright and I know we will be blessed for our faithfulness in times of trial.  I know this church is true and I know that family is essential to God's plan.  I loved being with mine this summer.

Me and that beaming, engaged girl, Julie!

The quarry.

Nauvoo with the Miller's

My dad has been wanting/dreaming of doing a church history trip with the entire family once more, now that everyone is grown up and has families of their own.  Well he finally made it happen.  It was so much fun, except for maybe the trip back for everyone except Mark and I and my parents, we drove so luckily had no problems.  Everyone else got stuck at the airport on the way back because Denver had some crazy storms and all the flights were really backed up.  Fortunately, everyone is able to laugh about it now.  Some amazing memories were made on this trip and I'm so grateful for a papa who made it all happen.

  

20 years later!  It's crazy to think that it's been 20 

years since we went to Nauvoo as a whole family.

The whole gang on the Temple steps!

Smarty Pants Husband

So this guy has finished his last three years of pharmacy school with a 4.0!  I am so proud of all his hard work.  He does what he needs to, but always makes sure he spends enough time with me.  Now it's time for rotations and so far he is loving them.  Heavenly Father has truly blessed us.

Here he is just getting 1 of his 3 scholarships.

Strong!

My beautiful, older sister Tallie was diagnosed with breast cancer this week. 7 years ago I watched as my mom fought breast cancer and won, now it is time for Tallie to do the same.  She is my best friend and my biggest example.  I don't want to watch her go through the hardships my mother faced, but I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for everything and it will all work out.  Love you Tal!

Spring Break 2014

This was Mark's last college spring break, so we headed down to Kansas City for the weekend.  We didn't do a whole lot, just ate some delicious food, walked around downtown, went museum looking, swimming and enjoyed a little bit of March Madness from our bed.  It was great!

On our way to get some delicious BBQ!

We love Jack Stack's!

Enjoying watching Hallmark make me my

personal gift wrap bow.

Whomever get's this on their present 

better consider themselves lucky.