What Summer Looks Like in Ohio

Ok, I've been blog slacking. Probably because I've been putting every spare second of my life into this and this.

Still under construction, no where near perfect (and probably wont ever be, because I'm a perfectionist) but I'm really enjoying it! Like enjoying to the point where I get so excited that I squeal, or jump up a down for a minute, or my stomach feels like it might explode with hyper butterflies. No, I'm not exaggerating. I love it that much.

And then there's other stuff, like my full-time job... and my super awesome new assignment at church - teaching the 14-15 year old girls!! It's my favorite thing, ever. Except that since I have a full-time job, I can't do all the fun things like girls camp and high adventure retreat and youth conference in Palmyra. So that makes me sad. But they really are the greatest. Sometimes I forget that we aren't the same age - that I'm actually about 8-9 years older. Ew. I totally don't feel that old... growing up is weird.

It's funny that summer officially starts this Wednesday. I feel like it's been summer for months. Probably because it's been so freakishly warm here. 70's in March? Crazy. But I'm not complaining.

We've had a lot of fun in the past month since I blogged last (geez, I didn't realize I was THAT far behind)...

Our tulips we brought back from Holland bloomed! They are beautiful. Now I just need buy 1 million more so I can create my own fabulous garden with tons of rows :)

Photo Credit: Susan Hansen

My company sponsored an event, The Sullivan Cup, down at the Ft. Benning military base. It was really fun to be a part of the competition. They were competing for the title of "the nation's best tank crew." They let me crawl down inside one of their tanks and I could barely stand being in there for a few minutes... it was so tiny and claustrophobic. I can't even imagine how it must be with all their gear on hot, humid days. Our soldiers are amazing... true heroes.

I drove up to Wooster for a day and my super talented mom taught me how to crochet! Now if I could only find the time to practice...

I attempted to make Costa Vida's sweet pork salad. It was delicious... but still no Costa Vida. I have a feeling I will crave that til the day I die. Let's just hope they move out east. 

As usual, we make frequent garage sale / Goodwill trips on the motorcycle. It's not always the easiest trip... but it's the cheapest! And if we can save $5 or $10 on gas, Christopher (I mean, WE) will do whatever it takes ;) But we have been really lucky and found some amazingly awesome stuff lately, that deserves its own post later. 

We had a picnic at the World's Largest Basket! Christopher thinks it's a little dumb... but honestly, it's kinda cool. And it's only 5 minutes away. 

We went to the town carnival. Woo hoo! Fresh squeezed lemonade, a ferris wheel ride and some skee ball made for a perfect summer night. 

We got library cards!! I was SO excited. Anyone who knows me well,  knows that I LOVE the library. I always have. I was one of those little nerd kids that spent her summer nights reading books and winning the champion "reading club" prize every year. (Days were spent swimming, playing kickball & climbing trees... nerd + tom boy.) Anyway, so I skimmed through all the sections, grabbed about 17 books and Chris looks at me and says, "There's probably a limit. I don't think you can check all those out." I got a little nervous as I slid them on the counter and asked sheepishly, "Is this too many?" The cute, old librarian laughed a little and responded, "Oh no! The limit is 99!" My eyes just popped. It felt like Christmas morning. I wanted to run around and grab books off the shelves by the dozen... but then I realized there's no way I'd have enough time to read them before their due date, so I restrained myself. As she finished scanning, she also informed us that soon we will be able to check out Wii games and Xbox games too... for FREE! Now Christopher's ears perked up. Looks like we will spending a lot of our time at the library this summer and I just love it. 

Memorial Day weekend we went to the Old Fashioned Ice Cream festival in Utica where we fell in love with Velvet Ice Cream! We had Moose Tracks and Buckeye - but later we bought strawberry cheesecake and both agreed it's the best ice cream we've ever had. Sorry Ben & Jerry! You just got ditched.

We've also been taking advantage of our community pool. It's so nice to have a pool that's 100 yards away, that we can use whenever, but not have to take care of :) It's so refreshing on these hot, humid days. 

Christopher has been quite the grill master! He makes us burgers, bratwurst, ribs, steak, corn... you name it, he grills it! Yum.  

My niece, Allyson got married! It was a beautiful ceremony up in Jackson, Michigan. I'm so happy for her.  Zach is perfect for her.

We had fun hanging out with the family... Chris is probably Seth's best friend. They played pine cone throwing games to pass the time.

I danced the night away with my little glow-stick girl, Hallie.  She calls me "nani" and melts my heart.

After the wedding, we stopped by Cabela's and explored for a while. Check out these camo boys!

And of course we had to take a picture with the giant bears!

Lastly, my sister and I had a girls' weekend!! It was much needed. We laid out by the pool, went shopping, went to our neighbor's outdoor movie and started a fun craft I'm going to use for my business. It was so good to have some time for just us. Sisters need that.

Okay, so now I'm almost caught up! It feels a lot less daunting to blog now. Off to edit pictures from the maternity shoot I had tonight! Love my life.