Heat Seekers

My cousin came to visit my grandma (and us) and go to the Diamondbacks game this weekend. They drove over early Saturday morning from lovely, cool San Diego and were appalled as they watched the temperature gauge in the car crawl over 100...lol

We (Kenny,me, my mom, Grandma and Hana) spent the afternoon visitng before we headed off to the D-backs game.

Jason, Hana and Lucy

Lucy and Jason's dog didn't get along very well... this is Lucy being scary under the table- ha ha

We headed off to the game early since the first 15,000 people were going to get a voucher for a FREE jersey.

I think Gonzo has gotten a big head since his retirement!

Kenny and I (weren't our seats awesome)

Jason, Hana, Me and Kenny

PS. I forgot to mention we were on the jumbotron! Oh course I was too slow with the camera to get a picture of us on the TV, but it was still super cool to all of us!

Waterlogged

Today I got 2 hours of PTO for a contest at work so Kenny and I took off to the lake for the afternoon. We went to smelly Pleasant to splash around with the dogs.

Shelby is naturally a water dog, Hope likes to play and Toby... doesn't.

But we had to let him swim a little

he looked so worried (but still cute!)

The girls are AWESOME ball dogs!

Shelby

Our girls!

more ball chasing

Hope diving in!

Hope really wanted to get the ducks, but listened when we called her off.

We had a good time although our tube had a hole in it, my shoes got broken and Kenny's pants ripped! I know the dogs loved it, although they didn't love their baths when we got home!

When we got home my brother called and wanted to hang out. I never want to miss an opportunity to see them so we jumped on it! We grabbed some $2 subs from subway ate and went swimming at my parents house.

My goofy brother

Jacob and Crystal

Uncle Kenny and Little Brian

My Dad and Little Brian

My Dad, Little Brian and Kenny (yes they like to throw the boys... the boys love it though!)

This picture is so cool... kind of a mess up, because my brother jumped right at my face!

dork

Krissy (Crystal's daughter)

Me

Brian walking on water- ha ha

Brian and I being giant dorks

A Camping we will go ...

Friday after work we loaded up and headed up North for some cooler weather and BOY did we get what we wished for! The drive up was just gorgeous !

We camped off road 237 about 5 miles in (on a dirt road that seems WAY further)

There was a little fog on the road...

and hail on the ground!

We met up with Jereme and his fiancé, Melodi. Friday night was their turn to cook dinner and Jereme decided to deep fry... everything. It WAS so much fun and tasty! He made fried zucchini, onion rings, chicken, Twinkies, candy bars, oreos and even fried ice cream! Poor Jereme was cooking for about 4 hours and we were up well past midnight eating. I think Friday was my very favorite part of the trip- it was cool out, we were eating and having a good time.

We camped right next to a lookout spot and this is the view of the valley below.

Toby trying to get to me on the ledge...

I love this picture of Hope standing on the ledge

Saturday morning we slept in and Jereme cooked us breakfast. When I put my contacts in that morning one of them ripped. In my late night, rushed, packing on Thursday I neglected to pack extra contacts OR my glasses... If you don't know I am practically blind without my contacts and it is extremely uncomfortable to be missing one... Kenny offered to drive home and get them for me. I knew he would have, but I didn't want him to waste 6 hours of driving and a tank of gas just for a contact. I tried not to let it bother me, but it really did put a damper on the rest of the weekend for me. It was disorienting and somehow I couldn't hear as good either... yuck.

Anyway, we kidnapped Kenny's Nana and the 5 of us (and Shelby) went to Willow Springs Lake. All the years I have been coming with Kenny to Forest Lakes he has never taken me to one of the lakes. I was super impressed! It was so beautiful and clear (not smelly and dirty like Pleasant). We took pictures, splashed around and played with Shelby.

Sarah, Kenny and Shelby

Me, Kenny, Shelby and Sarah

Shelby will fetch practically anything. Kenny made me laugh when he made her fetch this giant stick.

A crawdad

Shelby

and more Shelby

Handsome Kenny!

A dusk view from our camp site

Our camper from the lookout spot

Our beautiful sunset

The campsite at dusk

Saturday night we made beef stew in the dutch oven and Kenny made pancakes for breakfast.

Sunday morning was HOT! Okay so it was only about 85,but it felt hot so we packed up and headed home...

Of course THEN the rain came.

#118 read 100 books on the New York Times best seller list

Taking Advanced English throughout high school ruined me on pleasure reading. We always had summer reading homework... really I lost all the joy in readying and it became just homework. A few years ago I got into a fun, light murder mystery series by Earlene Fowler (the Benni Harber books) and that rejuvenated my thirst for reading. Things got busy and I put the books down. Anyway, as I was creating my bucket list and searching the internet for inspiration I came across an item about reading 10 New York Times Best Selling Books. I thought what I great idea... but I thought... lets make it 100 books!! This month when the 3rd movie in the Twilight Saga came out and a bunch of my friends were going crazy over it, and going to the midnight showing, I thought- its time to check out these books! All 4 books -Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn are all New York Times Best Seller.. PLUS I could read the book before watching the movies (# 121 on my list). Twilight was the BEST book I have ever read... I seriously couldn't put the book down. I stayed up till 2AM (very much NOT like me) reading and finished the book in just 4 days. When I wasn't reading the book I was thinking about it or talking about it to anyone who would listen. It was fascinating and I felt like I was using my imagination more than I had in years. I was lost in the Saga! We were on our way home from a camping trip when I finished the first book and I asked my husband to stop at Wal-Mart on the way home to pick up the second installment- New Moon! I read that one in just 3 days. That one was not as much a favorite for me... still a real page turner, thrilling and interesting, but full of pain. The days when I read it I was physically in pain with Bella as she missed Edward and longed for his return. I stayed up till 1:30 to read to the part where Edward and Bella were reunited... it was safe to go to sleep then- everything was okay. CRAZY I know!

4th of July

This is our 3rd year in a row camping up at Forest Lakes for 4th of July. This year Kenny's mom, grandma and a bunch of their Buckeye neighbors all camped with us (or us with them?).

We headed up on Friday morning and picked up Sarah. I took this pictures because it felt so ironic leaving the beautiful cabin and loading up in the trailers to ruff it...

This was the biggest group I have ever camped with. We were the culdesac on the end...

Barb and Oscar waiting for breakfast

I love this picture of Barb and Sarah. We had so much fun listening to music, playing cards and most of all laughing !

Our dogs of course thing they are people and want to sit on our laps.

Shelby wanted to play Uno too!

It was a nice weekend and we came back a little early to have a full day of rest at home. Yea for 4 day weekends!