Cousin fun on the lake

 We are so lucky here in Texas to live by such great cousins.  Sean's cousin Janene-her husband Aaron, Kylie-her husband Mike, JulieAnn-her husband Vance, and many more!  Aaron's grandparents have a lake house in the Houston area, and they were so nice to invite us all down there for a weekend.  Of course it was over a month ago (still playing catch up), but it was SO MUCH fun.  They had a boat, sea doos, multiple tubes, a wake-board, you name it.   We drove down with Kylie and Mike and were there for the weekend.  Here are some pictures of the fun weekend!

Not the best picture, but you get the idea.

Ready to get out on the water!

Kylie and I out on the sea doo

I think this picture of Kylie and Julieann is so cute.

Sean grillin' down

This was our view from the house...serenity.

Kylie and me on the trampoline

Me wake-boarding

Sean getting burnt

I wonder why I have more pictures of the girls?  Possibly because they are more cooperative? No, that couldn't be it. :)

Kylie and me!

Some of the boys tubing.

So, Sean and I had to leave early to get back for one of my friend's wedding in Dallas.  But, right before we left Sean thought it would be a good idea to run over the tow rope with the sea doo.  Yes, it would be my husband that breaks one of things that we're borrowing.  Sean and the other guys spent over two hours trying to get the tow rope out.  Eventually we had to leave, but Vance ended up getting the last part out of the sea doo.  With Sean there is always adventure. :)

One of my favorites 

The girls trying to get some sun...haha, this is a ridiculous picture of me...but too funny not to post.

We had such a blast that weekend!  We're so grateful for Aaron's grandparents letting us come play with all their toys, even though it might not ever happen again because of Sean's "accident", ha ha.  It's so nice to live around some family and not feel like total loners, we love it.  It was a great way to start out our traveling adventures for the summer...more posts to follow.  :)

Go Rangers!

Sean and I love going to baseball games.  My Dad was a lifelong Cubs fan, and that's where we spent a lot of our time as a family.  We went to Wrigley field a lot, but also saw many other ballparks.  My Mom used to be a flight attendant and so growing up we could all fly for free.  Since getting married that, and a lot of other free things have disappeared...but that's a whole other post. :)  Anyways, since the Cubs (even though they were usually horrible) games would sell out a lot we would fly around the country following them.  We went to a lot of games near Delta hubs-aka Atlanta Braves, Minnesota Twins, Cincinnati Reds, you get the idea.  Sean grew up liking the Padres (also another horrible team) so, we both have a love for baseball.  When we first got married we would go to the Orem Owls' games almost every week.  It was usually only $1 or $2, and we could walk to the UVSC park from our little apartment.  When you're poor you have to get creative, haha.  Since leaving Utah and Idaho (yuck) we have LOVED living near a professional MLB team., the Texas Rangers.  We went to quite a few games last year.  Sean has recently come out of the closet as a Yankees fan (the fact that one of my best friends, Rachel, is a HUGE Yankees fans and lives in NYC doesn't hurt at all).   So of course, the first game of this summer we just HAD to go to a Yankees/Rangers game.  Sean and our cousin Mike were in charge of getting the tickets, bad idea.  I was in charge of that last year and got us the cheapest tickets, $11 (it's just what we did with a family of seven).   $70.00 later we found ourselves, and a big group of friends, going to the Ranger's game.  As always, we had tons of fun...and I'm so glad we all went.

Mike and Sean, the bank breakers.

It was Gerret's birthday earlier that week and Sarah (being the amazing wife that she is) planned a cute surprise for him...

Sean's bestie is famous!

The girls!

I never miss an opportunity to take pictures of white trash people...especially when they're getting engaged.  Ha ha!

Sarah and me...I've had better pictures.

The only pictures Sean will ever take are at sporting events, and they're only of the athletes.  And it's weird...he takes at least 30 of the same thing...

It was pretty hot out, that's what I'll blame my nastiness on...

Look at all our friends!

Ok, ok...the seats were pretty good.  Probably the best I've ever sat it, without moving down lower to someone else's seat.  And as always, it was a great time!  Go Rangers!

NASCAR

So, none of us are really NASCAR fans...but I scored some free tickets while my brother John was visiting us in Texas before heading up to BYU-Idaho.  John's friend Clifton came with us too.  We thought it would be something "fun" to check off our lists.  We had planned to show up about half way through the race, because it's even boring on ESPN.  So, we got some dinner and then headed to Texas Motor Speedway in Dallas.  It was pretty much what I expected-it was boring, lots of white trash people, and it was really loud.  But, it was free...and an experience at that.  I spent most of the time taking pictures of the "interesting" people around us.  :)

I felt kind of dumb, but it was actually hard to keep track of who was winning.  This is what you could look at during the race to see which racer was in the lead.

 Sean took a panoramic shot, but I couldn't figure out how to get them all next to each other on this stupid blogger.

For the majority of my time I was trying to get a picture of this nasty guy's tattoo screaming and yelling in front of us.  He was most of the entertainment, and you can't really see but his tattoo takes up his entire back, haha.

These people are the smart ones, I wished I had some of the earmuffs the whole race!

NASCAR hotties

I wish I had gotten a picture of this guy's sweet mullet with his hat off.  This picture really doesn't do it justice.

It's so nice living close to a legit city, there are just more things to do.

Fun times, haha.

It was so nice of John to come and see us before he left for school.  People usually don't come and visit us, we usually have to go and see them.  So, it was a nice change.  :)  Even though it doesn't sound like a super glamorous night, it was still fun.  Bucket list, check.

He's home!!

Well, he came home three months ago.  Don't hate me because I'm a horrible blogger, I told you I'm catching up!  My brother John has been on a LDS service mission in India for the last two years.  A lot of things have changed since he left.  Mostly, our Dad is gone now.  It wasn't the best time for us to make an all night drive to Chicago...but honestly, when is it?  There were already going to be a lot of people missing when he came home, and his little sister shouldn't be one of them.  I got done Thursday night around six, Sean picked me up straight from work, and we made the 13 hour drive home.  I'm really glad we went, I wouldn't have missed it for anything. 

These are always my favorite RM pics, mother/son.

I felt pretty special/important to be the second person hugged, haha!  Love him.

John and our little brother Chris.

 Sean, John, and me.

Chris, John, and me.

John brought the boys back some souvenirs from India, apparently this is what the men wear over there.  Daniel wasn't quite grasping the concept. :)

Too funny not to post.

Got it, finally...haha.

John brought me and my Mom these dresses that the girls wear over there.  Yes, mine looks a little Grandma-ish, but what can you do?  He also brought us some sweet bracelets...I guess the girls wear double that amount on each arm.  Can you say over accessorizing? 

All of the kiddos minus David (shocker).  Sean thought it was so funny to pull his skirt up so high.

 Mom and John.

 Missing a few people...

We left Texas Thursday night, got to Chicago Friday afternoon, went to the airport, hung out Saturday, and left Sunday morning after John's homecoming talk in church.  Needless to say, it was a quick trip...but I'm so glad we went.  John didn't think we were coming so he was really surprised/excited to see us, I loved that.  John is the only one of my brothers who has gone on a mission, and probably the only one who will go, so it's kind of a big deal.  Sean and I want to support him as much as we can, so we're so glad we were able to make the tiresome trip.  It was the first time we had been back to my house where we haven't seen my Dad or been to the hospital to see him...so that was a little different too.  We miss you Dad, you would be so proud of John.