A Unique Wedding Processional

I saw this video posted by a friend on Facebook and had to add it to my blog. This just looks like a fun group of people. And kudos to the bride and groom for making their wedding a reflection of themselves - fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Family Time is the Best Time

This past weekend my mom invited a bunch of family friends over to the Horn Rapids pool for a swim and BBQ get-together. Let's see there was our family (Dad, Mom, Katie, David, Haylee, me), Nate, the Calverts (Jerry and Gayla), the Heatons (Kurk, Shawna, and their daughter Morgan), co-workers of my mom's (Aureka, her husband, and their two kids Abby and Ellie), the Walkers (Brian, Katie, and their kids Grant and Madeleine), and Karen. All in all there were 22 of us at the pool. Wow, until I just counted I didn't realize how many of us were there. No wonder both the baby and big pool seemed overflowing!

Anyways, there wasn't any special event going on or anything we just hadn't seen each other in a while and thought getting together for friends, fun, and food would be a good thing. The pool came in extra handy, too, as we've been experiencing 100+ degree weather lately.

I thought the funniest part of the day was when I was playing with Haylee in the pool and she saw a toy and started loudly saying "My toy! My toy!" Well, since Haylee is 2 it seems like everything she likes is 'hers' so I kept telling her 'no, Haylee, that's not your toy' and she just kept saying "My toy!". Eventually I caught my mom's eye and asked if the toy Haylee was pointing at was really hers or not (because this loud proclamation of 'mine' had never gone on so long). Turns out that it WAS her toy. I apologized many times for not believing her. But, not 10 minutes later another toy became "My toy!" Did I learn my lesson from the last experience? Nope. I gave the same disbelief act until Mom set me straight. Turns out that my parents brought about 6 different pool toys for people to play with! I had no idea. Maybe next time I'll really give some thought into whether something is Haylee's before discounting it. Maybe. :-)

Playing with all the kids.

Nate and I helping Haylee ride the dolphin.

Haylee LOVES the water.

Hayee did NOT like me holding Grant.

Catching Up with Celeste

One of my good friend's from high school was visiting the Tri-Cities with her husband for a one-day whirlwind catchup with all those who still lived here. Celeste was one of the 'fab five' girls that I hung out with back in the day. There was Celeste, Shelby (not pictured), Karen, Caren, and me. Of course we were friends with a lot of other people and had our separate adventures, but the five of us always seemed to be together. Whether it was eating lunch in the school gym, having sleepovers, or hanging out at the park. If one was there, the rest soon followed.

Well, then graduation happened and we all started going off in different life directions. A few of us stayed in the Tri-Cities but Celeste (and Shelby) managed to escape the vortex that is this town. About three years ago the five of us managed to be back in the Tri-Cities together and were able to catch up and reconnect. For some of us (Caren) this included introducing new babies to the girls, for others it was talk of jobs or other crazy life stuff.

Yesterday I got another opportunity to catch up with Celeste and the girls (minus Shelby who couldn't make it in from Nevada). Celeste is recently married to her husband Stephen and expecting this November! It was so awesome to see that she's still the same Celeste I remember. Lots of energy, talking a mile-a-minute, always ready with a laugh, and just an all-around fun person to be with. It was exciting to catch up on what she's been doing (and I'll admit - get fun wedding tips from her), but a little sad to realize that it will probably be another few years before I see her in person again. On the bright side, maybe the next time she'll have a bunch of kids to introduce to the girls, Shelby will be able to come by for the visit, and I'll have more updates on my life to give.

Any Good Remedies?

So does anyone have any good knee popping remedies? By that I mean I REALLY need to pop my right knee. I did a slightly stupid thing today at work where I tucked my right foot under my left knee and worked at the computer on table setups for about two hours. Ever since then it's felt like my right knee needs a really good popping, but no matter which way I bend or turn my knee won't pop. It's actually getting painful now where I'm walking with a slight limp as the knee feels out of place. It's not a sharp pain or anything that I feel I need to go the hospital for (because that's total overkill) but it hurts just enough to be bothersome. So if you're got any old wives remedies for me I'm willing to give them a try!