Nephew Fun!!

This past weekend Andy (BIL), Marcie (SIL), and Mason (nephew) came into town to visit!! We always love seeing them and the time they are here seems to fly by way too fast!! The first evening they were here we went to Ronna and Larry's for a delicious dinner.

Then we all just hung out together.

Mason tried to keep up with the big boys.

It was a nice and relaxing evening.

The next morning we all went to the zoo.

Ronna, Marcie, Andy, Mason, Matt, Josh, Zach, Alex

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture. If you look at it closely, the bear between Andy and Matt looks like he is part of the family. Like he is posing along with the rest of us. Awesomeness!!

Andy, Alex, Mason, Marcie, Ronna

We saw all the normal stuff you would see at the zoo.

Mason, Josh, Zach, Alex

Fish, bears, tigers, monkeys, etc.

Josh and me-Katrina

It was a blast!!

Marcie, Andy and Mason....with a penguin behind them:

After the zoo, we headed over to PepperJax for lunch!! One of my favorite places to go!

After lunch Mason went down for his nap....and maybe some of the rest of us too. Then they all came over to our house for some slip n slide fun.

They all had so much fun!! You may notice that Josh isn't in any of these pictures. He was one of those that took a nap. So he was still sleeping.

We ordered sushi from Blue for dinner. Ronna and Larry had never had sushi before. They seemed to like it.

After dinner we chatted some more and hung out. The next day was the boy's 6 birthday party. I will blog about that next time as this blog is getting a little long. But seriously- don't I have the CUTEST nephew in the whole world?!?!?

Picture taken by Matt

7 Days is Back!!!

WOO HOO!! The 7 Days photo project is back. You may remember that I have done this a couple of times before. Like last winter and spring. Now there is a summer one and I am excited to participate again. I love peeking into others lives and taking a snapshot of myself in my life for one week. Its fun and creative. So I am looking forward to it! Hope you are too. If not- just skip the next 7 blogs. :)

Day 1 fell on Matt and I's eleventh anniversary! So it is only appropriate that he is included in my first shot.

This is a picture of Matt and I sitting out front watching the boys ride their bikes. This is something I do often and it was great to have Matt join me!! The weather wasn't too hot or humid (at this time) and it was relaxing. A nice way to spend part of the morning.

The rest of the day was nice too. Bill and Linda were nice enough to take the boys overnight so Matt and I could go out on the town and then sleep in the next day. HEAVEN!!! The boys were so excited! I think Alex packed and repacked his bag 100 times. They all asked "how much longer until Bill and Linda get here?" about a million times! :)

I think all the anticipation got to Josh, as he fell asleep looking out the window waiting for Bill and Linda. :) It cracked me up. The boys left for their fun filled evening and Matt and I left for ours too.

We were going to go eat downtown- but decided against it. The college world series is in town and that would have been too chaotic! So we ate out west at Blue. HEAVEN!! SO YUMMY!! Our waiter Justin was AMAZING!! He was so helpful and nice!

I even took a picture of my margarita. It was one of the best margaritas I have ever had. Maybe it was because I was out on a date with my husband and there wasn't a kid around. Or maybe because on a hot and humid day a nice cool margarita is refreshing. Or maybe it was really just a fantastic margarita. Who knows and who cares!!

After dinner we went to the old market to walk around. It was full of life. As we knew it would be. We walked around, did some people watching, and shopped in the fun stores. Perfect!! The excitement doesn't stop there people!! Lookie what I found!! Saint Joseph!! Now our house will sell right?

When I got all excited and showed Matt- he looked at me and said "You do know we aren't Catholic right?" Details! Details! Of course I know that. And I am not all that superstitious- a little maybe- but not over the top. I just think desperate times call for desperate measures! This dude is goin in the ground baby!!

We were going to get some ice cream and walk around but the sky started to get all dark so we decided that it was time to go. We got some ice cream on the way home instead. Good thing too! It started to lightening soon after we got home! It was cool to watch but I was glad that we were watching it from inside our house and not outside in the Old Market!! It was a really great evening!! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband!! Can't wait to see what the next 11 (and more) years bring!!

A Long Overdue Evening

Last night was a long and overdue evening!! We finally got the opportunity to go out with our good friends Eric and Karisa- without kids!! Crazy! :) I honestly can't remember the last time we went out with just them. Don't get me wrong- we see them- but its usually with the kids, or at some party like THIS ONE or THIS ONE or a husker party- something like that. But I honestly can't remember the last time we all went out to dinner and it was fabulous!! Its BLOGWORTHY!!

Eric and Karisa are framily. You know- friends that you make your family. I am going to take a quick step back and give you a little background- Eric and I have known each other since we were babies. Our parents are good friends, so we grew up together. Matt and Eric have been best friends since Kindergarten. So they grew up together as well. A lifetime ago Eric and I decided to get a place together. Wow- does that house have memories!! Anyway, Eric had Matt join us and that is how Matt and I got to know each other. So I have to give Eric the credit for bringing Matt and I together. Later, Matt and I got married and Eric and Karisa got married and we both built houses at the same time. But we weren't next door neighbors- that would be too weird. We put a house between us. :) So we lived one door up from them. It was great! Needless to say they both are near and dear to our hearts. Anyway the stars must have aligned or something and we went out to dinner at Hiro's last night. Hiro must mean heaven because holy cow that was good!!

I am still a sushi novice so Eric did the ordering. And I am still not sure if that was a mistake or not. Everything he ordered was so delicious....but the amount!....Take a look for yourself!

That is a wooden BOAT of sushi! It was the length of our table. It was filled full of delicious heaven!! I discovered that I actually do like raw sushi. But my mind still tells me that I don't. Weird inner struggle with that. As I am chewing I am thinking "wow this is really good." Then the next thought is "You are going to get deathly ill its RAW! Spit it out!! Spit it out!!" I tell the table this and Eric starts in on an explanation of why it won't make you sick and says the word parasite and I feel really ill. But that is what I LOVE about Eric. He is honest. If you want to know the truth about something you ask Eric. I learned quickly that if I don't really want to know- I don't ask Eric. For example if I were to ask him "Does this make me look fat" He would honestly say "Yes. You could stand to loose a few pounds." Not vicious- just honest. So I had to stop him at parasite because my inner struggle could be swayed. Bottom line I do and did like the raw ones.

I give Karisa credit for my new love of eel. Another food I didn't think I would like. Eels are really gross looking creatures! They are creepy and disgusting. But man do they taste good! Karisa married Eric so that is how she came into the framily.

Can you believe that we ate almost all that sushi? We all rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and headed over to their house to hang out just a little longer. Karisa and I sat out front chatting away. It was nice. The evening was perfect!! We really hope to do it again soon! With summer coming and the kids out of school, I hope we can get together more often to hang out!!

Dip Punk!

Saturday was a fun filled, jam packed, day that I am going to blog it in sections. Otherwise its going to be a REALLY LONG post. And who has time to read LONG posts that go on and on? Not me!!

Anyway Saturday I had the privileged to go out to lunch with Joe, Kassie and Jim. Matt was with the boys, in case anyone was wondering. :) I am going to back up a second and talk- I mean gush- a little about Joe. :)

Joe and I met in high school and became really good friends. He is awesome! He is kind, silly, creative, goofy and just plain fun to be around. I have been known to call him dip punk. Why you may ask? Well let me tell you. Back in high school we were in these NCOT (North Computers of Tomorrow) classes. These classes were all done on the computers. Very high tech for the time. Anyway my friends and I didn't write notes to each other on just a piece of paper. We were too high tech for that. We either used an actual notebook- but I don't think we did that did we Joe? or we used the computer screen. Now keep in mind, at this time there wasn't instant messaging or email or text messaging. We would seriously write on a word document and then read off each others screens. I was writing a note to someone else and Joe kept trying to look at what I was writing. I was getting mad and frustrated and wanted to yell "QUIT DIPPIN PUNK!" but was so mad it came out as "Dip Punk!" It was funny and it stuck. I won't tell you what he calls me. Honestly I can't remember why that name came about so its really a moot point right? :)

Joe is awesome and I owe a lot of my favorite things in life to Joe. For example- Nebraska football. I consider myself a fan. But really if I want to be honest about it- I am not. I have friends who are and I am PATHETIC with all caps! I don't know all the statistics and plays and history- nor do I care. I just love watching it. Joe took me to my first Nebraska football game and it was AWESOME!! The crowd! The energy! The hot dogs! I was hooked. Now every chance I get (which isn't often) I go to games!

Joe also introduced me to lots of awesome music. The one that comes to mind right now- and no idea why- is Back to the Hotel by n2deep. We must have listened to that song a lot riding around in his white CRV or something. Every time I hear that song I smile, think of Joe and then bop my head- gansta like of course. :)

Joe introduced me to Mudslides....those delicious chocolaty drinks....yum. Next to the margarita- my choice of alcohol. He also introduced me to spinach and artichoke dip. And it could have possibly been in the same night but I am not sure. Favorite appitizer hands down.

And now for my new favorite thing in life!!! This Saturday Joe introduced me to sushi. Honestly, I have had it once before but I was not impressed. Saturday- TOTALLY impressed!! -and now completely hooked.

We (Kassie, Jim (Joe's bro), Joe and I) went to Blue and can I just say YUM. It was delicious wonderfulness. I do have to admit I have to feel a little guilty about all of this. Matt has been trying to get me to go with him for months and I wasn't, shall we say, open to the idea. But I had the opportunity to go to lunch with them and I knew from past experiences that Joe wouldn't disappoint. :)

Here is Jim explaining all the wonderful deliciousness qualities of sushi. My only regret is that I didn't take pictures of all the ones I loved, nor do I remember all the names. Good thing Joe and I are friends and I can call and ask. :)

Joe is awesome to say the least. He is a fantastic friend and I feel very lucky that he is in my life! PLUS he introduced me to his wife Kassie. Another wonderful thing in my life!! Thanks Joe for filling my life with wonderful things! You are the best! :)