One Long Summer

I tell you, I've traveled more this summer than any other time. For reals.
It started off with 5 weeks in Utah for Becka's wedding and the subsequent births of little Claire and Abigail.

James and his lil girl

me with Claire - one day oldClaire in her blessing gown

Abigail Elizabeth

Abigail after open heart surgery

Thunder and I made the long drive home by ourselves because Ryan had to get back earlier in the month for school. The trip was great and I made good time until I didn't. I got lost in Iowa for nearly 3 hours from 11pm-2am. It was awful. When I think of Iowa it is not fondly.

A few short weeks later we were lamenting the fact we just couldn't make it out to Utah for Grandpa Alexander's 80th Birthday and the family reunion. Ryan's dad called and changed that and the week after we were flying in on a Thursday and returned back to Kansas on Monday. Thanks, Dad!

The family reunion was amazing. It involved Grandma & Grandpa Alexander, their 4 children + spouses, their kids + their spouses and children. I think it ended up being more than 60 people. {There are 9 kids in Ryan's family and another 9 kids from his Uncle Allen's family, 6 kids from his Aunt Vicky's, and 3 kids from Uncle Wade's family.}

Activities for the reunion were unbelievable. Aunt Denise really outdid herself. It was awesome: pony rides + petting zoo, some delish BBQ, a magician, rocket making + launching, badminton/volleyball/net games, trampoline, fishing pond, Minute-to-Win-It games (by Becca and Taylor), and the night ended with a square dance and an official 'caller'. It was fabulous weather and such a memorable day.

We arrived home on Monday night around 1am and stayed up until 4am. We've had an upside down sleeping schedule ever since! We stay up until 3-5am, and sleep until 10am-12pm...for the last 2 weeks. It's so bizarre! I've worked my butt off trying to get our abode cleaned up and it's worked out well having these hours. I've pushed myself to work late into the night (whereas usually as soon as it's dark out I don't want to clean) and I've gotten a lot accomplished. Here's an embarrassing picture of my craft room, but I sent this picture to my sister to show her the shelves I built. Once it's completely done I'll do a separate post. Oh, and a few pictures of my hallway and the art I finally got framed and hung. AND I took apart the chandelier from Ryan's party to use in the hallway.
This past Friday night we had some visitors! Mandi & Daniel are making the move to Grad School in North Carolina and Lawrence is almost exactly half way. We convinced them to stay an extra day and recoup some sleep. Saturday we started off with a tour of campus to show them the pretty buildings and show off our little town. We stopped at the Museum of Natural History at KU and explored. There are some pretty cool exhibits! {Ryan now is on the lookout for a mini skeleton under glass}. After the museum we headed down to Massachusetts Street (referred to as Mass by the locals) for lunch and walking around. Mass is one of those picturesque downtowns that all quaint towns should have. For some reason, Lawrence has made it work and it's really successful. We had lunch at The Burger Stand and walked it off by window shopping and ended the afternoon sweaty and hot and cooled down with Sylas & Maddy's Ice Cream. I loved this weekend. Mandi and Daniel are a lot of fun to be around. We loved having them here and I was sad to say goodbye this morning when they left!

We're not done travelling yet! We still have a wedding this summer to go to {in Pennsylvania} and soon enough, school will be starting and I start working outside of the home. Boo to jobs but HELLO to saving for a bathroom remodel!