memorial day {5.27.13}

A rare Monday off meant family time and good food. And that's all I really have to say about Memorial Day 2013 other than THANK YOU to the men and women who made it possible.

Learning how to wax the cars. 

Samantha helped Mom figure out where her new job was.

That green reflection is from our pool. Yuck.

Clark inspecting the various organisms living in OUR pool.

Grillin' and chillin'.

Our alleyway (shoutout to Rachel ;)

Perfect cookout food.

Holy yum, guys. I was so excited to have food other than CFA.

The master chef himself.

You have to have a blue car to be in our family.

Good times. How was your Memorial Day, readers?

confetti egg hunt {3.28.13}

Unlike last year's egg hunt, we had a low-key kinda thing after the boy's co-op, just the boys and their siblings in the Gillette's backyard. Not that many eggs...we did our half in an hour. It was awesome, and I've concluded you're NEVER too old to smash confetti eggs on people's heads. Also? I shouldn't run. There may or may not be a photo set by Miss Lori on that time when I tried to scoop up an egg while running, fell flat on my back and swallowed confetti. An athlete I am not.

But we were talking about eggs, right? Right. Enjoy the photos I snapped in between having a blast and just being a kid again.

Getting creative with the hiding places.

Just like last year, we resorted to tossing them in the yard.

All ready to take pictures with the telephoto!

And let the egg smashing begin!

 

Oh look there's me post fall. Never gonna live that one down.

The aftermath. So pretty in a messy kinda way.

We had to get a group pictures of all the best friends. Seriously, these guys are such good friends and it's so awesome to watch them interact.

Look at all those cute kids!

Thanks to the Poppe's for continuing the tradition for so many years!

scenes from the {easter} weekend {3.31.13}

We spent Ressurection Day by getting up early for Sunrise Service, bagels and donuts with the church family, back home for a nap before the second round of food with Mom's side of the family. We ended the night by watching the Bible season finale (Ohmyword, such a good series!) It was a wonderful time of fellowship and partying cause readers. My Jesus is ALIVE!

Pretty Easter decorations. My mom's amazing like that.



Drooling right now. It was SO good.

 

Dessert time.

Look at my cousin. She's pretty amazing. Missed this girl.

This cute kitty gets in on the family action cause she really is like family.
{photo cred to Mom}

Pretty much sums up the day...just relaxing.

How was your Easter, readers?

valentine's day {2.14.13}

Forget a fancy date that meant getting all dressed up and reservations and just the time involved in making the plans for one single night. Instead, I'm down for a night with the gang. Yep, I'm in a gang with Rachel, Kaley, and Conner. THUG LYFE FOREVA.

I convinced Kaley to get hipster tea. Booyah.

Tea twins!

And then we went to Big Bubba's Burgers. So totally romantic, am I right? Nothing like tons of meat and donuts and cookies for date night food. Awww yeah.

So much beef.

Chugged that Dr. P.

As the waitress said, Conner took off all the garden & added all the meat.

BEEF.

KALEY GIRL <3

Oh yeah, and I got engaged. No biggie.

How was your Valentine's Day, readers? Awesome? I sure hope so.

NYE 2012

Maybe I've mentioned this on the blog before and maybe I haven't (I'm thinking the latter), but for 4 years now we've had a huge birthday bash for Quinn/family reunion for Dad's side of family/NYE PARTAY. And guys, it is SO MUCH FUN. We have made so many great family memories and last year we introduced the NYE challenge. More about that later though. Something happened before the Challenge that must be noted.

The big huge amazing awesome totally cool thing that happened this year was Quinn turned ten, and was allowed to get her ears pierced...and I turned the fun age of 17 six months before and finally convinced my parents to let me get my second holes! We were both so excited, lemme tell ya. We got up super early on NYE to make it to Fuquay so us girls (all dressed in purple because if we wanted to go with Quinn, we had to wear purple) could all go. It was totally worth the 6AM wake up call...I'm ready for my third holes.

Last picture before her earrings!

One ear down, one to go!

All done!

And then it was my turn and honestly, the lady marking where to put earring was more painful than the thing they use to shoot the earring in.

Typical SA face. I was just so excited. 

Cousin love! 

Back to the house for the BYE Challenge. Basically, we all forget we're family and trash talk and whoop some behinds in some crazy challenges and the most awesome of them all: the scavenger hunt through FV. This year we had a books of the Bible challenge, foosball tournament, an insanely long Wheel of Fortune game on the Wii, pretzel stack and Catch Phrase since it was too dark for the scavenger hunt (SUPER SAD FACE). That was only a third of them, but those were the only ones I took pictures of since I was the most intense competitor ever. Sike. I just enjoyed being in the audience and losing at everything I played.

Gran Jan gave my team their only win...yeah Gran Jan!

Things got stressful & intense at the end.

In the end, Aunt Ann Marie, Clark, and Uncle Terry won with GTM (Garrison, Uncle Tyler, and Mom) and Locked 'n' Loaded (Brock, Aunt Michelle, and Dad) tying for second. Girl Power, which was Quinn, Gran Jan, and I came in last but we probably had the most fun just playing.

Such a beautiful board.

After the victors celebrated with awesome fleece blankets, we remembered we were family and decided to love on the birthday girl. See?

Two of my favorite ladies ever.

COOKIE CAKE TIME!

We killed time until midnight by playing Telestrations and the annual game of Bunco. Basically, we tried not to fall asleep so we were really loud and made up silly drawings like a crack pipe and yelled FUNCO! all.the.time to confuse people. I love my family. 

By the time we finished all the games, it was almost midnight so we turned the TV on to watch the ball drop. We (barely) made it, but we survived to give NYE kisses (OK, just the parents) and then went our separate ways to sleep until 10AM, in my case. We left not much after I woke up with faces that hurt from laughing so hard and a heart full of great memories that'll have to compete with next years memories we're already looking forward to.

How was your NYE, readers?