Meeting 37 People

Last Tuesday Shannon and I took Keagan on her first long trip. We drove through Wichita to Garden City. Driving time was about 7 hours. And she was good for all but 30 minutes of those 7 hours. She got hungry but we were close to my mom's so we just drove through.

So what did we do? Well, Tuesday we left around 3:00 and ate dinner with Mom, Jayme, Maria, Charles, and Nikki at Hanger One Steakhouse. It wasn't bad. The knives to cut the steak sucked a lot, though. After dinner, we headed to Garden City. We got there around 2:00 am and met Gary, Michelle, Jenette, Chris, and Cassidy at IHOP. That is significant because Michelle got back from England the day before. We hadn't seen her in about 6 months. And it was the first time we got to meet Cassidy! She is a cutie! (Number of people met: 4)


Wednesday we went to a funeral reception for one of Rhonda's friend's father. We knew him also from church and hockey. It was nice to see people we havn't seen in a long time (and some I've never met before). (Number of people met: 5 + 4 = 9)


We did a lot of hanging out. We had food, watched World Cup soccer, did some shopping at Sam's Club, played games, went on a walk to a garage sale, and other such things. My mom worked in Dodge City last week, but had a hotel in Garden City. So, she spent the evening hanging out with us too. :)


Friday, Grandma and Grandpa in Lakewood came down! They brought with Randy, Jonathan, and Major (Randy's beagle). That was awesome! So they ate dinner with us and and hung out on Friday too. (Number of people met: 4 + 9 = 13)


Then Saturday was the main event, Grandma Fuller's 91st birthday party. We went to her house around noon and were there till around 11:00pm.


There were a lot of people there! I'm not going to try listing them all, but Rhonda and all her kids and their families were there (1+1+3+3 = 8 people), Marsha and all of her kids and their families were there (2 + 6 + 3 + 10 = 21 people), Grandma Fuller, my Mom, some of the Dick family (3 + 1 + 1 = 5 people), and a bunch of Grandma's friends that I don't know! So, there were about 40-50 people? (Number of people met: 21 + random + 13 = 37)


We had lots of food and cake. More games were played. And I got to meet Mason! He is a cutie.


We put together the pirate kite that we got from Newgen a while ago and tried to fly that. The kite is sweet, but the wind was not good enough for us to fly it very well. Shannon got it up a few times, but it wouldn't stay up long.


We had a party of people go out to fly it and had some come out to Grandma's driveway to watch also.


Then Sunday (yesterday) we did our last day of hanging out. It was Father's Day and we had two first time dad's with us, Shannon and Chris, and 3 other father's too (Grandpa Dick, Gary, and Kevin). So we ate at Lone Star and they did a great job this time. Which means it will likely suck next time, that's how they roll. But it was really nice to eat a meal with everyone (there were 15 of us there).


I'm so glad that I am a part of two great families and that these two families basically act like one big family. I am very lucky to have been close to my mom's family growing up. It stinks that we are so far apart now, but I always feel loved by them and going back to see them never feels like I'm a foreigner. And now, I have Shannon's family to be a part of (and have for the last 9ish years). They are all great people, too!

I'm glad Keagan gets to have so many great family members!

Grandparents

My blog (and just about all of my time) has revolved around Keagan for the last three weeks. Which I guess is to be expected since that's about when she was born.

She has now met all her grandparents (not great grandparents). My mom was here for her birth and her first 5 days. Most of what we did during that time was just take care of me and Keagan. A lot of cooking, cleaning, sleeping, and talking. No real adventures (outside of learning to breastfeed, but that wasn't a fun adventure). Well, I guess we grilled some fruit and waffles again. Delicious!


Then Shannon's mom and Dave came up. They helped out a bunch and were here for almost a week. Dave even mowed our lawn for us while he was here. :) But that trip also consisted of mostly just cooking, cleaning, eating, and taking care of Keagan (I didn't really need too much care by then).


I tried to find a picture of Keagan with Rhonda and/or Dave, but I don't have one! We'll have to fix that this coming week.

Then we had some time to ourselves before Shannon's dad came up. He got here last Saturday and left yesterday. We did some shopping, tried to go to a baseball game (but it got canceled), and still did the eating/cooking thing.


Now, she will start to meet her aunts and uncles! Today Jayme, Maria, Charles, and Nikki are coming. :) Then next week she will get to meet Jenette, Michelle, Chris, and a bunch of other people!

I gots one!

I enjoy sewing. I've made quite a few things for myself and for others over the years. One of the main drawbacks is having to try things on. For me, its just a pain. I make a change, then have to put the piece on. Then take it off, make a change, and so on and so on.

For others, its even more of a pain because they aren't me, they don't live in my house, let alone my town most of the time, and they aren't always there at the times I want them to try things on.

Solution: Dress form. However they aren't free. Unless you get one for Christmas!


Rhonda gave it to me for Christmas! It's purple even! The dress form used to be Grandma Fullers and Rhonda's sister Marsha had it and I guess wasn't using it. Well, they are letting me use it! Sweet!

So now when I make Rhonda's dress I can use the dress form to help! Sweet!