Three Day Hord Get Away

We were at Mom and Dad's for three whole days and nights...which is as long as it gets these days.  Plenty of time for hanging out and relaxing.  We put in some serious time on the swings.  I love some good swingin' pictures.  

Papa gives the best under ducks.  Made me a little nervous at first, but by the end of the three days Grant was definitely a professional tree swinger.  Apparently he's a pretty good tree waterer, too.  Gotta love that.  

Playing some tic-tac-toe with Grandma.  Grant didn't last long.  

Landon was in for a game or two though.  

Pretty proud of his move...

...but Grandma got him.  

And now for some pictures of the Mystery Machine.  Yes, yes.  That's the Mystery Machine, sitting in my parents' front yard.  I had received a few facebook and text messages from friends back home wondering about our personal relationship with Scooby and Shaggy.  Long story short, Dad bought the van (with plans to paint the van) after we told him buying the van would be insane.  He didn't paint the van because a myriad of absolute strangers approached him about how 'awesome' the van was.  The van blew the motor (or transmission, or something important...I don't remember WHAT exactly)  The van sat out front in our yard where it caused dozens of near accidents from people gawking, stopping on the road, pulling in the drive to take pictures, coming TO. THE. DOOR. and asking my Mom TO TAKE their picture.  I thought the van may be the end of my parents' marriage.  But as luck would have it, shortly after this photo shoot, some poor soul from Georgia bought the stinkin' thing...drove to mom and dad's (from Georgia), put it on a trailer and left.  Mom was so excited she texted me a picture of it leaving the drive way.

but seriously...how bout that sweet teal shag?

Rot row, Randon is driving!

70s poses, jumping outta the van

Good luck crazy man in Georgia.  Have fun with your cool van!
On to water balloons!

Look at my little pitcher's form.  ;)  

Grandma brought home Homewood Soft Serve!

Givin' Zelda some love.  We've all been sad since we lost Oliver earlier in the month.  Poor old man just was slipping and having lots of health problems.  Poor Mom and Dad had to make the call to put him down.  We told Landon right before we went home, thinking he'd want to think about it and might have some questions.  Right after we told him he said, 'that makes me sad.'  And we said, 'yeah, buddy.  makes us sad, too.  But Oliver had a good life and now he's in dog heaven.  Do you have any questions?'  And Landon says: "Yeah.  I got a question.  What if my other kidney gets sick.  Am I gonna die like Oliver?"  (insert punch to the stomach here)  We quickly recovered and answered, no of course not, that his other kidney wouldn't get sick.  That wasn't a good enough answer though, because "yeah but what if it does?"  was said two more times and then finally I said doctors could give him medicine to make his kidney better or they could get him a new kidney (just like Tim, my friend Courtney's husband who Landon has met)  Landon says, "Well I'd wish they'd just give me a new one now.  Then I wouldn't have to worry about it and I could play whatever sports I wanted."  Oh.  Boy.  I feel some tough questions comin' on from this kiddo in the near future.  We knew that'd be coming.

Zelda, always tolerant, of love from the boys...and their tents built around her

Pancakes on the patio...but eat em fast.  The mosquitos out there were as big as birds.

Spent some time at the farm!

Grandpa had been spraying...

While they filled up at the pond, Grandpa took them to look at the wheat in the grain bins.  

...and then we got a REAL Gator ride.

Grandpa took us all on one long enough that we had Gator hair dos.  :)

Then Grandma Conni and Landon drove us down to the creek where we could throw rocks in

...good plops

...and a good nap too....even with dirty piggies.  

Watchin' movies...

...and bein' silly.

And then for a riveting game of Uno!

My big summer school project...using old blue jeans to make a new set of chair pockets.  I was so proud of myself for having this fantastic idea.  We had lots of old jeans, they'd make perfect chair pockets!  Nice and heavy!  Durable!  Washable!  Love it!  (yeah...easier said than done)  Zelda understood my pain.  :)