A little bit of everything!

So if you have a few hours and would like to read this whole blog post - yay!! But if not, I understand!! Last week was super busy for us and I want to post everything that happened and I'm too lazy to make it 4 different posts, so here you go - a novel!

First of all, last Tuesday was a surprise retirement get-together for my high school color guard instructor. She had been the instructor for 26 years!!! It started when her daughter, Jennie was a freshman in high school and they needed a majorette instructor. Joyce was a private majorette teacher so they asked her, and she figured she'd do it for 4 years, while Jennie was in high school, and then move on. But those 4 years came and went and then they asked her to not only be the majorette instructor, but the flag corp instructor too! In her words she said 'why not?' Ha ha! How was she to know it would last 26 years??? So Tuesday was the high school band banquet and we got as many of Joyce's alumni together as we could find - which unfortunately wasn't near as many as we should have been able to get - and surprised her by showing up and had a slide show of old pictures for her and stuff. It was fun to see everyone again and send Joyce out in style. Here are a couple pics from the night:

This is Lisa, Joyce, and Jennie. Lisa and Jennie were in Joyce's first majorette line 26 years ago.

This is Joyce with the group of alumni we were able to get together - we had about 20 all together, but not all of them stuck around long enough for pictures. She was happy there were 20 there, but in my opion we should have had more! She was instructor to - I would bet - at least 500 girls - if not more!

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Next is Thursday. Cami, a friend of mine from my freshman year at BYU - she was on the same floor of my dorm with me - came to Ohio to visit! It's actually kind of funny, I think. I grew up within 20 miles from her husband here in Ohio, but I never knew him. She is from Texas and went to Utah for BYU. Then, after she served a mission to California, she moved back home in Texas for a while. Meanwhile, her husband, Martin also went to Texas for work - and that's where they met! Also, Martin's mother worked at Keytel with Kris for a while before he bought into the company. When we made all these connections with Cami, it made me want to sing 'it's a small world after all'! I mean - you've heard of the 6 degrees of separation? Well we know each other through 3 of those degrees! Odd, huh? And another tid bit fact - we share a birthday! I know, lame, but it's something that I always remember every year on my birthday 'o - it's Cami's birthday too!'

So, yes, she came to Ohio to visit. Unfortunately, they had to come to Ohio because Martin's father passed away unexpectedly - which is very sad - but I was very happy that they took time to come have dinner and visit with us! Here are some pics from the visit:

This is Sydney (Cami and Martin's baby girl - she is almost 1!) and Savanna - friends already!

This is Savanna, me, Cami, and Sydney.

It was soooo great to see you again Cami! I am so happy things are working out so well for you and Martin. :)

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On Friday we went to the drive-ins with Amy's family - so fun! I didn't even know that drive-ins still existed! There is a really nice one still in Lancaster - and it's super busy! They played 'night at the museum 2' and 'star trek'. Both were awesome movies! I don't have any pictures cause I forgot my camera - boo! But both kids were extremely cooperative for being out till 2 in the morning! Savanna took a bottle at the beginning of the first movie, then I put her in her car seat and she fell asleep and I didn't hear from her again till we got home. Joey was great cause I took our portable DVD player and he sat in the car eating snacks and watching a Tom and Jerry DVD. LOL - he loved it! Then he finally fell asleep at about 12:30. Can't wait to do it again soon - so fun!

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Then Saturday we went to Portsmouth for the Slack family reunion. This is the first reunion since my grandfather passed away. My dad and sister took my grandmother and they went the reunion and to visit the graves of her family and decorate them for Memorial day. We were planning on going down for the reunion, spending some time at the Ohio river, going to dinner, then driving back that night. But Kris decided on a whim to check at the Ramada to see if any rooms were availabe and yay! There was! We got a super nice room and the hotel had an indoor pool and spa and stuff and a Damon's right down stairs. It was a nice little family vacation! Unfortunately I hadn't packed for the kids over night - or for swimming - so we made a quick trip to wal-mart and got cheap swimming stuff for all of us and the necessities we would need for the night. It ended up being an expensive weekend between Kris' speeding ticket (cops were out in force....), the hotel, the extra stuff we had to buy, dinner, and stuff, but it was soooo worth it to have a weekend away with the family and to spend some extra time with my extended family!

Here is my grandmother, my dad, and my sister, Amanda

Joey and kris enjoying the reunion

A shot of some of the people at the reunion - unfortunately it was MUCH smaller this year than it has been in years past. There were quite a few deaths in the family this year and alot of people didn't want to come with the losses.... But it was still a decent turn out.

4 generations! Me, Savanna, Grandma, and my Dad. It is this grandma whose maiden name is Austin, where Savanna got her middle name.

Our hotel room - I was so excited! The couch was a fold-out bed, too, so with that and the pack-and-play, Kris and I didn't have to share the bed with kids. Savanna is playing witht he groceries... and Kris is sleeping - keep in mind this was only 10 mins after walking in and Kris passed out! LOL!

My cuties

Such a happy baby!!

Savanna promptly found the mirror on the bathroom door and that was where she was whenever we were in the room - she had a BLAST playing with the 'baby in the mirror!'

And here is a short video I got of Joey and Savanna playing - it is soooo cute! Savanna was CRACKING UP at Joey's antics. I haven't found anything to make Savanna laugh the way Joey does - she sure does love her big brother!! Unfortunately, my camera died :( So I only got a 12 second video, but it's still cute! Enjoy!