Father's Day Weekend!

As usual, I'm about a week behind in posting...

We had a great Father's Day weekend up in Ashburn! We were too pooped to drive up Friday night, so we piled in the car Saturday morning and after a quick run through the drive-thru at McDonald's for breakfast we were on our way!

We made it just in time to say Hello to George's family and then get back in the car to drive to Bryce's 5th Birthday party at the local Bounce House. We had an awesome time! Good pick, Bryce!

Lance couldn't get enough of the slides.

Jude had a great time going down with mom...

...and dad!

Jude doing the obstacle course with George. Jude could do almost all of it by himself!

Even Grandmom got into the action and went down the slide with Bryce.

Bryce and Lance

Jude loved bouncing in the ball pit with George, Nate, and Allen.

The adults watching.

The party guests!

Happy Birthday, Bryce!

Lance and Callie. Lance has told just about everyone that he's going to marry Callie when he's all grown up. :)

Der, Allen, Nate, and George.

George is trying to eat the whole piece of cake in one bite.

Success!

We ran errands and went out to eat with George's family that night to celebrate Father's Day. We had a great time! After dinner, we drove Lance to Scott's house so he could spend Father's Day with his dad. Lance got his dad two movie tickets that they are planning to use to see Transformers 3 together.

That night, I spent some time with my family and worked on a Father's Day project. Stephen came home from college that night as well, so it was nice to chat and catch up.

The next day we went to Sacrament meeting and then drove to Jen and Eric's house for a BBQ.

The only photo I have from the BBQ. Mom, Dad, Eric, and Allen.

We gave George's Dad this shirt for Father's Day. All the grand kids put their handsprints on it. I think it turned out really neat! We made one for George, Glenn, and Scott as well, but the only other one that turned out well was Scott's. Lance gave him his shirt when Scott brought him home. I'm still working on the others... the paint didn't show up very well. Hopefully they'll be done soon and we can officially give them to the dads.

After the BBQ, we drove to my mom's house to have dinner with her and Glenn. Amy drove in from her house and had a good time showing off the costume she made for a convention she attended this past weekend.

It's a character from her book--some kind of tiger/lion/feline--and she made every single part of it. The mask's jaw even moves when she talks. It is amazing! She is so creative. She made a dragon costume from Halloween last year and if you check out her blog from October 2010 you can see how she did it.

Jude liked petting her nose and I don't think he ever really figured out it was Aunt Amy behind the mask. He thought it was fun to run around wearing her paws. 

To celebrate his second official Father's Day, Glenn got a Boston Creme Pie Cheesecake. It was really good!

Jude sure liked it. :)

Lance came home that evening and got to spend a few minutes with the family before it was time to drive back to Charlottesville.

Poor George didn't really get to celebrate a personal Father's Day because of all the celebrations with our families, but the boys did make him a shirt of his own with their hand prints and I got him an iPod shuffle. (I accidentally washed his shuffle a couple years ago while doing laundry and of course it was in the load I ran through the wash twice.) He's been wanting one ever since, so I figured it would be a good Father's Day present.

We had a great weekend, but it was nice to drive back to our home in Charlottesville and spend some time being a family and enjoying our DaddyG. :)

Baby John's Birthday!

Last Friday, the boys and I with our neighbor Melissa drove down to Salem, VA to celebrate John Jones' 1st Birthday! Our good friend Emily invited us down for the party and we couldn't pass up the chance to see her and her cute kids. She and her husband John lived here in Charlottesville while John completed his first year of Med School at UVa. John was in George's class and we got to see them often. John died November 2009 in a tragic caving accident in Utah, leaving Emily with their 1 year old daughter Lizzie and about 3 months pregnant with their son, John. It's been a rough road for her as she moved away from Charlottesville and is making a life for herself and her kids closer to her family in Salem. She's going to school there and just moved into her own place!

It was great to see her and to see her beautiful house. She is renting out the main level of a large house and has done amazing things with it! I love Emily... she is so creative and happy and fun.

We got there about 2 hours before everyone else and I'm so glad we did! It was great to catch up and just relax a little bit before her attention was taken by everyone else that loves her.

Lance and Lizzie trying to set up the croquet set. 

Lizzie 

Emily and John, the Birthday boy! 

John wanted a piece of the action, too. 

Lance and Lizzie liked to hang out together. It was cute.

Jude escaped into some bushes in Emily's yard. I found him lying in the vines just relaxing. Crazy kid! 

Visiting with Melissa. 

Putting the final touches on the Birthday cake. It was super cute! 

Jude was not pleased I wasn't showing him the pictures. 

Emily set up a little pool and some sprinklers in her back yard for the kids and the boys had a good time getting wet. 

I think Jude is getting braver about the water and ventured into the sprinklers all by himself! 

More friends arrived! All right! 

Our friends the Vedomskes came all the way from Charlottesville, too! 

The pool got a little crowded with all the kids that came, but everyone had a great time. 

The Vedomske family. They live a few apartment buildings away from us in our complex and we love having them as neighbors!

 Lance has never been a big soda drinker, but he downed quite a bit of that key lime soda before he left it for some fruit punch.

John and his grandpa having some fun together. 

Greeting the guests. (Melissa on the left, Emily with John, and her neighbor is on the right) 

BBQ! 

And of course while everyone else was eating, my boys were loving having the pool all to themselves. 

Baby John helping with the burgers. 

The cake. Isn't it cute? 

Singing to John. He was pretty excited. 

Not too sure what to do with the cake, though. 

I love these two pictures. Both licking their fingers... 

...and chowing down. Stinkers! 

Jude. He was pretty tired by the end, can you tell?

Melissa, the boys and I had to leave a bit early to get back to Charlottesville. The plan was to pick up George and go to Ashburn that night to spend Father's Day weekend with our families, but when we finally got home we were all just too tired and decided to leave in the morning.

It was wonderful seeing my good friend Emily and her cute little family. She constantly amazes me with her strength and courage and is such an inspiration. I am lucky to count her as a friend!

S'mores

A little bit ago, we decided to do s'mores in the "backyard". We invited our neighbor kids over and a good time was had by all.

Jabrien (on the left) was moving on Friday, so we wanted to include him as well. He is one of Lance's best friends and, before he moved, a constant addition to our home and chaos.

Jude wanted to be part of the action so bad.

S'mores. They're serious business!

The kids were not convinced the glowing coals were hot enough to roast the marshmallows and kept telling us we needed to add more wood to make the fire bigger.

Jude found ways to entertain himself while the big kids roasted the marshmallows.

Roast that mallow, Jude!

Lance thought roasting individual marshmallows was a waste of time and came up with his own solution:

It was a sticky clean-up (I'm not sure why we decided to do this AFTER the baths), but totally worth it!