Iowa Trip

Over Memorial Day weekend in May this year, Jon & I traveled to Iowa, for perhaps the last visit to the Ferguson Farm. Above are most of the family and "school" pictures we took while we were there. It was a short weekend, as Jon & I arrived late Saturday morning after driving all night with only stopping to rest for 3 hours. We then left first thing Monday morning to drive home. I am so glad that even though it was a short trip, we were able to make it out and to see family.

Happy Birthday Kelly!

We celebrated our friend Kelly's birthday with her and her boyfriend, Dan at Dave & Busters in Pittsburgh on May 19th. Dan had moved out towards Philly at the end of April, and decided to drive down to see Kelly for her birthday as a surprise. He picked me up on his way through, and Jon met me at Dave & Busters after he got off of work. Dan made it to Kelly's house (just down the road from Dave & Busters) just before she arrived home from work. She was really surprised. The second part of the surprise was that we were waiting for them at Dave & Busters to eat and play games. We had a lot of fun. I'm so glad Dan invited to us to help celebrate, we really enjoyed it!

Interesting Way to Remove a Stump...

So one evening Jon decided he was tired of the stump in the front yard and had an idea how to go about removing it. He found some network cable in the shed and looped it around the stump base and up through the tow hook on the back of the Pilot. Then zip tied it to prevent snapping of the cable and it flying out to hit something. He moved to the drivers seat and put the truck in drive. It worked some...

...but it didnt work enough. The cable was stretching and starting to break, so we had to double up the cable and make it shorter to give it extra strenth.

And as you can see... it worked! No more ugly stump in the front yard! haha

Spring at McConnells Mill

This is a different part of the park nearby us; McConnell's Mill than we have been to and posted pictures from before. I love how the water has made the neat cave and ridges in the rock. This was also one of the first days Samson got to play in the water. He really enjoyed it!

Funny Dog

Ok so I think this was the same night after Dan's party that I turned to find Jon on his laptop with the dog sitting beside him on the couch. As you can see, Samson was quite comfy there on the couch and is totally relaxed! I couldn't resisit taking this funny pic, my dog is so strange sometimes... :)

Happy Birthday Dan!

Easter weekend in April Dan & Kelly came over to celebrate Dan's 30th Birthday early. Dan moved out towards Philly two weeks later, so we knew we wouldnt be able to celebrate his birthday with him on his actual birthday, May 8th. Kelly used my kitchen to cook Dan's favorite meal after we went grocery shopping. We had spinach dip with pumpernickle bread (my contribution :) chilli, cornbread, hot dogs and for dessert... strawberry cheesecake. We had Dan and Jon pose with Dan's birthday balloons we got for him that day too! It was a fun night!

April 2009- Family Visit

We stopped and ate at Quaker Steak & Lube for lunch in Erie on our way to the falls.

What looks like jagged rocks at the base of the falls is really still snow and ice.

Caleb & Ethan

Last week we had Jon's sister Amy, her husband Lance, & their boys Ethan (4) and Caleb (11mo) from Arkansas, staying at our house. They got in Wednesday evening and Thursday we decided to drive the three and a half hours north to Niagara Falls, NY. We did cross the border there to see the Canadian side and stayed until after dark when they light up the falls. It was a fun trip and beautiful sight. We drove home late that night and Friday we spent around the house and at Moraine Park & McConnell's Mill. They left Saturday late morning to head towards home. It was really a lot of fun to have them here. We look forward to seeing them again and spending time with more of Jon's family in June when we travel to Arkansas for a visit.