Memorial Day

On Memorial Day, we had the Moellers over for a visit.
Jason, you need to work on that smile. Have Bryan show you how.

Much better!The guys stood around and "talked truck" a good portion of the day (a couple hours at least!). They inspected Bryan's new truck and then made the trip over to the storage area to see the new gadgets Jason had put on his big black one. Amber and I joined them for a short while, but we soon (5 minutes later) left them on their own.

Jason had mentioned one time that he would like to own a wheel-loader some day, so Bryan brought him a present.

Getting lunch ready...

Dad and Mr. Moeller took care of the grilling. The grill ran out of propane, and they had to go get some more. It just wouldn't have been right to cook the meat inside!

You can't have a party without food!

For only eight of us, we had quite the spread!

It was all delicious!

After lunch, we moved outside to play some bean bags.

Amber and I were just spectators for the first couple of games.

It was a bit chilly that day. Someone needed a blanket!

Mel joined Amber under the blanket, and Jason and I took on the dads.

They beat us 2 games to 1, but the game we did win, we won by a lot! ;-)

We had a lovely day spending time with special friends!

Volleyball

Last Friday, we had an invite for an afternoon of ladies volleyball.

We had lots of yummy snacks!

Dawn had a pretty good over-hand serve! I was impressed, since I'm just lucky to get it over the net on each serve.

My mom and sister weren't able to make it, so I had to swipe these next three pictures from Dawn's blog to prove I was there. All the other times I was behind the camera. ;-)

Beth and I both going for the ball.

After playing volleyball, some of us went to see the new little baby!

Quite cute!

It was a fun afternoon!

Girls' day

Last week we were supposed to go to Six Flags Great America with Sandy and Sarah W, but it rained. Since we couldn't ride roller coasters, can you guess what we did instead? We went shopping at Gurnee Mills mall.

One of the first stores we saw was a bead store. Someone was quite happy!

We thought this sign should have said, "Caution. Keep all rocks away from Melody."

She could have spent all morning in there! We had to pull her away!

What do you think, are they "Us"?

These mannequins were really strange. Melody and Sarah were going to pose like them, but then someone came along...We had supper at the food court, and Sarah was still going after we were all done!

Actually, we gave her all our leftovers to make it look like she was eating a lot. ;-)

Don't Sandy and I get anything to eat?

I guess garbage was all Melody got...

We were getting pretty strange at dinner, but those pictures will not be posted!
After shopping, we went to the opposite side of the mall to play some mini-golf.
It was lit by blacklights only, and all the objects were neon.

Sarah's shirt looked cool in the black light.

I don't know who had the idea for Sarah to kiss the fish, but she did.

Surfing...

Once we got back to the house, Robbie and the girls showed us how to play one of their Wii games.Sandy's dog, Sadie, looked so cute in her bunny hat.She also had a cowboy hat and rider!More treats! Notice Sadie is giving Melody the puppy dog face. She was very good, but she sure let you know she wanted dessert too!

We had a great time together, and since Six Flags didn't work out, we have an excuse to go up again sometime!

Kickball

Friends from Rockford recently invited our family and 3 couples from their church up to their house for a potluck meal and game of kickball.

Christen was in charge of the kitchen since her mom had injured her knee the night before playing (of all things!) kickball.

Jason and Andrew

Visiting while we waited for everyone to arrive.

We all felt really bad for Mrs. Stacy. She is quite the kickball player, but she had to be side-lined for the big game.

Aww...holding hands!

Time to eat!

Are you going to play with Scooby Doo ball, Mel?

We had some serious players; they all stretched and warmed up before we began!

Mom was one of the onlookers, and she did a good job taking pictures and cheering for everyone.

It was quite windy that afternoon.

Mel played 3rd base for a while.

Go get it, Nicole!

He made it home!

Dad

Sliding into second. I was safe!

Lydia was a good pitcher.

Catch it, Mel!

It looks like Jason has a ball for a head.

Running for home.

Jason, are you not getting any action out there?

Actually he was waiting for the foul ball to be retrieved, so he really wasn't slacking. ;-)

The whole group. As you can tell from the grass-stained jeans, some of us played harder than others. ;-)

Andrew must not have been tired because as soon as we got back to the house, he wanted to play "Elimination". Not many took him up on that. Only the younger ones! The rest of us were too tired and sore!

I don't know how they had the energy for it!

Now that's more like it--time for dessert!

It was a fun day!