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!

Girl night

The Kalebaugh girls recently invited us over for a girls' night. Since January, we've been trying to set a date, but each time we tried, something happened and it didn't work out.

We ate supper, talked and laughed, played the Wii, watched a movie, and had dessert. Crystal made these gooey homemade chocolate, peanut butter, granola bars! Wow, were they good!! We were going to eat them with forks, but Melody requested chopsticks instead.

Silly poses!

As you can see, we didn't just use them to eat with.

I think we were getting a little silly. At one point we were laughing so hard our stomachs and cheeks hurt!

What do you do when you have a tripod for your camera? Keep posing!

It was a fun evening spent making memories with special friends!!!!