Surprise! (Part 2)

I don't know if other bloggers have this trouble, but I can't always seem to be able to get my pictures to do what I want them to on this dumb thing.  So anyway, here we go with Part 2.

Day 1 was spent at the Naval Air Museum and Fort Barrancas.  The kids could play on all kinds of airplanes at the museum while the guys drooled over planes.  The Fort was basically just a place for the kids to run, and run, and run, and run some more but ended up being kind cool for the adults too.

Canon at Fort Barrancas

Day 2 was Surprise Day.  As I said in the previous post, we surprised Mary Kay at the airport and then went out for lunch.  After that, we just hung out in the backyard at Brian's.

Day 3 we all had to be up, ready to go, and out of the house by 7:45 to go and see the Navy Blue Angels practice.  It was really, really cool and Adam took like 500 pictures (he seriously took 500 pictures).  Here's just a couple.

The afternoon of Day 3 we took Brian's boat out on the ocean.  He had the perfect little mini island that we could call our own for the day.  The water was about 2 feet deep so it was kind of warm and the kids could run and play without striking panic in their parents hearts.  Day 4 was spent as a beach day as well.  We loved our little island so much from Day 3, that we all requested to go back.  There was island hikes, exploring, shell collecting, and bird attacks.  All of the pictures from beach days reside on Mary Kay's camera.  Maybe that was on purpose.....  But, I happen to have a few pictures that I took with my phone.

Day 5, the Chicago Rash's and Ames Rash's began their journeys home.  Selwyn and Mary Kay got to spend a couple QUIET, relaxing days with their middle son.  We had a wonderful time and it was for a wonderful lady that we all got together.  Happy 60th Mary Kay....we love you!!

Surprise! (Part 1)

 2 weeks ago we took a wonderful surprise trip to Pensacola, Florida.  No, this trip was not a surprise to us, but rather to Adam's mom.  Mary Kay turns 60 this year (on Mother's Day to be exact).  All of us kids wanted to do something special for her.  So, Selwyn got her talked into a trip to Pensacola to visit Brian for a few days.   I don't think she needed much convincing to go.  The hard part was for all of us to keep quiet, because the whole gang was going to be there.  The Chicago Rash's and Ames Rash's arrived a few days ahead of Selwyn and Mary Kay.  When "surprise day" arrived we loaded everyone up, picked up balloons for the kiddos, and headed off to the airport.  It took Mary Kay FOREVER to notice us, but when she did, she was clearly surprised.

Ready and waiting

She spies us!

The kiddos yelling "Happy Birthday!"  

After the airport we went out for a nice lunch at an irish pub.  The rest of the week, well...just look at the pictures below.  You'll be able to tell that we had a wonderful time!

They had movie time every night after bath.

Day 1: Naval Air Museum

After this simulator ride, they were a little woosie!

Stephen, Steffani, Connor, and Kayla 

Adam, Mindy, Ethan, Aidan

House Updates

Ok, ok....so we haven't posted since Christmas.  We have been getting a lot of crap about this.  But, to our defense, we've been DEEP in house projects around here.  And then, it's like summer happened the middle of March and we've been in full swing outside.  Thought we'd share with you some pics of what's been happening around here.  I know some of you have lived through entire house remodels...and I don't know how you did it.  We put in new flooring on the entire 1st and 2nd floor of the house.  We almost feel like professional furniture movers and have decided against that as an occupation. We did have 2 little construction helpers for part of the process.  As cute as they are, they cause more work then they help.  So, we enlisted the wonderful services of Nana, Papa, and Grammy!  Thanks so much for keeping our little helpers!

In the midst of getting ready for baths, they decided they wanted to help pull up carpet.  I told them they couldn't help because they didn't have shoes on.  Seconds later, they showed up, ready to work!

Silly faces

Scary faces

Crazy faces

Front room- carpet ripped out

Front room-getting ready for underlayment

No one sitting in this living room!!

Stairs

This would be all of the furniture from our room and the boys' room....crammed into one small space!

Boys' room...getting ready to stain some closet doors.

Master

Master

 

 

 

 

 

 

Front room with new floors.

Kitchen too.

New carpet in the living room,

on the stairs,

in the spare bedroom (looks like you're sleeping on the floor if you stay over)

At the last minute, the laundry room got new flooring too!

Boys got new carpet

We're up for suggestions on what to do with the "master nook" area.

New carpet-master

 Thanks so much to all of our friends that helped out with the project.  Mark Bockenstedt, Mark Lewis, Rob Thomas, Brent Francois, and Travis Jostand.  Without all of you we wouldn't have been able to pull all of this off. 

And for our next project.....