Blue

Devin has recently introduced me to sushi.. all I can say is YUM. 

However, what is pictured here is not quite the real stuff, but it is surely delicious as well.

We're just proud that we were successful enough to get my Okie, mother, grandmother, and brothers to try it. :) We're so proud! 

SICK.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week I was incredibly sick, and Devin was incredibly sick in Nashville as well.  Neither of us really know what was wrong with us, but for some reason, we're both feeling much better now. 

Thank goodness. 

Tuesday I went into work, however, I was feeling pretty awful. Here is a picture of the kleenex I put over my face to prevent my spreading of germs around to my co-workers.

At that point, I was still feeling well enough to be silly - obviously.

The next day, I had to leave work early, and then had to call in sick Thursday. However little energy Zoey got out while I was sick, she was still the best dog in the world. She snuggled with me, gave me kisses, held her bladder, and was very well mannered for having not got any of her walks or playtime in. I couldn't have a better dog, I'm sure of it. 

While I was sick here in Omaha, Devin was quite sick in Nashville. He had very different symptoms than I did, so we're not sure that we had the same thing, but were both pretty miserable. Probably Devin more than I, as he was not able to take a sick day or relax in his own bed at the end of the day. 

Devin was having vision problems and very sharp pains in his stomach. He was on his way to urgent care because he was in so much pain, but then threw up and started to feel better. I'm not even sure what those symptoms could be, but he assured me that he is feeling much better, so I'm very glad. 

Zoey and I are just so excited to have him home so we can take care of and baby him! :) 

Enjoying the Weather

However much Zoey and I have been missing Devin, we did not let that stop us from having a good time outside in the beautiful weather on Monday. 

That was before I got sick, and before Zoey came to know the most boring week of her life. Poor thing. She looks pretty  happy here though, right? :) 

We Miss Devin

Devin has been in Nashville, Tennessee all week on an audit. Zoey and I have been alone 4 nights all alone, and we sure miss that guy. This was the picture that we sent him on Monday night. Zoey was definitely okay with taking the photo, as she was definitely missing her dad. He's better at scratching her belly than her mom is. 

Good thing Devin comes back home tonight!

WE LOVE YOU DEVIN! 

Surprise! I got bangs!

I needed a haircut very badly - and wanted something different. 

This is what I came up with. I'm still figuring out how to style them, but I'm learning, and I love them (I think). :) Just thought I'd share with those who don't see me often :) 

 
 

Henry Doorly Zoo

I apologize for the lack of posts, but I'll update you on what's been happening in Omaha for the past 2-3 months. 

While Derek was in town back in July, we took a trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. This has been rated as the "best zoo in the world" for many years. Which is interesting, but Devin is sure that the zoo in San Diego or in Perth, Australia are definitely better. However, I have never been to either, so I'll continue to believe that this is the best :) 

Here are a couple photos of my favorite guys posing for me while we were there. 

There are peacocks that roam around this zoo freely, they're really very beautiful, and Derek thought he needed to feed one. It was disgusting. You could see the lump of french fry go down it's throat when it swallowed. But it was still pretty cool :) The last time we were at the zoo, with Eric and Barbara, the peacocks had had their babies, it was adorable!!

I told them to smile -- This is what I got. 

Now I got a model-like pose from Derek and a normal smile from Devin. They're both pretty dang cute. I love these fellas :) 

Weekend Trip to Kansas City

Devin and I took a road trip to Kansas City Friday night so we could pick my baby brother, Derek, up from EFY at Kansas University. Last night we picked a hole in the wall restaurant that was supposed to be the best food in Lawrence, KS (which turned out to be a bar) and we had some absolutely delicious burgers and sweet potato fries. 

Saturday morning I picked Derek up from the University and we decided to go see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes --- great movie! Then we went shopping, and to a Kansas City Royals game! 

We're a baseball loving family. It was especially exciting because this is one of the few stadiums that Devin has never been to! So of course we had to buy him a souvineer bat to add to his collection! 

We left the field at 9 PM and now we're on the road back to Omaha. It's a 3-1/2 hour drive!  Hopefully we make it back! (Just kidding, Barbara, we'll make it safely with 3 licensed drivers in the car! So don't worry!) 

Here are some pictures from our trip -- 

We're always excited to see a Great Harvest Bakery, since the Despains are proud owners of one in Texas ... It looks like it's been there for a while! 

You know you're around a lot of Mormons when you see the combination of 1) giant, 10+ passenger vans, and 2) family decals with an incredible large amount of children on it. I took this when waiting for Derek in the parking lot at KU

Also, here's a good example of the type of people we've seen in KC in the past 24 hours .. Interesting/brave people. 

I love my hubsie 😍

I love my bubsie too. ☺️

It was a really pretty field and cool stadium. I appreciated the escalators that took us to our tiptop section inte stadium. Rather than "concrete switchbacks". 

I had a couple if handsome dates. We had a lot of fun! But I'm definitely glad to be out of the 97 degree weather! It was hootttt! 

Now, back to this late night drive we've got ahead of us! 

#CollegeHRDerby

Devin and I went to the College Homerun Derby at Ameritrade Park last night! I had my doubts that it would be good, and so did Devin .. We really just went for the fireworks. But it was blast!  We even got to root for an OU competitor! However, he lost, bad. 

I took this picture in the middle of Devin's smile, sooo, it's not the best picture in the world. Hah! Sorry Dev!

I was jealous of the cool kids who got to stand in the outfield and catch all of the flyballs. They looked like they were having fun! Hahaha. Actually, were in the shade, so I'd rather be where we were ;)

Next year, we plan on going to the derby again, but we plan on buying tickets muuuuch earlier and get tickets in the outfield so we can catch the home runs with our gloves! :) That would be a blast. Soooo, we had a blast!

This was how I felt when a guy from Texas University won. I don't like Texas. I'm a Sooner gal :)

This isn't my video, but here is the fireworks show that we had after the Derby! Obviously you don't need to watch the whole 20 minute long video, or even any of it .. but it was a pretty awesome show!

That was our fireworks show for our Independence day, we don't plan on going to any shows tonight. Instead, tonight Devin and I grilled some tasty burgers, corn on the cob, had a chopped salad, and made lots of yummy cookies for our celebration meal. We bought a little kiddie package of fireworks to play with, and we'll probably just watch our neighbor's fireworks from our backyard. 

Other than that, we're just going to take advantage of this long weekend, be thankful for the blessings we have, and relax together as a family before we have to go back to work on Monday. 

Happy Independence Day! 

Giving Blood

I signed up to give blood today.

 Here's about how it went - 

I have baby veins, she stuck me, it stopped pumping, she wiggled the needle a lot, it hurt, I got super hot and nauceus, and passed out. 

Weirdest feeling of my life.

 Coming back into conciousness, I felt my arms twitching and couldn't figure out what happening .. After waking up totally I asked what happened because I thought I had a seizure. The nurse said, "Well honey, you kinda passed out on us and started twitching all over the place" .. 

Scary. 

But I got a free Tshirt, and at least I tried. Right? 

NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN. 

Branson Vacation Home

We decided that for a family vacation, we would really enjoy to have a home that we all stayed in together, rather than rent 3-4 different hotel rooms, have very little room, have to eat with strangers, have to swim with strangers, etc. So about 4 months ago, I went searching for a vacation home for us to all stay in, and found this diamond! 

It was less than the cost for all three of our families to stay in separate hotel rooms, less in food costs because we were able to cook for ourselves, we could stay up as late as we wanted and play games in the common room, while the oldies were in bed, our puppies were allowed, and had all the room in the world to go play outside without it being an inconvenience and without it bugging others. 

We had our own hot tub, fire pit, and our own 57 acres of property, without strangers and all of that Branson noise and craziness! It was incredible, beautiful, and I will NEVER do a family vacation in hotel rooms ever again! 

We've even talked about booking this same house ahead of time for a vacation every summer!

We had plenty of seating for the 9 of us to all eat together at the same table (never happens!)

A beautiful view of the Ozark Mountains, where you could see the stars and watch the fireflies at night.

Spa-like bathrooms, with steaming hot water and jetted tubs. Mmmmm.. 

King sized beds! This is a big one for Devin and I on vacations, sleeping in a king bed for a week is a vacation in itself because we can sprawl out without kicking each other :) 

We had some pretty fierce air hockey and ping pong tournaments. I'll even go as far as to say that I'm a beast at air hockey. 

Oh! And we had a fire pit that we all gathered around one night and I made us all foil dinners! We have family that lives in Branson, so we invited them over, and roasted marshmallows and just enjoyed their company. It was truly the best. :) 

Lake Cruise Photos (Mom's)

Derek and I stole my mother's phone for a little while to overload her phone with gorgeous pictures of her gorgeous, favorite children. I'm the Number One Favorite, of course. But Derek is a close second ;) 

I wonder if mom noticed this, but I'm holding her beautiful, fancy, expensive iPhone 5 over the edge of this cruise ship, and I am very prone to dropping my phone … she's lucky she still has this picture ;) 

She didn't just luck out with adorable children, she got pretty lucky with an adorable son-in-law too!

Back to the photos that my mother actually took. My Granny and I, I love this woman! 

Oops! Back to some of our gorgeous selfies we gifted to our mother.

Seriously, where did this kid get his good looks? Oh wait, I know.. 

ME!

I tried to pull off another one of those "Mooommmm" photos, but Derek and Chance obviously weren't on the same page. They both look super freakin' handsome and I'm over there like "DUUURR.."

Pictures of our Fence

I found some more pictures that my Dad posted to his Facebook of our fence that we worked on about a month ago now. Enjoy!

Silver Dollar City

The Harts and Despains all met in Branson, Missouri to have a week long fun-filled vacation! We rented ourselves a huge house out in the boondocks, grilled out for dinner, stayed up late playing card games, and bought season passes to Silver Dollar City! 

Branson has a special place in my heart. I remember going with my family nearly every single summer, staying in hotels on the strip, going to fun shows, riding the roller coasters with my brothers, having absolutely delicious breakfast (my dad's a huge breakfast lover), and shopping in the many outlet malls. 

Not only is it a special place because of those vacations but because Devin and his family have been on a family vacation in Branson as well. It amazes me to think that it's a slim possibility that one of those consecutive summers where my family went to Branson, that my future husband and in-laws may have been there, or that we had gone to the same stores, restraints, or touched the same gate at a roller coaster in SDC. I'm silly, but it kinda gives me goosebumps :)

Devin and I arrived around 2 o'clock on Saturday, my grandparents were a couple hours behind us, and then my parents and brothers came the next day because Derek was just getting home from a church camp that same Saturday and they couldn't make it in one day. 

So on Sunday, my grandparents, Devin & I went to SDC and rode all the rides to test them out for Derek and Chance :) On Sunday, while we were eating lunch in the park, Mom called me and they were in the park looking for us, so I went on a family hunt, and found them. What's the first thing mom wants to do when she sees me? Well of course after a hug, she wants to take pictures of my brothers and me :) She must like us. But we decided to be funny and take our "Moooommmmm" picture of the day. Enjoy.

My brothers have a very special place in my heart. With both of my parents working far away from home growing up, I did a lot of the shuttling to their sports practices, and attempting to get dinner started for my mom and helping her around the house. I like to think I have a small glimpse of my mom's love for us, and an even smaller glimpse of Heavenly Father's love for us. I truly have the greatest brothers in the world. And the handsomest brothers in the world, that's for sure!

My Granny & Pops are cranky old stinkers, but it's nice to see that they actually like each other every now and then. We all like it when they get along and stop griping for 10 seconds. Hahah. They're pretty great grandparents, I couldn't ask for better ones. 

All the kids are here. From left to right, Derek, John (My Granny & Papa's Foster Child that they are thinking about adopting), Devin, Me, & Chance.

Here's another one of those "Welcome" pictures that is a bit out of place in the scheme of this post. Oh well. We're funny. :)