Too much yummy vacation food

Monical's
As usual on vacations, we went out to eat WAY TOO MUCH! We went to my favorite pizza place probably 5 times while were there. It was somewhat ridiculous, but I had to get my fill before I left for a long time again!

Above is me, Steve, and our niece Rachel.

This is our nephews Brayden, David, and my mom.

Brayden and David being silly...

Jacob hadn't had a nap that day, and of course, he fell asleep on the way to pizza. So we brought him in and let him zonk out in the booth next to us. Luckily, it wasn't really crowded, so we didn't have to move him.

Did I mention that Steve and Rachel are new best friends. She loved hanging out with Steve this vacation. And I think the boys had fun with him too. He played soccer, basketball, and frisbee with them a lot of the time we were there. I think they really enjoyed having Uncle Steve, a "big kid," around to play with. ;)


Steak N Shake
We also went to one of my other favorite places. Steak N Shake!!! I crave their cheese fries all the time!!! They are just so yummy!!! And they have really yummy shakes. (In Indiana, shakes are what you drink. Like a milkshake.) Steve isn't always a fan of the fries, but he endured a few trips there too! What a guy!

Dave's

Then one of my family's favorite restaurant to visit is called Dave's. It's a really patriotic place, and there's a ton of military statues all over. There's also a sports room. But that room was closed when we went there.

But here we are in the patriotic room. :)


This "complaint department" mousetrap was on the checkout counter. We were telling Steve to push it, and it took a while for him to try it. haha. Nothing happened, but he definitely jumped a little. It gave us a really good laugh to remember the first time I tried and jumped really far back!

(ps. At the bottom it says, "To complain...PUSH red button."

Steve even posed with one of the statues. :) Enjoy that face... heehee.

We also went to my other favorite place called Frostbite. It was so yummy, and they have super yummy shakes too! But we only went there a couple times because it's an outdoor place. We didn't feel like sitting outside and sweating much. It was a TOUCH humid a few of the days we were out there.

***4th of July***

It's time to catch up on our vacation. There will be separate posts for different activities. If I didn't, this post would be 5 miles long. So I hope you enjoy!!!

Well, the 4th of July is my VERY FAVORITE holiday!!! It used to be because I loved lighting fireworks and making smores. Then it was because I loved the fireworks show my dad puts on every year. Now it's all of those reasons - plus I love my country!!!

But I can't say that it has lessened my love for the fireworks!!! :) Here are pictures of all the fireworks my dad bought for his show this year. It doesn't seem like alot because you can't see them all at once. But it A TON!

We decided to mass produce smores again. So here's a picture of me using the rake to make them. I know it looks unsanitary, but I'm sure it made it taste all the better! No one died or got sick, so that's saying something.

This is me, my mom, and my nephew Jacob. He was the crack up of our trip. He was hilarious!


And here's Jacob's mom, Sarah. He thought he needed these earphone things so it wouldn't be so loud. But I think Sarah ended up wearing them by the end of the show. :) It did start getting pretty loud.

I didn't try to take any pictures of the fireworks because it's never worked out well with my camera anyway. But Steve did video most of the show. So if we ever figure it out, we'll try to get a video of the finale on here. :) I hope your 4th was just as fun as ours!!!

Midwestern Summer

Oh my goodness!!! We have been having SO MUCH FUN!!! I won't go into details right now, but I wanted to make a short post about the fun times we've had!

We've been shopping, eating Monical's, and relaxing to the max! It has been a blast to not have to worry about working or cleaning or anything. We even got to go on a surprise tour of the Indianapolis Speedway grounds. It was a special tour that not everyone gets to take. We were really excited, and got some great pictures!

Last night, our family hosted a spectacular fire works show. It's a tradition that's been going on since before I can remember. But just like the last 7 or 8 years, it has become a ward/friend/neighborhood affair. We love having people over to celebrate our nation using FIIRRREEE!!! :) Steve even got the honor of starting the giant bonfire this year. (Which ended up not exploding as usual... but it was still cool.) And family - we did get some great videos of the fireworks which we are going to have to watch when we get back!

We've loved being with our family out here too. We haven't seen my brother's family since our wedding!! So we were excited to hang out with them and the kids. Steve has loved playing soccer and frisbee with them this whole week. We're definitely getting some good exercise... but we're eating enough that it isn't doing us any good! HAHA!

But we're glad we've been with family and enjoying everyone's company this week!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!! I certainly love my country and I'm so grateful for the freedoms I enjoy everyday. I'm so grateful for the soldiers that fought to make our country how it is. And I'm glad there are brave men and women fighting today to keep me safe. I'm glad we live in this country where we can worship freely. I love my Heavenly Father, and my brother and Savior, Jesus Christ. What a blessing to have the truthfulness of the gospel in my life!

So look forward to posts full of pictures when we get back to Utah. :)

PS. It is SO HUMID here! I forgot how wet it can feel outside!!! That is one thing I do not miss. Sometimes it's hard to stay outside for too long before you start sweating bullets just sitting there!!! But I guess that IS part of the experience! :)

Memorial Day

Well it was a great Memorial Day! Steve and I went to breakfast and it was soooo yummy!

Later that day we visited Steve's Grandpa's grave. It was cool to see all the flags they had lined up and all the flags at the graves of people that were in the service.

Here is Grandpa Harkness. :) We were going to buy a flower, but of course all the stores were clean sold out.

We spent the evening with family cooking out and talking. It was fun and relaxing! We are so blessed to have family that is so loving and supportive.

We also did this puzzle while watchng Goonies on t.v. the other day. :) We were puzzle fiends with this one. We could. not. stop.

We hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day. We are so grateful for the men and women that have served, are serving, and will serve for the pride of our country. We are also grateful to remember all those in our lives that have passed on. How grateful we are for the knowledge that we can be with our families forever!!!

We are proud to be an American!

Puzzle-mania Summer!

Well, it's that time of year again. The time where we do puzzles to make sure we don't get bored and start saying the awful words, "I'm ready for school to start again." No one wants to hear that!

So we started with an oldie but a goodie, the frogs.

After we finished that puzzle, we decided our stash wasn't fantastic. So we went got a 5 pack box of puzzles. We were pretty excited! But then we started this one and realized that these puzzles may be lame because all the pieces look the same. They don't make it challenging and make the pieces look weirdish. But it's ok, it was still fun.

We just finished our third puzzle tonight. What a cute little Bambi.

Earlier this month, we decided to go help de-stress a small part of Vickie's life by helping weed her flower garden in front of her house. She has some pretty flowers planted out front, and weeds were definitely taking over.

We forgot to take a BEFORE picture, so this is like, HALF WAY picture.

ps. That huge green one right up on the house was the devil!!! It's roots spread throughout almost the entire garden!!!

Here is an AFTER shot.

Me pretending I'm not sweating. We were lucky there was a really pleasant breeze, so we didn't fry.

Me. Remembering why I hate gardening and weeding so much and killing the weeds.

Some daisies that Vickie got for Mother's Day. Also my favorite flower because they are so friendly!

So we invited some friends over from our old ward in the Terrace. They had just gotten the game Quelf and hadn't played it yet. So we told them to bring it over and we'd have a grand old time. We'd played that game with our family before and had a pretty good time. We decided Quelf is a combination of Cranium and Curses.

One of my challenges was drinking a glass of water from the opposite side than usual. So that was fun!

No. I don't look possessed or anything. Enjoy that...

In other news:
I just started the 5th book of The Work and the Glory series today. I've been blowing through them super fast. Sadly, I've been going so fast because I'll stay up WAY too late because I don't want to put the book down. And I have another book I need to finish before our trip to IN. I'm going to be a reading fool.
Also, we are all registered for school in the fall. Steve is pretty pleased with the classes he was able to get and the times. There's one class I'd like to switch to online, but it's already full. So we'll just hope someone drops it before school starts.
My training for my job is going well. It often frustrates me beyond belief, but I'm getting close to the end. I just need to keep working hard and push through the last few lessons.
Also! WE ARE SO EXCITED TO COME VISIT OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS IN INDIANA SOON!!!!! I'm freaking out a little, can you tell?!?! I believe the countdown is 4 and 1/3 weeks. Maybe I should put a coutdown on my blog? Why yes, I think I shall. :)

Word to your mother!

We just want to give a good shout out to all the mothers in our lives! We had such a great mother's day in our ward, and I've really enjoyed reflecting on all the things my mother has done for me. And all the things that my mom-in-law has done for me since my mom is far away.

We love you!

Blueberry Muffins!

Not a lot of super exciting things are happening lately.
School is out, and we both did really well this semester! We've decided that this will be our last summer break. So starting in the fall semester, we're just going to go for it and plunge forward so we can finish as quick as possible!

So far for our summer break, we've been sleeping in and just relaxing. We've decided we need to not make sleeping in a habit, and we're trying to find things to do. Not super succesful with that yet. ha!

So, here is a picture of our summer so far. Sleeping in, and eating yummy blueberry muffins! Mm Mmmm!!!

We hope your summer break is warmer than it has been here so far! :)