Here's a Trip Down Memory Lane

Ryan decided he wants to collect soda bottles.  I have a rather large Coke collection - been collecting since my teens.  I love the look of Coke bottles and all that old diner style stuff.  Ryan wants to collect a variety of soda bottles - and T-shirts too apparently since he has several different T-shirts - Coke, Sprite, orange Crush, Mountain Dew, and more.

The one bottle he really wants, and we have had a super hard time finding, is a Mountain Dew bottle.  I mentioned this to a friend of mine and she pointed me in the direction of a store on the other side of town.  We decided to make a day of it (way back in July) and go to lunch at a Mexican restaurant about halfway there.  And of course, we invited my parents and brother to join us in our adventure.

Lunch was great, but Ryan was anxious to check out this store.  So off we went.  It was a pretty neat place full of all kinds of candy and soda that you can't find anymore.  When, low and behold what did they have but . . . The Pop Shoppe sodas.

Total walk down memory lane.  When we lived in Virginia that was the name of a store - The Pop Shoppe.  You would take these soda crates and fill them up with whatever soda you wanted.  You didn't buy them in packs.  And they had the most fun - and delicious - flavors.  Such as pineapple, black cherry, cream soda, grape, I think there was even strawberry.  Stuff you couldn't get anywhere else.  We all had our favorites and you always knew which ones they were because they were the ones left until the end.  Once you drank the sodas, you put the empty bottle back in the crate and then when you went back for more, you took the empty bottles back to them and got a refund towards your new purchase.  It was fun.  And us kids always looked forward to going so that we could help pick out our favorite flavors.  

To make the day even funnier, while I was standing there reminiscing with my brother Kelly about going to the shop, his cell phone rang.  It was another brother, Warren - who had just moved out of state - calling.  When Kelly told him where we were and that we found The Pop Shoppe sodas, Warren started asking if he remembered that soda place we used to go to and picked out the flavors that we wanted.  Kelly was like, yeah it was called The Pop Shoppe. 

Here I am with my parents holding one of the beloved
The Pop Shoppe sodas.  Yum!



Ryan's Summer Visitor

Well, before my family came, we were able to have Ryan's oldest friend come and stay with us twice.  He now lives out of state and the boys have been able to stay in touch through texting.  It was good to see him.

While the two boys were together, they set up a whole photo shoot for me using some Halo figurines around the pool.  If you'd like to see all the photos from that day, be sure to visit my photo website - go to the blog and go to the entries from July 11-28.  Here are some of the ones I liked from that shoot.

Got Their Eyes on Me


Ryan & Adrian setting up another scene for me

The Picture of Relaxation

Water Slide

The Mountain Top



My Sam

The Path

Lazy Summer Days

 

Have you heard of a strange peach?

We went to Big Surf twice this summer.  Once with my family and once with a friend of Ryan's.  When we went with family, it was Ryan & I with my sister-in-law and three of her kids.  It was fun.  The wave pool was great - refreshing.  And the people watching is always interesting.

After the park, we headed back to my parent's house for a bit.  I saw the strangest peach I had ever seen.  It was all split open.  So, naturally I had to take pics of it.  Since I didn't take any of my cameras to the water park, I used my phone.  Not too bad really.

Smiley



August Calendar Page



August 2010



Doug's Trip

In April Doug had to go to Vegas for a couple weeks - training for work.  And since, we lived in Vegas many years ago, the casinos and gambling in general just aren't that appealing to either of us anymore.  I mean for me, every time I spent money on gambling I would just imagine how many pairs of shoes I could have bought.  Instead he visited a certain store featured on one of our new favorite shows - Pawn Stars.  If you can get past the way they talk to each and how mean they are to one person in general, it is a very interesting show.  I'm amazed at how much history gets brought in there. Doug was able to visit their real store location Gold & Silver Pawn.

With Ryan having a new iPod (from his birthday) Doug set them up on messaging and we were all able to video chat every night he was there.  Isn't technology cool?  So, he got to hear about all the ins & outs of what we were up to while he was gone and he got to keep us updated on the antics going on in his training class.  Other people sure are strange sometimes.  It made his trip go by much faster.  I just didn't like having to look at my image in the corner of the screen while chatting.  It was a little strange to me.

The outside of the building - as they show it on TV.

The store is run by a family.  It's three generations.  And the
youngest generation's best friend works there too.  His
nickname is Chumlee.  He's not the brightest guy in
the world and they are pretty mean to him about it.
It is frustrating to watch - until you realize they are
mean to everyone just about - especially "the old man".
He's just a grump.

Part of an ad campaign for TV features these bobble head
dolls talking.  I think it's so funny that Chumlee's bobble head is
sold out.  Serves them right for talking so mean to him.  One
of my favorite episodes involves Chumlee and a pair of
Nike Air Jordan's.  He taught them all a thing or two that day.

Hello February

February 2011 Calendar Page

Last year in February we went to the local Renaissance Festival with my niece and her family.  We always have such a great time with them.  It's been so fun getting to know them better and watch our kids have fun.   In the fall, they moved back to California, and it was sad for us to see them go.  But, we know that there will be plenty of visits.  Maybe we can talk them into coming out for the festival again this year?  If not, we are definitely on for the pumpkin festival again!!!

Ryan & Doug had fun throwing knives at targets.  We enjoyed several of the shows they put on there - including jousting and of course The Ded Bob Show.  Baylee, Ben & Ryan tried on several of them helmets, swords and shields as well.  I didn't take any pictures of the food this time - which is weird I always seem to get lots of food shots, but rest assured, we did enjoy the food as well!

A Christmas Treat

We received a wonderful Christmas treat on December 27 - Ryan's friend Adrian came to stay with us for two days.  He moved to Texas over the summer.  The two boys have been in touch since then texting and calling each other and have been planning a Christmas visit.  It was so fun to hear all the laughing that was going on as they played and talked in the same way that they always have - since they first became friends in kindergarten. 

We took them to this really fun place called Airworx.  It's full of
trampolines.  They have an area for dodge ball, slam dunk and
free jumping.  The kids love going there.  We don't mind taking
them either - it wears the kids out and it's not very expensive.
Win/win.  The only problem, Doug took  his laptop and we
were going to try to watch a show on Netflix but their
Internet wouldn't work.  Oh well, we just had to have fun
watching all the crazy kids instead.

Ryan in the slam dunk section.

The two boys waiting for their turn in a game area.

Adrian and Ryan

State Fair

On the last Saturday it was open, a friend of mine and I took our kids to the State Fair.  We headed out on a Saturday in search of anything on a stick to eat and fun games and rides!  They were having this great buy one get one free on entry fees.  So, that saved us some money on getting in.  I think we were both prepared for it be pretty busy.  And would you believe it wasn't.  The weather was perfect, not too hot and not the least bit cold.  All in all a great day!  Thanks Kim for inviting us to go with you. 



Ryan with his friends Shawn & Matt



Ryan & I.  Doug was at home with a sinus infection.

One of the biggest cows I have ever seen.  They were just huge.

They had had a pigeon competition earlier on .  I never knew there
were so many varieties of pigeon in the world.  I just know about
the ones that like to hang out people's roofs.  This one was pretty
neat, it had feathers on it's feet.  You could not see it's feet all.

Ryan and Shawn went on the bumper cars.  Ryan wanted to get the
Vikings colored car - and he did!

Matt playing a basketball carnival game.

I loved this huge pickle!  The boys humored me by letting me take their
picture with the pickle.

And of course at the fair they have some of the
strangest things to eat.  This is one I had not heard
of before.  I would have tried it but no one else was
game.

Funnel Cake!  One of my favorite reasons to go to a fair.

Shawn giving me the thumbs up on his very first
funnel cake!

Ryan won a fish at his very first carnival game.
Everywhere we went after that so many people
kept coming up to us wondering where we won
the fish at.

Ryan saved his money (mostly because I made him) and bought this
really cool bow and arrow.

Ryan won this basketball at one of the carnival
games.

A Foot Fitting

It was almost a week ago that Ryan went in for his foot fitting.  He is getting orthotics made for his over pronation - that he got from me.  I wonder who gave it to me in the first place?  Anyway, he was very nervous for this visit.  I kept telling him it was nothing to be worried about.  He had to just lay on a table while they make molds of his feet.  So easy.

The staff at our podiatrist office is so nice.  They are really wonderful to work with.

I was unable to attend this visit, so I sent  the camera with Doug.  He did a fantastic job capturing the moment.

Ryan nervously waiting on the table.

Getting started on the molds.

One foot all covered for the mold, now on to the second.

First mold removed.

Taking off the second mold.

Ryan's feet.  They look so small in this picture.

Finally it's all over.  Now Ryan can relax.

Hanging out with the Dogs

Our dogs are pretty entertaining. We love them very much, and they get treated pretty darn well at our house. Here are a few pics Doug took of me and the dogs.

Me with both Sam and Ranger

Me and Sam

Ranger the scaredy cat - hiding under the table

I know this is not dogs, but I just had to share.  Ryan was at a friends
house all day.  They went to this really neat place called Jump Street.
And no, Johnny Depp is not there.  It's filled with trampolines.  This
is what Ryan's feet looked like when he got home.  So lovely!

I shot this earlier in the day when Doug was giving the dogs a treat.  They are so opposite in all of their behaviors it's too funny.  One of them jumps like crazy and the other one just thinks he is jumping super high, even if his feet barely leave the floor.  I was trying hard not to laugh while I was filming this.  And, if you receive emails on this post, you will need to view the video on the site.



To My Surprise

Last weekend, I was finishing up  my work for the day and heard noises coming from our bedroom.  I wandered to be greeted by this beautiful sight.

Clothes on the floor just outside of our closet.

Doug cleaning out his portion of the closet.

You see, Doug lost a bunch of weight over the past couple of years and has kept it off.  It is about time he cleans out some of those things that he cannot (and should not) wear anymore.  Woohoo! 

I do love a clean closet.  If you notice, he's actually sitting on the floor in front of my clothes that are hanging up.  Notice all the hangers are the same color?  That's right, each one of us has our own color hangers.  It makes your closet look so organized!  Try it.  My clothes are even worse, they are hanging grouped together by color.  Yes, I can say OCD!

Even Ranger was a little concerned about the activities going on in the closet.  Really, I think he was hoping he might get those big fluffy socks on top to run around the house with!

September Calendar Pages

Here I was all excited because I caught up on my entries. WOOHOO!!! Then I looked at the calendar and saw that it was September 5th. That means it's time to change my desktop wallpaper to Septembers Calendar Page - which means it's time to post the calendar pages too! So here they are for September.

I hope that you have enjoyed looking at the pages from over the years to see where we have been and what we have been doing.  It's been a fun journey down memory lane!

2007

2008

2009

2010

There have been many fun times over the years.  Much growth and many new experiences as well.  We have loved sharing with our friends and families over the years.  Thanks for all the great times and we look forward to more in the future.

Ryan's got a new job

This summer, Ryan picked up a new chore.  One that he can earn some extra money doing.  He doesn't seem to mind this one at all.  I can't figure out why.