july 2013 : louisville

dad treated bryan and i to dinner at bistro 1860, an amazing restaurant in louisville. 

our good friend, ronnie, owns it. the food is amazing.
we had such a great time hanging out with my dad.
we even got to have dessert at pat's steak house, where dad's dear friend & landlord, hank, works. 

nana kept the kids for us overnight...  heaven!  i'm not really sure who had more fun, us with our fancy night away or them being spoiled! the next morning nana & sandy took the babes to the pool.

dad had that week off, so it was really nice having all that extra time with him. 

he threw a cookout for the kid's birthdays. 

the fages came over to help us celebrate, along with the paris' & mom. 

mary ann doting on her youngest grandchild. 

timmy the third. he's even more mischievous than the other two! 

auntie picked up some ice cream cakes for the babes. yummy! 

finn wanted the rainbow & maya agreed to the switch.

bubble wrestling... it's a thing now. 

the kids were excited to catch some lightening bugs! 

the next morning we headed to bowling green ky. my awesome photojournalism people planned a really sweet family reunion.
one of the newbies lived on this amazing piece of land & let us have it there.  there were maybe 50 of us & our families.
so much fun & so good to see my dear friends. 

i didn't take many pictures, but we played frisbee, 

made smores, put the kids to bed & reminisced around the campfire.
best major & school, ever.

here's just the pj's that made it. not including our families.  

pretty impressive group of people. one professor, the head of the department, showed up.

a few of the mama's.

then we headed back to louisville in time for the paris cookout,

again celebrating the babes birthdays' with ice cream sundaes! 

they are so loved. 

i didn't take many pictures of that either, but here's a few. 

a few great aunts that shan't be named let the kids have seconds with the sundaes... 

but i'm honestly surprised they left any for the kids ;) tehee.

pop had the next week off, so we enjoyed that extra time playing with him.
we're not big "planners" but somethings just work out, ya know?!

finn got a super hero shirt & he was demonstrating his super powers. 

& then kingfish for our last supper. it was so damn hot. ugh, humidity! 

kissing clouds. 

aunt teecee & sugie brought bobbie over for us to meet! 

i really hope at christmas this year we can get all the great grandbabies together
...that would be so awesome!

aunt teecee gave the kids a flight goody bag, their first time having ringpops! 

they loved em. 

back at home we had some major vacation breakdown time. 

but i tried to keep em busy so that it wasn't too painful. 

they went from having several extra people doting on them for almost a month to just me. 

i guess i wouldn't be happy either.

 but we hung out with avery. 

we played at the park in the rain.

we skyped those that we loved & missed! 

i had a lot of work to do: one wedding & 7 portrait sessions so I put the kids in school for 5 full days. it was glorious & it's what i would do if i won the lottery. well, maybe not every day. but oh man.  if anyone would like to contribute to the keep megan sane fund... 

i'm thinking of starting up an account. 

maya wasn't thrilled the first day- they had to pry her out of my hands. the second day she was fine because they let her stay outside & play with finn & kace for a half an hour. 

and every day after that she loved it.

jill & i went to lunch after bootcamp one day. it was soooo yummy. love lgo. the dessert dude walked past us with a tray of cupcakes... i asked him if he needed us to taste it to make sure it came out okay & he said "yes! i do!" and handed us a cupcake! it was so cool. and it was so delicious. 

smores cupcake, ya'll. for real. happy belated birthday lunch to me! 

and something i've been dreaming of for 8 years. redoing the kitchen. our landlord had completely redone the bathrooms while we were out of town. new everything. i got to pick the paint & he did everything else. they are beautiful. thanks mike! i'd been suggesting, somewhat, well... no not gently at all. i was outright forcing the topic of taking down the awful grape trim & painting the kitchen while he was at it. he wasn't really up for it but during the bathroom construction he had to redo part of the wall, effecting the kitchen wall & messing up the paint.... hells yes! it was a slow process. he didn't finish the bathrooms for several weeks after we got home. i reminded him the kids birthday party was coming up so yeah, can ya please do it? and so he knocked it out while we were camping. i had to take everything out of the pantry (see our lovely kitchen table!). breakfast before we left. 

there's the walls, half done in the background. it took 3 more days after our trip for it to be finished... but he did it! & it's so wonderful. (camping trip next post!)

while everything was out, we painted the walls in the pantry & repainted the shelves. 

see, coming along nicely! 

my mom was awesome & gave us some money to get new towels. she said it was a house warming present sortof! oh man, did maya & i have a fabulous time picking them out. i got home & just wanted to roll around in them. so frivolous, so over the top & something our lil household would never have done... but thank you mom. i love em! 

jill came over to help me decorate or get things ready for the party... but the kids had different ideas :)

monsoon, baby.