Branson and other summer updates!

Nathan and I have been busy since summer started! We went to Branson with my parents last weekend to have a little getaway. It was a lot of fun! On the way down to Branson we stopped by Lambert's Cafe in Ozark. It was SO yummy! I had a chef salad in a bread bowl and seriously only ate about 1/6 of it. It was huge! Of course we had lots of pass-arounds-fried okra, fried potatoes, black eyed peas, and of course "throwed" rolls! While in Branson we went shopping lots, during which we discovered Nathan wears a 7 double wide shoe--what!? Seriously. And, he gets the fun that I always had in high school and still do until this day-trying to find shoes in his size. (I wear a size 10. Don't make fun. I'm also 5'9"!) My mom and I went to see the Noah show, which I highly recommend if you are ever in Branson (thanks Mom for taking me!) and my parents went to see the Baldknobbers, which I grew up watching. I took Nathan to the pool while they were gone. Nathan spent lots of time at the pool, including the time while my mom and I were at Noah. He took him to the pool (up a HUGE hill from our condo), brought him back, fed him, AND bathed him AND put him down for a nap. That's a pretty good "Bapa!"

The coolest thing about the trip was going by all of the old places we used to go to when we went each summer while I was little. The cabins we used to stay in seemed so huge when I was 8 and now they seem so tiny! We also hung out a lot in downtown Branson. There was a really cool 5 & 10 store, just like the old days. They had over 50,000 different items in the store! We also went by a couple of candy stores that were set up like they were a long time ago. We ate on Lake Taneycomo AND at Wendy's! (I had to throw Wendy's in there because we really don't have them in St. Louis anymore and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Wendy's!) We left just in time because a huge storm came through the day we left as we were driving out of town. A whole vacation with lots of great weather!

Since we returned to St. Louis we have been to 4 parks and 3 play dates. Tuesday we went to Little Splashers with Crystal and Bennett. It is really neat because they open the pool an hour early for little kids so that the big kids aren't running them over. On Wednesday I took him to the park after his dr. appointment and met 2 girls with their kids while we were there. I didn't know them before but they want to get together for more play dates later. It will be nice to have lots of people to get together with this summer! Then on Friday we went to The Magic House with Roxana, Sol, and Eva. Roxana is a friend from Baylor and she recently moved here because of her husband's job. I'm so glad she is here because her family was like my family away from family while I was in Waco. I even got to see her mom while she was here visiting a few weeks ago!

This weekend my friend Jenn (we've known each other since 7th grade) got married and I read in her wedding. It was such a perfect day for her yesterday. It did rain a little bit, but in the end it didn't really mess anything up at all! It rained during the ceremony (while we were inside) and then stopped while they made their exit, rained while we were driving to take pictures and while we were in Union Station taking pictures and then stopped. It actually helped to cool everything off because it was supposed to be a 100+ heat index yesterday. Her rehearsal dinner was on Thursday and it was a lot of fun, too. Joe and I sure did miss Nathan though! Today we picked him up from the nursery at my parents' church and took him to our church. We took him to the room he always goes to for Sunday school and when we turned to leave he got the biggest sad frown and starting crying. He threw his sippy cup into the hallway to get us to go back and pick it up and just cried. It broke our hearts and I'm not going to lie, I considered going back, scooping him up and driving straight home. Geez I love that kid to death!

Today we are celebrating Father's Day because Joe leaves next week for a military practice exercise (not deploying overseas for those of you wondering). It will be a great relaxing day for us!

Back to Nathan's dr. appointment. He weighs 31 lbs. 7 oz. (96%) and is 35.25" tall (98%). He is one big boy! He got one shot and cried for only the second time ever!

I can't upload any new pictures because I crashed the program I normally load pictures into and I haven't had a chance to uninstall and reinstall. Hopefully soon though, if I have time between playing with Nathan and homework!