Illinois Trip 2011

Start Date: May 12th
End Date: May 22cnd

My dad was kind enough to take Troy and I back to Illinois/Wisconsin to visit our family so everyone would finally get to meet Troy. We had a nice time seeing everyone and we also got to go to the Shedd Aquarium. As RJ was not able to go, it was hard for me to watch Troy and take pictures at the same time, so The Shedd is really the only place I took pictures at. lol.

This was his first time on a train. He had a lot of fun watching everything as it went by, and entertaining all of the nearby passengers. lol. He is such a ham.

The next bunch of pictures are going to be from The Shedd Aquarium;

We had a lot of fun, Troy really enjoyed the aquarium. We also went to the dolphin show, which he REALLY liked. He kept pointing to the dolphins everytime they would jump out of the water and say "fishie!" lol. It was so cute. My Aunt took pictures, so as soon as she posts those, I will put them on here as well.

Easter 2011

Our holidays as a family are nothing short of a traveling circus. There aren't very many pictures usually, so when there are, you bet I am sure to post them!

The first part was the Thursday before Easter Sunday, at my Aunt Michele's house. I helped he with her easter baskets for her daycare kids, and I colored eggs with the girls (my cousin's Rainey, Allie and Taylor)

"I think I need to blow my nose" Hahaha! I guess you had to be there to really experience how much fun we all had that night. I laughed SO hard. It was a very memorable night!

Allie did a KICK-ASS job of decorating eggs!

And then she murdered my dinosaur egg .. poor guy, he never even stood a chance!!

The second part of our Easter was the Saturday night before Easter, where my dad decided that he did in facr want to do Easter with us. SO, I drove to the store, bought 3 dozen eggs and two boxes of decorating material, came home and cooked/decorated them ... which took me 3 hours to do!! ONLY TO FIND OUT, that my dad did a little to much pre-easter partying the night before and didn't get up in time to even do Easter. I've said this before and I'll say it again, I love that man to death, but he is a pain in my ass. These are some of the eggs I decorated ... BY. MY. SELF!

I know ... they're awesome. At the same time, you're probably thinking .. where are the other 34 eggs?! Everyone ate them before I got to take pictures. lol.

NEXT! The third stop of Easter was at my mom's house. Again, we decorated 3 dozen eggs. lol. Thank God I love to eat hard boiled eggs! haha. My mom and I are pretty festive people normally, but on Easter we go apeshit. The following pictures are only PART of the artistic egg-stravaganza that ensued on this fine day.

I know what you're thinking ... AMAZING. And yes, that last one IS in fact, and elephant. We would have taken more pictures, but RJ and Scott were getting annoyed with our creativity and were ready to hide the eggs already. haha. These next pictures aren't the top eggs, but they were okay, and to be fair we have to post ones that the guys did too! lol.

That last one is one of my favorites because it's our "Mr. & Mrs." eggs and RJ even made the blue one .. it has a goatee and sideburns! haha. I don't know why, but it just makes me laugh!

And FINALLY! Our last stop of the day, RJ's brother's mother-in-law. lol. Say that five times fast. It was pretty relaxing. It was my first time meeting Jack and Bonnie and they really are sweet people! I just love spending time with RJ's family, they are such great people and they always make me feel like I'm a part of the family.

Overall, I think this Easter went by pretty smoothly. Hopefully one of these times, WE can host one and then we won't have to do so much traveling. It really is a pain. Haha.

First Family Road Trip! Goodyear, AZ - Rawlins, WY

Start Date: April 28th, 2011
End Date: May 1st, 2011

Why did we go on a road trip to some no name town in Wyoming? To test for the Wyoming Department of Corrections! WOO! As some of you know, RJ's goal in life is to be a police officer. As you may also know, he's a youngin', and we all know you can't be a cop until you're 21 and even then it's hard to get a job so young without any military background in this stupid economy. But he's such a fighter, and that's one fo the many reason's why I love him so much. He doesn't give up. Wyoming is just one of the many out-of-state jobs RJ has applied for, but only the second that he's traveled for (so far, and hopefully the last.) This road trip was pretty long. We (and when I say "we", I mean RJ. lol.) drove for 17 hours straight, only stopping to pee and eat ONE time at a Denny's in Grand Junction, Colorado.

This is where we ended up;

Rawlins, WY. A little town of about 9,000 people not too far from Colorado state lines. But I'm getting ahead of myself. A little less story, a little more pictures for now. From the begining ...

Arizona. I would tell you exactly where, but I forgot. lol. I have to check the GPS location on my phone ... I'll update this later.

This was exactly 800 miles from Rawlins.

Colorado is SO beautiful. Driving through it was just a wonder to look at. Everything is so beautiful. Of all the states I've been to, it is by far the prettiest. I wish we were able to stop and really take pictures because these were from inside the car, and just do not do it justice.

* Notice, there aren't any pictures of Utah. lol. Both times we drove through it was dark, and according to RJ, "there isn't anything worth seeing in Utah anyways." Haha.

And when they say "Forever West", they mean it. Wyoming is one of the friendliest places I have ever been to. Everyone is so helpful. Neighbors help neighbors, everyone knows everyone and everyone owns a gun ... and knows how to use it! lol. I had never seen so many antlers as yard decorations in my entire life! I can only imagine what decor they have INSIDE! Haha.

Wyoming is basically rolling hills as far as the eye can see, and yes, it snows in May there! lol. Some of the townspeople I talked to say they've seen it snow in July before! JULY! But the weather wasn't too bad. Even though it snowed, it really wasn't that cold. It's pretty windy there though, Chicago might be the windy city, but I'm pretty sure Wyoming is the windy STATE!

The Old Wyoming State Penitentiary. I REALLY wished we could have taken a tour of it while we were there, this place looked so neat! It's just this HUGE old prison with vines growing up the walls and really tall tree's everywhere. It was gorgeous, especially if you're into old historic buildings (which I am FACSINATED by.) Wyoming had a few buildings like this. I really fell in love with Rawlins while we were there. If it's not on your "Places to Travel" list, it should be.

This ADORABLE little (I guess I shouldn't say little, since it was a Mansion! haha.) bed and breakfast in Rawlins. Had I known about this before we went, we would have definiely stayed there!

Back to the story. Though RJ was overly-nervous about testing, since the elevation is 7000 and he didn't have much time to acclimate himself, he did an amazing job! He passed all of the tests he took that day (Written, Oral Board and Physical Fitness & Agility) and so far (as of the end of May) he has passed the background check and all of his references had only the best things to say about him. Now, all that's left is the Warden's approval, the phsycological and physical, and when we move there, the drug test. We are crossing our fingers that he gets the job, but this month he has also tested for Coconino County and he did very well on that too. HOPEFULLY, he gets two job offers and all this time he's been freaking out over nothing, like I've been saying this whole time. Usually, I am right about these things and RJ would never admit this, but he hates and loves that about me. lol.

I hope he gets it. If there is anyone on this planet who deserves to get the job he's been working and preparing his whole life for, it would be RJ. He needs reassurance that the world doesn't suck as bad as he thinks it does. Someone needs to lift his spirits in a very real way, and I hope it's either one or both of these places.

If there really IS a God, he would do this for RJ. He deserves, and he's damn well earned it.

Other than that, I will keep everyone posted!