2009 Summer Recap

Hello again to all my fellow blogworld friends (all 3 of you that actually read this blog...) Once again, I forgot I had a blog until my BFF Marie reminded me that I desperately needed to update. (Marie, I'm gonna go ahead and give you a shout out, but I'd also like to point out that I'm still waiting for you to even CREATE a blog.) That being said, even though I haven't updated in over 3 months, I still frequently blog-stalk most of you. I just find it much more interesting to read about your funny lives then bore you with the details of my own!

I feel that I owe it to my blog, however, to upload some pictures which may aid in explaining why I've been so incredibly neglectful in posting regularly for the past several months. Sam and I definitely lived it up this summer and had a fantastic time traveling all over the place. Here is a quick photo recap of our summer, starting with...

Last Minute Road Trip to the Grand Canyon & Las Vegas

We decided on a Friday night to drive west, rented a car, packed up some snacks, and left on Sunday morning... Highlights of the trip included watching the sunset & sunrise over the Grand Canyon (after sleeping in the car that night--who wants to pay $100 for a hotel room for 7 hours when you can sleep in a parking lot for free?!), spending 2 days in Vegas without spending a dime in the casinos (that's not to say I didn't spend a pretty penny at H&M though!), and driving in the car with my beloved hubby for 32 hours (roundtrip). It was totally last minute and lots of fun, here's a brief overview...

At the Grand Canyon (duh!)

Good one, Sam. He's such a jokester... :)

At the Hoover Dam & Lake Mead

New York, New York

The Strip at Night

Sam posing at a fountain behind The Flamingo

This tray of fish & chips was purchased in New York, New York for $15...and we ate it ALL.

In front of the fountain show at The Bellagio (sorry you can't actually see the fountains...)

Camp Pettijohn Springs
Sam and I joined the staff of Camp Pettijohn to work as counselors at MRCC's Senior High Week of camp. Highlights include our wonderful family of super fun campers (Yay Family 7!), getting second to last place in the week's sports competition (I'll take full credit for that accomplishment), and sweating it out everyday in 100+ weather. I'm not kidding...it was at least 100 degrees every single day...but still a great week!

Family 7!

FOSHAB Weekend

The day camp ended, I actually met Amber & Mandy at a truck stop off I-35 on the way back from camp to turn around and head back south to Dallas for a weekend with my girls from college for a FOSHAB reunion at Jill's cute house in Denton. We enjoyed a fun & relaxing weekend of chatting, laughing, laying out, getting pedis, and playing with Diana's precious baby, Benjamin. I wish we could get together more often...I can't believe we've all been out of college for FIVE years. CRAZY...

Getting pedicures & LOVING it!

WICKED

As mentioned in a previous post, Sam surprised me with tickets to Wicked for our anniversary, which we THOROUGHLY enjoyed in Tulsa at the end of July. The show absolutely impressed us both more than we thought it would--if you haven't seen it, you really should. I don't have any pictures, however, because they did not allow cameras inside. Sorry...

My 27th Birthday
We celebrated my birthday with our families at Mimi's Cafe for a birthday dinner before heading to the airport at 4:30 the following morning for our vacay to Mexico (more about that in a minute), but I have such an incredible family and am so thankful for all the lovely gifts people gave me. Consider this my thank you note to each of you, since I had the fullest intentions of sending out thank you notes to everyone, (I even bought cute new thank you cards and everything), but let's face it, that's not going to happen this year... I don't have any pictures of this momentous occasion, either :(

All-Inclusive Mexico Vacation
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Swine Flu & the ensuing media frenzy which scared off travellers to Mexico to such a degree that we snagged a 7 night, all-inclusive vacation (including air, airport transfers, etc.) for about 1/3 of what we would have normally had to pay for such a trip. Obviously avoiding travel to Mexico really stopped the Swine flu, I mean H1N1, epidemic from sweeping through the US (insert sarcastic tone). We had a fabulous time laying on the beach, eating lots of yummy food (and subsequently joining Weight Watchers after returning), laughing with Matt & Bailey, and frequenting the restroom. That's all I'll say about that...

Our beach at the Catalonia Riviera Maya...the water was beautiful!

Sam drinking from a coconut he actually pulled off a palm tree at the resort...I'm not kidding.

Sam and MJ playing sand volleyball with the other resort guests.

The 4 of us before our DELICOUS dinner at the Japanese Restaurant, Mikado.

Sam wearing a "luchadore" mask that he tried on at a market, and then subsequently developed a skin fungus from. I'm totally kidding. But I can't figure out how to rotate this picture...

Overlooking the beach at the Italian restaurant we dined at...

Showing off our tans/burns (Sam) and greasy sunscreen faces...

Cheesy picture of us being in love...

Camping Trip to Missouri
2 weeks after returning from Mexico, we once again loaded up and headed to Salem, MO for a super fun camping trip with Nate, Lindsay, Matt, & Ryan. Highlights of our camping trip include floating the river for 6 hours, laughing hysterically at Matt at the campfire, enjoying the nice, cool weather of MO (as opposed to the blazing heat of August in Oklahoma), and stopping at Lamberts for an old-fashioned, home-cooked, roll-throwin' meal (see WW comment above). I don't have any pictures from this weekend either, because Lindsay was much better about taking pictures than I was...

So there you have it, folks. We really had an incredibly fun (& busy) summer that we wouldn't trade for anything. The day after we got back from camping, I immediately jumped right back into work and the new recruiting cycle (college fairs, school visits, campus visits, Fall Visit, lots of visits...) and Sam started back to school (he's acting like such a dentist these days). Hopefully you'll be a little merciful about my lack of blogging for the past several months, but as work starts to slow down just a bit, hopefully I'll be a bit more consistent about updating this blog. If not, you can look forward to another MASSIVE post in December highlighting all the things Sam and I do between now and Christmas! :)

Random afterthought: This post just took me nearly 3 hours to complete. Either I REALLY suck at blogger, or this stupid website is really difficult to use. Either way, this reiterates the reason why I only blog quarterly, people.