{t-t-tubing}

What a fabulous weekend we had! And I mean it! I was feeling kind of down towards the middle of last week... sour thoughts and feelings creeping in and it was no fun, so this weekend was EXACTLY what I needed. It was refreshing and great and now I am feeling 100% renewed and refreshed!

It started on Friday night when I was perusing craigslist because I was bored. Every now and then I'll go on there to look at the furniture and jewelry. I've been keeping my eye out for a sectional couch because I've always wanted one, but not actively trying to find out and I just like to see what people are selling their jewelry for (not that I need any). It just so happened that someone had posted a sectional couch Friday night about 20 minutes before I went online. I took one look at it and the price and told Jay that we needed to buy the couch. It was a steal! I ended up texting the lady to see if it was still available and it was! We were able to borrow a trailer from Jay's old employer to take with us the next morning to go look at it (it was in Wausau) in case we decided to for sure get it. And once we saw it... I couldn't really pass it up! The price was a steal! It needs a little bit of cleaning, but who would get a couch from someone and not clean it. And... ITS comfy... AND... A SECTIONAL!!! Our current living room isn't set up for a sectional couch, but we've made it work for the time being. Thing is, we probably will only be at our current place for the next year anyways (keeping my fingers crossed I just might find a clinic placement in the area and it will be longer). And I was able to sell our old couch to my sister! Even better, although we will probably be stuck with it at our house for another couple of weeks and I don't know yet if we will be able to keep the money because the couch was not originally ours. It belonged to Jay's aunt who was so kind to let us borrow it for our place because she wasn't using it. We've already talked with her awhile ago about it and she said we could try and sell it, I just can't remember if we talked about who would get the money. I only sold it for $60... it's in okay shape and I didn't want to jew my sister out of a lot of money. I don't know that I could have gotten much more for it than that if I had tried to sell it on craigslist. We basically got back home with the couch, unloaded it and got ready to leave for the weekend.

We were headed 'home' for Jay's great grandma's 93 birthday party down at Jay's grandparent's house and for some family pictures. The family pictures went okay. I'm sure they turned out really nice (the photographer seemed super nice and really great), but it was hot out and everyone was getting a little cranky. I was fine with how things were going and what not, but oh well I guess. I can't wait to see how they turned out though!

It was very nice to get to spend the day with family that I don't get to see super often, but really, any time with Jay's mom's side of the family is nice! The day was spent by the lake and with the breeze coming off of the lake it really wasn't too bad (at least I didn't think so). Ayden had a great time playing with his cousin Baden that he doesn't get to see very often. I got my baby fix in with Jay's two youngest cousins and got to just relax and have a good afternoon! We were there from about 1:30pm until 11pm that night and we were outside for almost ALL of it! That made for one good night of sleep! We didn't get until after 10am the next morning!

Ayden and I went to visit with my mom for a few hours on Sunday after we got up. It was nice to see her for a little bit because we weren’t going to see her then until the end of August for Ayden’s birthday party (of which I supposedly have a date for, but haven’t sent out invitations yet and should probably really get on that). My mom had to go to work in the afternoon so Ayden and I went back to Jay’s parent’s house, but we were only there for a few minutes before heading back down to Jay’s grandparent’s house where everyone else was.

Jay’s uncle brought his boat down and we took out both his boat and Jay’s parent’s pontoon boat for some tubing. Well, we only got to tube behind the other boat because the pontoon boat doesn’t have a large enough motor. It was Ayden and mine’s first time tubing (well my first time actually remembering because I may have gone when I was younger) and we had a blast. Ayden and I went together first where he sat down in the tube and I laid over him and held on. It was A LOT of fun! Ayden then went by himself and he LOVED it! The tube had a bottom on it so he was down in there and pretty secure. The second time that we rode together I sat on the tube a different way and it wasn’t working out very so I had them stop the boat so I could switch how I was sitting and during that I ended up tipping over myself and Ayden. I was actually kind of happy that we had both fallen out because it gave Ayden a taste of what it would be like if he had fallen out. I knew that if we was riding by himself and had fallen out he would have freaked and not gotten back onto the tube. When we both fell out he freaked a little bit, but I was able to get him calmed down and sure enough, he headed back out on the tube which I was happy about!

Here is my little man riding behind the pontoon. We weren’t actually going very fast on the pontoon and probably wouldn’t have been able to pull anyone else, but Ayden was the perfect size! He fit down really far into that tube!And here he is when he was done and we were pulling him back to the boat.And because it is summer and I am just a little bit infatuated with taking pictures of flowers when I come across one that I like… here are a few more flower pictures…And some sunset ones down by the lake! The sun wasn’t down as far as I would have liked it to be, but I am glad that I got these pictures because later when I was going to get some the clouds had come in and covered the sun so I didn’t get the lovely colors I wanted. In any case, I am also in love with how these turned out as well!This has turned into one of my favorite pictures now! It turned out just as I wanted it to!Since I started this post and neglected to post it right away, we received some ‘proofs’ of the family pictures and I think they turned out great! I have to say that this photographer has perked my interest when it comes to choosing a wedding photographer! Obviously we have at least a year to decide yet since the wedding isn’t for two years, but her prices are not over the moon high and even if they go up in the next years time, I can’t imagine them going up an extreme amount! I have at least one other photographer in mind at this point in time as well, but like I said, we still have time. In any case, I know I’m not the only one who needs to be happy with how these pictures turned out, but I don’t know why anyone else wouldn’t be.

Without further ado… here is the Cook family clan!And Jay’s family… his parent’s and brother Steven and our little family!And then me and my lovely boys! Not my favorite picture of all of us, but it works and we just had some family pictures taken not too long ago that I am STILL in love with!CIAO! LOVE ME!