Birthday Adventure

Since Austin's birthday happened on the day we were flying out to Utah to take Ryan to school, we decided to celebrate on Saturday before we left.

We surprised him with a trip to the indoor skydiving place!

Everyone loved it.

Here are some pictures of the fun time:

The first time in they just sort of teach you how to hold your body and you get the hang of it.  

The second time in, everyone had a better handle on it and then the instructor also grabs hold of you and he lifts his feet off the ground as well and both of you go flying way up!

It was awesome to see.

First time:

Second time:

everyone thought is was hilarious that Ryan was just laughing the whole time.

Guess he liked it!

Afterward we had cupcakes decorated with Grateful Dead skulls (of course)

And then Austin got his big gift:  we ordered him a netbook!

He was pretty shocked that we offered him that gift but since he's planning to leave home we figured he'd need a computer.

He seemed to agree that the whole birthday celebration was a success.

And I felt less guilty as I flew away to Utah on his special day...

Ryan Returns!

Yes, my Ryan came home and it was so much fun to have him here!

The day Ryan came home didn't go exactly as I had pictured it, however.
When Branden came home from his mission, we didn't pull off the timing very well.  And even though we were at the airport with happy posters in hand, it turned out that he had already disembarked and was waiting at the luggage return instead of seeing us as he came out of the plane.
I vowed this would not happen again!

So we arrived in plenty of time for Ryan's flight.  We had posters, we had friends, we had a designated photographer.
We were excited!
We were excited in the parking lot.

We checked the flight board frequently.

We waited anxiously.

As people began to come down the stairs we got extra excited!

And...
He never showed up.

Finally after about 45 minutes of anxiously waiting and looking up the stairs (getting cricks in our necks) we asked the gal in the luggage area who was kind enough to inform us that he was not on that flight but would be on the next one arriving 3 HOURS LATER.

So we went to dinner and sat around on the rocking chairs in the airport.

And waited for what seemed like an eternity.

It took some work, but we got ourselves re-excited even though we were so tired by this point...

And then
HE ARRIVED!

It was awesome.
He literally bounded down the stairs and launched himself into Frank's arms.
Check it out:

  

Frank is a mixture of excited and scared.  He has been sick, after all, and was afraid they were both going to go down from the force of that hug!  Ryan is literally off the ground...look closely!

I love how Austin is clapping in this picture.  We were all surprised by that greeting, not just Frank.

We had hugs all around and Ryan shared a few stories as we waited for luggage.

Then we headed back home with our returned missionary!

I love these moments of Family togetherness!

One more day!

Ryan comes home tomorrow night!

I can hardly believe that two years has gone by since he left...sometimes it seems like its been forever and sometimes it seems like it was just yesterday.

Last night we (me and two awesome teenage friends of mine) made a big banner for me to hang outside the house for when we drive up from the airport. 

Yay!

Project Mode

I'm somewhat back in project mode around here.  Not like I used to be because, well, I have enough furniture now!  Don't wanna go crazy and overfill the place.

I have had my cedar chest for a long time and I definitely use it.

But it hasn't ever really been my style.

I had imagined that I would eventually refinish it but just never did.

So I finally painted it.  The good thing about painting it is that it was easy and if I ever do want to refinish it, I still can...just have to remove the paint.

So realistically, I will never refinish it. haa!

Anyway, it is now just a simple, lovely black and matches the TV cabinet in the same room.

I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

Here is the before:

And here is the after:

I've started on the secretary but it is going to be a BIG project.

Four Eyes

Frank finally broke down and got himself some glasses.

Reading glasses.

You won't hear me sniggering though because I know my days are numbered.

We are all glad he got them because he was pretty funny with the denial:

It's just too dark in here.

Why do they make the words so small in these scriptures?

You read it.

But nooo, it wasn't because his eyes were going bad.

It finally reached the point of no denying it though and so he gave in.

I think he looks quite handsome with his new glasses.

He can see!