Memorial Day Weekend

John and I went to GA to visit my family for Memorial Day weekend. We left after work on Friday afternoon and got in around around 10 that night. My sister Carrie and her husband Brian also were visiting and they brought their month old baby Shayla too. She was super cute and it was very nice to be able see her while she was still small. On Saturday we girls spent a lot of the day shopping and the guys spent most of the day down in Dad's workshop.The boys all turned things on the lathe and John started to make a really nice bowl out of sasafras wood. He will get to finish it next time we go up there. He also made himself a new back scratcher because he is always asking me to scratch his back and he thought it was probably a good idea to make himself one. He kept it a surprise from me all day until he showed me that he had carved and painted it as a duck. It is pretty cool. On Sunday Christy and James came over and we had a huge turkey dinner and then played games for a while. Monday was a pretty busy day. We ran errands for a while and Carrie and I went and visited one of my friends. Dad wanted to have a little photo shoot out in the yard. He has been working pretty hard on the garden and with all of the rain they have been getting it looks really good. They will have tons of veggies to can in just a couple of weeks. We got to take lots of fresh herbs home which was super nice.

Playing in the Rain

Thursday John and I were on our way to an appointment and it started thundering and a couple of minutes later it started pouring down rain. It was our first thunderstorm since last summer. We both looked at each other and said that if it was still raining after our appointment that we should go out and play in the rain. We came home and changed into some t-shirts and went out and stomped around in the puddles and splashed each other for about 20 minutes. We got thoroughly soaked and had tons of fun. Everyone that drove by looked at us like we were crazy but I secretly think they were jealous.

Mother's Day Weekend

This past week we got to spend lots of time with John's family. His youngest sister Monica's birthday was Saturday so we had a surprise party for her on Thrusday. We left early Friday morning for a town called Crystal River where the annual retreat for my program was being held. I had to give a presentation that morning and John stayed to hear me speak. He got pretty bored though and left to go do other things while I listened to talks the rest of the morning. Our room was really nice and had a huge super comfy bed and a great view of the river. We got to go swimming and hot tubing that night. The next morning we went to the last of the presentations and then it was time for the beach! The beach was about 10 miles from our hotel so how could we not go? We were only there for about an hour but we both got pretty burned and are still sore.

Saturday night we went to another one of John's sister's house to celebrate Monica's actual birthday. The Gordons do birth"weeks"s not really birth"day"s. They have this cool X-box game like Karoke called Lips with microphones that you sing into and compete against someone else. It's pretty fun and we got to play for a while that night. Sunday was mother's day and we took John's grandma to church. She is in our ward but can't go very often for health reasons. She seemed to really like going and I think it really made her day. We all met over at her house that evening for dinner to celebrate and give John's mom her presents. We made her a mini scrapbook called a brag book with pictures of all her kids and grandkids. We also got to talk to my mom on the phone for a while. It was a pretty busy weekend but we also got some time to have fun and relax too.

Wicked!!!!!!!!!!

John and I went to see the Broadway play Wicked on Thursday night in Jacksonville. I had been wanting to see the play for several years and asked John to get me tickets to see it for Valentine's day. He picked me up from work and we drove to Jax for the show. We got a little lost trying to find the theater but the frustration was totally worth it. The show was absolutely AMAZING! Before the show we went to The Landing which is kind of a glorified outdoor strip mall. It was right on the bay and a beautiful afternoon. We were able to walk right down to the water and take some pictures.
We took lots of pictures while we were waiting for the show to start. This is John with the program for the show.

This is me with a poster of Elphaba. This was probably one of the best plays I have seen. I would highly recommended seeing it.

New Niece!!!

My little sister Carrie had a baby early Monday morning April 20 just two days before her three year wedding anniversary. The baby's name is Shayla Kay Johansen and she was just under 7 lbs. She is tiny and as Carrie says "perfect" and so cute!

Easter

I think I went a little overboard on buying Easter candy this year. I filled two entire baskets full of chocolate eggs. Cadbury, Reeses, Snickers, caramel.... and soooo many more! I love easter!!! I don't know what it is about making candy in the shape of an egg that makes it so much yummier.

We went to John's Grandma's house for Easter dinner. We celebrated her 91st birthday with all 91 candles on the cake. I have seen cakes with more candles than that before but they were spread out and it wasn't too bad. I think the candles on this cake were a little too close to each other though because the flames all merged together it really looked like the cake was on fire. I wish I had gotten a picture but my camera batteries died.

Pinewood Derby

Last week was the much anticipated Pinewood Derby. John and I helped a few of the boys from the pack with their cars last Monday. Then Wendesday was the big day! The boys seemed to have a lot of fun. Some were a little disappointed in their cars but everyone got an award at the end which seemed to make everything better. John and I raced our cars against each other and his won. I will just have to work harder next year to beat him. Although mine definitely won in the looks category!