jerry ivey park.

We have a new favorite park. It's a 30 minute drive, but Target is right around the corner. (Which probably means I should avoid this park at all costs!)

Someone small tripped a little too close to the edge of the pond. But it only scared mommy and daddy. She wasn't thrilled with sitting on momma's lap for awhile.

Just in case you think these little family trips are all fun and smiles...

Blurry, but I love this picture...

And just some random trivia... all the walls for this entire pond, the sidewalks, everywhere, look like this. Do you know how they made them?

Bags of Quikrete with holes poked in them and then sprayed with water. I thought it was pretty cool! 

(You can thank Corey for that bit of trivia.) =)

farmhouse: cabinets.

I have been waiting for this day for a long time! We finalized the design for our kitchen and ordered all the cabinets back in May. They delivered everything for the kitchen and all our bathroom vanities and sinks on Thursday.

They also did the fireplace stone that day...

Getting the island in the house was a bit tricky...

They ended up loading it into the back of Kim's truck and driving it around to the sliding door. That door gave them a tiny bit more room to maneuver.

Even though it was more expensive, Corey agreed to my dream of a WHITE kitchen! (At least it's white until I add all my little crazy pops of color everywhere...)

Master bath vanity... (we went with all white for the kitchen, but stained all the bath cabinets. I would have loved white, but it costs about 20% more. So we compromised.)

Finished fireplace...

Railings almost finished...

The view when you come up the stairs...

View from the living room...

This makes me so happy! =)
This week's agenda:  finishing trim work, countertops and wood floors (yay!)

road trips.

I'm usually not much of a road trip girl. Riding in the car for too long usually makes me sleepy. Who wants to road trip with someone who is sleeping? 

But somehow... I've found myself on two road trips this summer. Crazy. 

{Sorry for the grainy pictures. I didn't take my good camera for either trip.}

Road trips are more fun when they are with someone that you can spend HOURS talking to! Especially if it's someone that you used to talk to nearly every day and now you don't see each other nearly enough.

We may have planned this little trip a few days in advance. (At least me being a part of it was only planned a few days ahead of time! Brookie's camp in Chicago had been planned for quite awhile.) We drove her the 10+ hours there, spent the night with Gina's cousins and then drove back the next day. 

This may have been part of the incentive for going along... {my first visit!}

Don't you think we need this light at the farmhouse? Doesn't it just look like me? =)

I like this one, too, but knew Corey would never go for it...

 So much fun to get to spend so much time with my sweet friend! One of my favorite parts was when we were 20 minutes from my house and Brookie said she was already bored with us. Pretty sure we enjoyed the 10+ hour drive more than she did. =)


Last weekend, I road tripped with my mom! I get to see and talk to my mom all the time now, but it's rare that we get time alone together. Those darn kids, thinking they need time with their grandma. =) We made the same trip last year, delivering 1/2 side of beef to my sister's family. My aunt's house outside Dallas is a perfect meeting spot for us.

I was excited (and Corey was a bit jealous) knowing that being at my aunt's house on a Saturday night would mean another visit here...

{We're thinking that next year, Corey and I will make the road trip so that he can go!}

This guy made me wish Corey was here! He did a "Slingblade" impersonation that Corey does all the time. I knew it would have made him laugh. 

And... since we were only 14 miles away, we decided it was time for mom to make her first visit here...

 {again... lousy pictures, but it was raining and I was driving. Not the best combination.}

We lined up with all the people, waiting for them to open their doors... 

We opted to not get a cool farmhouse sink like this one when we were designing our kitchen, since they were so expensive. Too bad Corey doesn't like IKEA. This price is about $600 less that what our kitchen guy quoted us. Bummer.

So I'm officially an IKEA fan now. My mom is, too. I found all kinds of fun things and only spent $40 each visit. Pretty good, I thought!
Now to see if I can get Corey there someday...

more baseball.

Lawson's baseball season ended a couple weeks ago. 

Honestly, we weren't too sad to see the season come to an end.

He had fun and we enjoyed watching him, but it just made for some crazy evenings. Especially with Corey helping coach. We were all just ready for a break.

A little surprise when we left the ball field one night...

This little miss made it to almost all his games. She missed most of the 100* game in the blazing sun after she got overheated and threw up in the 2nd inning. That was a fun one. (Thank goodness Grandma was willing to take her home and let her cool off!)

She did make it through his first 8:15 game that ended at 11:00 pm. We opted to leave her (and Sophie) with Grandma for his last 8:15 game. Especially since it was a 40 minute drive from home. That was probably my most relaxing game. =) (Minus the stressful baseball-mom moments.. a full count is the worst!)

We were all a little bummed that Lawson ended the season without ever getting a hit. In a game, anyway. 

He got on base several times... usually by getting walked.

But this happened once... (he had those lace marks for over a week! It was a hard pitch!)

See any similarities between the runner on first and the first base coach? =) Makes me smile.

We were really grateful for this guy and his calm, positive coaching. There were only a couple times we saw him start to get stressed. =) 

He had fun and learned a lot. A little experience and some confidence will make a big difference next year, I think.
I made some new friends and got a cute sports mom t-shirt.
Already looking forward to next year.