Summertime Fun

Hello All! We have been having a great summer!

Here are a few photos to show off what we have been up to.

First up is our new toy. Well, actually, it has been sitting in our garage for about a year and Todd decided it was time to fill it up with gas and get it going. This thing is super fast and dangerous.....but a whole lot of fun.

There were literally kids coming out of the woodwork to ride this thing. The only requirement was you had to wear the helmet. (although i am not so sure it would have helped if a crash did happen) and the only helmet we have is barbie pink. The boys from down the street who are in Middle school didn't care....they strapped on the helmet and rode for hours. And, of course, Karley was not one single bit afraid. The faster it went, the happier she was.

We have been doing some swimming at John (our neighbor's) pool. He is so sweet to open his pool up to all of the neighborhood kids at least one day a week and we take full advantage of the nice swim on such hot days. Here is a picture of Abigale, Ameila and Karley relaxing and enjoying the sun.

Last weekend Karley went to a birthday party at the beauty school. All of the girls got an up-do and their nails painted. Karley was in heaven and now wants me to do her hair like that everyday....the full bottle of hairspray and all.

Since it has been so hot we have been trying to find something fun to do. I think we have already seen all of the movies in the theatre so now we have been going bowling. Karley loves to do this and I love the AC. On Monday we met the neighbors there and the kiddo's bowled 2 games.

Today, since it was 195 degrees outside we went again. Just Karley and I. We had a blast. Watching her bowl is kind of like watching a shot-put game. She is not strong enough to hold the ball with one hand and she said the rolling it between her legs was boring so she just throws it down the lane. It is working out for her since she beat me on one game today.

I can't believe she is almost 6!!

The Kelly Family BBQ.

Yesterday Todd had to work in the morning so Karley and I went over to The Toy Store to make him a fathers day gift. She made a stepping stone for the yard. It is very glittery and bright.....I know Todd will love it.


Todd and I left Karley with a babysitter and went car shopping after he got home from work. I forgot how exhausting it is.....We found some that we like and one that we LOVE but I am not sure what we are going to do yet.....I will post more on this subject soon!!

We went out to my cousin Charley's last night for a BBQ to see my other cousin Marti and her husband Bob. I haven't seen them in ages and it was nice to catch up and have a relaxing evening. Karley got to play with her cousins that she doesn't see very often. Here are a few pictures of Chase, Blake, Casey and Karley. They had a lot of fun teaching Karley how to catch frogs.....

Here is a few pictures of us hanging out in the shed. The first one is of my cousin Marti, her husband Bob and all of the kiddos.

Here is Bobbi, Jeremy, Me and Marti......

Jeremy, Charley and I.

Todd, Charley, Jeremy and Bob

Chase has this really awesome motorcycle that Todd found in the shed and he had to take karley for a spin on it. It was pretty fast too....She loved it!

We had a great night!! My cousin Meagan and her family are moving back soon and it will be nice to get everyone together to have the kids play just like we did when we were little.

Enjoy your week!!

Another visit from the Tooth Fairy

TOOTHLESS KARLEY

Yesterday we were out and about when Karley ran up to me saying that her tooth was bleeding....it wasn't just bleeding folks...it was literally HANGING there.....It was time to pull it. I have dreaded this moment since the tooth became loose....It is just so sad when they start losing their front teeth. I think it makes them look so much bigger and older. Then they enter the awkward stage of looking like they have Chicklets for front teeth. Regardless, Karley is very, very excited and I still think she looks pretty stinkin cute. Older and bigger but cute as ever.

This morning karley had a birthday party from 11am-1:30 which gave me some time to relax. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA Just kidding. I was getting caught up on all of the laundry and what not's from our trip. I was also on the phone with my good friend amanda gossiping. (it is, after all, one of the things we do best!) She is coming tomorrow and I am very excited to see her!

Okay, enough rambling about that.....After the party I took karley to the Sports Center for a little gooney golf. It was cool and cloudy and they were not busy AT ALL (which is always nice when you are playing with a child---it took karley 17 tries to get the ball in the hole on one of the stations) but it didn't matter because we didn't have anyone behind us to make us feel like we better hurry. Don't you hate that???

It was a great day! I am really loving having her home for the summer. We have been having a lot of fun spending time together and I am so lucky to have such a great kid.

Have a great week!!!

Our Branson Trip

We had an amazing time in Branson. It is really beautiful there and the weather couldn't have been better. Before we left I took Karley to the beauty shop for a little mani-pedi so we would look beautiful. She LOVED it!

Mom, Karley and I left on Tuesday to go to Jamie's house. She was getting new windows and doors put into her house and needed someone there to let the guy in. We spent all day cleaning her house (your welcome jamie) and admiring the look of the new windows. Todd joined us after work on Wednesday and early Thursday morning we were off.

We arrived around 1pm and went to the downtown area where there was some fantastic shopping and we decided to do the Ride the Ducks tour. This is a land and water tour of branson that was amazing. At the end of the tour Karley got to drive the boat and we were lucky enough to see the fire and water show from the water. It reminded me a lot of the show outside the Belagio in Las Vegas.

After the tour we hopped in the car to go to the Hotel. We stayed at the Welk Splash-a-torium resort. It was comparable to the Great Wolf Lodge and we immediately went to the waterpark after we checked in. There was a water slide, outdoor water play area 2 hot tubs a huge pool.

After swimming we hit up this awesome outlet shopping center. We hit up the Coach outlet (notice the new purse Karley is carrying) and Todd got some new swim shorts at Ralph Lauren. There was a lot of great shops there!!! After the outlet shopping we drove up and down the strip and found this really neat looking ice cream shop. So, here we are enjoying our ice cream and cheesecake. YUMMY!!





Day 2 we got up really early to go to Silver Dollar City. We arrived at the park around 8:30 and had breakfast at a bakery inside the park. After breakfast we were trying to decide which way to go and ran into our next door neighbors. They were there with their kids and her parents (who are season ticket holders) Karley was so excited to see them we just decided to hang out with them for the day. It was a lot of fun and really neat for Karley to have a friend to play with. Here are a few pictures from the day.
The weather was 75ish and the crowd was very, very low. The longest we had to wait was 5 minutes for a ride! At the end of the day we took a tour of Marvel Cave. It was quite the experience! We walked down 600 stairs and then back up 10 flights to catch the train. Karley and Kylie did amazing through the whole 1 1/2 hour tour......It was dark and cold and there were bats and lots of water! It was very beautiful though and we had a great tour guide. After the cave we rode the train around Silver Dollar city and then took off. The park closed at 6pm which seemed kind of early but whatever. Side note: I don't know if anyone noticed but karley had to change her clothes mid-day because we got on a ride that Matt swore we would not get wet on.....I have never been more wet from a ride in my entire life. It was fast and fun but wearing wet jean shorts for the rest of the day was not so much fun. I did have an extra change of clothes for Karley in the bag....Lucky girl.


We left and went to another great shopping area to eat at the Hard Luck Diner. The whole staff here are professional singers and they will randomly sing songs while walking around. Every one of them came up to our table to sing to karley and she thought that was pretty cool. Our waiter was a contestant on American Idol season 4. I am not sure how far he made it but he was a really good singer!!! Here he is with Karley along with a few more pictures of us at the shopping area.



We ended the day with a little more shopping at some craft and antique malls and a few of the shops that have 35,000 items in them. On our way back to the hotel we had to stop for some more ice cream.



Day 3- We woke up and went to breakfast at a locally owned restaurant called Chesters. After breakfast we went to the Ripley's Believe it or not museum. It was so much fun to see all of the crazy things in there.







The picture above is still from the museum but it is a mirror where you check to see if you can roll your tongue. We probably stood there trying to do it for 5 minutes and then at the end of the museum you walk behind the mirror to find out it was a 2-way mirror so we got to watch other people making fools out of themselves......


We spent the rest of day 3 at silver dollar city where Karley discovered she was tall enough to ride the adult roller coasters. Again, there were not lines so we literally rode one ride 20 times in a row. The faster the ride, the more she liked it.


We ended the day at a restaurant down the street from our hotel. It was a steakhouse that had a man who would throw rolls at you. Here are a few pictures of karley trying to get a roll and one right after she caught one.


We ended the last night swimming in the pool and hanging out in the hot tub. It was a nice relaxing evening to our nonstop action packed trip. We had so much fun!!!

Branson Bound

We are branson bound. Todd, Karley and I decided to take a mini-vacation to Silver Dollar City. Karley and I are going to stay with my sister tonight and then Todd will pick us up tomorrow afternoon. We will be gone until Sunday and we are so excited! Stay tuned for several upcoming pictures!

Have a great weekend!