Wednesday, August 13, 2014

triple dates are the best dates

Ever since getting married/working full time/moving Cody and I have really noticed the importance of staying in contact with our close friends from college. It has been fairly easy over the past few months because these two couples just got married this summer, so between wedding showers and weddings we were able to see each other frequently. Now that everyone is settled in everyday life and starting to work, we have to continue to be intentional and keep our friendships thriving! 

so, we decided to have a triple date night at a pool completed with hot dogs/chips/fruit/cookies and potato salad for dinner. Us girls had so much fun catching up while our kids husbands played in the pool all night ;)



 they did flip contests...






 ...and group jumping


 ..and wave pools hahah
 real working wives of lubbock ^^

 my goofy (and freezing) husband and I


 ^^the boys imitating how us girls wear towels, haha!

it was so much fun and so great to keep in touch with eachother! already planning group dates for the fall ;) it's so fun that us girls and our husbands are such good friends!


Monday, August 4, 2014

101 in 1001

I've joined in with many others to make a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. Mine will end on May 1, 2017. I made the list based on things Cody and I want to do or I personally would like to do and hopefully will get to over the next 2.75 years! 

so here we are...


101 in 1001
1. Host a dinner party at our house
2. go to Chicago
3. go to White Sands national park
4. see hot air balloons in person
5. blog once a week at least
6. Inspire someone else to create the list
7. Be completely satisfied with our home
8. have a girls weekend with youth girls
9. pay for something for a stranger
10. do a color run
11. learn to make homemade bread
12. try gluten free recipes
13. Run a 5K
14. make yearly shutterfly books for anniversaries
15. create and follow through with a couples workout program
16. Volunteer at an elderly home
17.  start running
18. go to first Friday art trail in lubbock
19. Plan a random road trip
20. achieve career ladder at work
21. have monthly date nights with other married couples
22. Be a tourist in my hometown
23. learn to shoot a gun
24. go camping in a tent
25. Write a post about every completed task
26. Take a girls trip with my college girlfriends
27. get rid of old clothes
28. go to Riudoso, NM
29. Start a Christmas tradition with Cody
30. eat lunch from food truck
31. visit a museum
32. have anniversary pictures taken.. year 1,2,and 3
33. daily quiet times
34. Pay for a stranger's meal
35. Learn to sew
36. Go on yearly anniversary trips
37. read the Old Testament
38. pay off student loans
39. send Christmas cards
40. Try five new restaurants
41. make a homemade apple pie
42. go to apple orchard and pick apples
43.  make homemade pecan pie
44. finish the guest bathroom
45. have a fort night with Cody by the fireplace
46. Tell a stranger about Jesus and His love 
47. Purchase a home (if that time comes for us during this)
48. finish painting guest room
49. throw a baby shower
50. make a spontaneous weekend trip
51. Send random flowers
52. continue our weekly/bi-weekly girls days with my college best friends
53. go to parade of homes
54. Be a guest post on a blog
55. Get better at manual camera settings
56. rent a cabin for a vacation
57. finish our home office
58. ride a tandem bike with Cody
59. go whale watching
60. Create a garden
61. Go to a drive in movie
62. re-new RN license
63. Ride on a train
64. Purchase a random book and read it
65. eat at a place featured on “diners, drive-ins, and dives”
66. be the wife of a seminary student
67. Slow down and appreciate small things on a daily basis 
68. Start a workout routine 
69. Find my signature perfume
70. attend texas tech football game as an alumni
71. complete furniture makeovers on to-do list
72. picnic at ransom canyon
73. try whole30 diet
74. try macarons
75. rent a place from airbnb
76. go to drive-in movie
77. Lay on a blanket and stargaze 
78. Make brownies and give them away to someone
79. Attend a Christian women's conference
80. go to outdoor concert
81. buy a lawn mower
82. carve pumpkins
83. Have fresh flowers in our home
84. go fishing
85. adopt a child for Christmas presents
86. See through the eyes of someone else for a day 
87. Be more adventurous 
88. Go hiking
89. Host a holiday party
90. Have a family game night
91. Go ice skating
92. Paint canvases for decoration 
93. Send two Operation Christmas Child boxes
94. go to a live taping of a show
95. Leave love notes to my husband
96. babysit someone’s kids for them
97. save for a house and car
98. Continue building our savings account
99. go see Christmas lights
100. complete all 101 tasks
101. make a new list

anniversaries all around

.... not really. But it did turn out that my parents 35th anniversary would fall on the same weekend as Cody's grandparents 55th anniversary (followed by my brothers anniversary this week!) so it did feel like back to back celebration, especially after all of our birthday madness last week!

I had wanted to do something special for my parents for awhile now, since it was their 35th. So for months I'd made sure I had the weekend off work and started thinking of what to do.... have a swim/cookout at their house? too hard to plan at their own house. rent out a fancy restaurant for a nice dinner? not their style... so I decided to have a small dinner at a popular bbq place with live music on the weekends. I truly thought they had figured it out weeks ago when a few comments were made by my mom and I just about gave up and thought i'd just tell them the details, but I'm so glad I didn't! A few of their close friends and family had known for about a month to meet at this restaurant and be ready to surprise them. Cody and I came into town to "split up the trip" to his grandparents, so my parents were expecting us. During the day on Friday I had gotten a cake made (got it made to look like a replica of their wedding cake) and took it to the restaurant to be ready.  

meanwhile, my mom had gotten baseball style shirts made for her and my dad that said "married since 1979" and wanted some pictures taken. so while these are taken, people were getting to the restaurant. 

I'm so impressed how these pictures turned out! My mom just wanted one of their backs but my manly, lack-of-social-media dad kept throwing out pose options and i'm so glad he kept the photoshoot going ;)


so here we are walking up to the restaurant, i had them walk in front of me because I wanted a picture "of the restaurant" but actually to catch my parents find their friends. you can see my mom pointing at her friends and this picture as she says "ugh, I didn't get a phone call!"



this restaurant is a neat local place and when it was built you could buy a brick with your family's name on it. so here is ours! little did we know at the time we would have to add some "'s" to the cody and stephanie ;)





I had a few pictures in my purse from their wedding day so they got to look through them





 claire and I

the husband and I

my parents were SO surprised and raved all night about how happy they were that we did something special. I so with my brother and his stephanie could've made it!

the next morning we left early and headed southeast to east texas to meet cody's whole family for his grandparents anniversary/birthday party. We had so much fun hanging out with family (that I only briefly met at our wedding), playing catch phrase, and snuggling with our favorite nephew! We stayed there until Sunday afternoon and then we spent ALLLLL day yesterday driving across the state. Whew! what a weekend!