Spray Park Fun!!

After Breakfast on Tuesday morning Matthew and I packed up the car and headed to Allen to hang out with our friends Ashley and Julianna Belcher. Julianna's daddy, Nic, and Bryan were roommates in college and now Ashley and I are good friends.

Once we got to the Belcher's house, Matthew and Julianna ran around and played with her toys. Lately Matthew has been shy when we are with groups of friends or if we are in new environments; however, as soon as we walked through the door he was wanting to get down. Julianna ran up to him and excitedly said "Map, Map" so Matthew knew it was okay to get down and explore! As the day progressed Matthew's name went from "Map" to "Maphew", it was really cute!! Of course I was "Corty".

After about 30 or 45 minutes of playing and catching up, we left for the local splash park. I was a little hesitant because I didn't know if Matthew would enjoy it. We go to the local malls to play on their playgrounds but he usually sticks close to me and doesn't want to venture out by himself. I wasn't sure if adding water to the equation would help!

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story!!

Here's Matthew's first few steps out into the splash park. He's not quite sure just yet...

But he quickly realizes it is a lot of fun!!

Julianna lost her shoe

Matthew and Julianna liked the middle where water shot up in the air

You'll notice a few of these pictures are of Matthew's backside. I wasn't fast enough to take pictures infront of him! He was having too much fun to slow down for pictures!!

The orange and red pipes behind Matthew shot water out when you pushed the button on the pole. One of them had a snake head on it and made noises when the water shot out.

We tried getting the kiddo's to pose together but that became too difficult. Julianna was trying her best to hold Matthew's hand for a picture but he was wanting to walk through the mist instead.

I'm not kidding when I say he had a blast! I could NOT get him to leave. Even after I dried him off he climbed off the park bench and wanted to head back out into the water!

Walking through the misters

On top of this pole were little buckets that would fill up with water. Once they were full they would topple over and the water would fall out. At one point Matthew was standing right under a bucket at the perfect time. He really liked getting the water dumped on him! He kept walking back over there to see if it would happen again.

When I asked Matthew if he was having fun he signed "more"! I think he thought we were about to leave.

Two cute kids having lots of fun!!

When we were finished we went back to the Belcher's house for lunch.

Matthew had SO much fun and I enjoyed watching him having a good time. It's amazing how your heart warms when you watch your child enjoy what they are doing!!

After lunch Matthew and I headed back home. By the time we got to the end of their street Matthew was passed out in his car seat. He ended up sleeping 3 1/2 hours that afternoon (he usually naps for about an hour and a half - TOPS)! Ashley and I decided this play date is a definite must for the future!!!

Time is never lost with great friends!

This past weekend we were able to spend a few days with our friends Ben and Herdis who were visiting from Norway! Two years ago Bryan and I packed our things and headed to Bergen, Norway to see them get married and, unfortunately, we haven't seen them since. However, when we gathered Friday night at Matt and Makinzie Heard's house in Denton it was like no time had passed at all! We enjoyed seeing Ben and Herdis Blake, Amanda Musick, Matt and Makinzie Heard, Ryan Komo (not sure how to spell the rest of his last name), and meeting Janet (don't remember her last name). Bryan was also excited to have everyone meet Matthew for the first time. The really neat thing about this group of friends is Ben, Amanda, Bryan, Matt, Makinzie, and Ryan all grew up together in Abilene and have known each other since elementary school.

On Saturday my parents came over to keep Matthew so we could go back to Denton kid free. Bryan and I stopped at Cracker Barrel on the way up to enjoy dinner together before meeting everyone (the other group had a late lunch). Once we arrived we decided to go bowling-girls vs. boys!!

-- Side Note: Mark "Rex" Gibson joined us on Saturday night. I like it when Mark is around because he is HILARIOUS, I could just sit and watch him for hours.--

Well, as you can imagine, the boys creamed us in bowling! Despite having a team name, the girls really stunk, our only good player was Amanda! After admitting defeat the group decided they were hungry so we all gathered at Fuzzy's Taco's after meeting Ian McDonald. Bryan and I didn't eat but we enjoyed their good sweet tea and a Dr. Pepper. I definitely want to go back to that place because it looked really good.

After dinner we met back up at the Heard's house. Makinzie is an awesome hostess! She had all her outside furniture in a circle with a table of snacks and drinks in the middle. There were tiki torches surrounding the furniture to keep the bugs away, well as much as you can keep them away during the summer. Bryan and I had a lot of fun reminiscing about our trip to Norway (most of the group was there as well) and catching up with everyone. But all good things have to end and around 1:00 AM we decided we should leave. We really did not want to leave but knew we had to get up early for church the next morning so we said our goodbye's. Hopefully we don't have to wait another 2 years to get together!!

Here are a few photo's of our trip to Norway

The guys being guys at the rehearsal dinner

The Bride and Groom: Herdis and Ben

Some people decided to jump off this Fjord (kind of like a cliff). Here's Bryan (and Matt and Ryan) waiting for the jelly fish to clear out so he could jump. Looking back I'm not sure why I approved this adventure!!

Ready, Set, GO!!

Bryan said the water was FREEZING!!

Here's Bryan climbing out of the water.

Ben and his brothers (David and Matthew) decided to jump together!

Can you believe the picture below was taken around 11 PM?!?! Since Norway is so far North, during the summer the sun hardly sets. The sky would look like dusk for a few hours and then the sun would come out again.

Please excuse our tired faces, we had flown in that afternoon! At that point I had only had 4 hours of sleep in the past 36 hours, I was 3 months pregnant and not feeling great, AND the airlines lost my luggage - I had to go to the rehearsal dinner in my black pajama pants and a t-shirt. What a great first impression!!

After the rehearsal dinner we all went back to the apartment most of the group was staying at and Makinzie was soooooooo nice in letting me borrow her shower stuff so I could shower. When I was finished this is the scene I saw in the living room. Everyone grabbed a musical instrument (or made one up) and they were singing songs together. So cool!!

From left to right: Erlend Helland, Adam and Angie Willis, Ryan Komo, part of Matt

From left to right: David Blake, Dan, Erlend, Adam

From left to right: Close up of Matt Heard, Leah Green, Makinzie Heard, Amanda Musick (with an awesome face!), Matthew Blake, David Blake, Dan

Thankfully after Bryan and I made our way back to the Bed and Breakfast where we were staying, we found my suitcase sitting in our room!!!

Here we are waiting for the wedding to start!

The Ceremony

Erlend was her "Man of Honor"!

Some of Herdis' family wore the traditional outfits

This is Herdis' brother who we stayed with while we were in Oslo

Can you believe the church they were married in was built in 1160??

Bryan and I outside the church

They rented a tour train to take us to the reception!

Here's Bryan, Me, Angie and Adam Willis, and Matt Heard

On the way to the reception the driver stopped at this photo spot. Isn't it Beeeeutiful!!!

Ryan Komo

The sweet couple dancing

Sooooo, after the reception we decided to take pictures since Bryan and I were leaving for the rest of our vacation early the next morning. The girls had no problems posing! The boys on the other hand......

From left to right: Angie Willis, Amanda Musick, Makinzie Heard, ?? Peterson (I can't remember her name-I had only met her during that trip), and Me

Here's our "sorority" group pose. We were really just trying being silly!!

And now for the MANY photo's of the boys since they couldn't seem to get their act together!!

Adam and Matt Peterson (He's married to the girl I couldn't remember the name of)

Adam, Matt, Matt, and Bryan down front - I have NO idea what he's doing

Adam, Matt, Matt, Bryan, Ryan (I love Adam's pose in this picture!!)

This one is better

Ryan, Matt, Adam, Bryan, and Matt

And Finally!!

Matt , Bryan, Matt, Adam, Ryan

Yeish!!!

I started blogging after this vacation. I'll upload some pictures from our entire trip later. After Bergen we visited Flam and Oslo in Norway, and Copenhagen, Denmark!! We had tons of fun!!