Family

This past week held a few major milestones for us around here and was a bit of a whirlwind but still really fun. Monday was my mom and dad's 30th anniversary and Thursday was my Grandma and Grandpa's 60th anniversary. I do think that it is amazing that both of these couples have been married for so long and I'm really proud to have that example in my life. For Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary my Aunt Carol and my cousins Landon and Laura came for a visit. We had a simple dinner with Gma and Gpa's neighbors on Thursday night to celebrate with them, pretty low key and just what they wanted. I love my grandparents and I'm glad that we got to honor them this week.

Landon, Laura, Sophie, and I...the cousins (minus ben and michele)
Sophie...

A yummy cake plus pictures of gma and gpa on their first date, their engagement pic, their wedding pic, and their 50th anniversary pic
Grandma looking at her new necklace from Grandpa, "60 years, no regrets"
Grandpa's toast
Mom and Aunt Carol's toast
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Also we (Sophie, Laura, Tate, Kristen, and I) went to the mountains on Friday, which was awesome. It was my first time up this summer and we went to my 2 favorite places in Rocky Mountain National Park and I just really love those girls and it was fun to hang out with them.

I agree...

This is what the totally reliable quiz online said so I should probably follow it...

You Should Spend Your Summer at the Beach

You're a free spirit who is always thinking of new ways to have fun. And you don't just love summer... you live for it. So, you really should blow off your responsibilities and head to the beach!

Where Should You Spend Your Summer?

Country USA

I got back last night from Wisconsin where I was working for my dad running camera at Country USA. It's this huge country music festival that lasts for 5 days and had over 175,000 people come through this year. My dad is in charge of taping the bands that then goes on the 2 screens so that everyone can see who is performing. It's a lot of fun to hang out with my dad for those 5 days and then crew that goes is always a lot of fun. We had a bit of an adventure this year when the farmer who lives behind the site was pissed about the noise and decided to get back at the festival owner by shooting his rifle during one of the breaks. It was really freaky because no one really knew what was going on and it freaked me right out for sure. But they caught him and all his shooting friends. It was lots of fun though even though I'm pretty sure I've heard enough country music for awhile...

Here's the crew...
and the festival site from the air...

Who not What

So far this summer has been defined more by who I've been with rather than what I've been doing this summer. Coming out of this year of school I knew that what my heart, my mind, my soul needed was some rest and refreshment...and so far I have found that in these past few weeks. I was at Jason Stocker's concert last Tuesday night sitting at a table with my Mom, Tate, Michele, Kristen, Debbie, Gloria, Janelle, and others and I was overwhelmed by this room packed with people who I have known for so long and it just felt good to all be there together. I had this image of all these little strings connecting people and representing this community that we have somehow built. And then the sad thing is that we are getting more and more spread out. I guess this is more of a comment on how I few my circle of friends and how frustrated I am that plane tickets separate me from so many people that I love so much and who I want to do life with. I know that one thing that is scary to me about graduating from seminary is the thought of moving somewhere based on the position that is offered when really what I would want to do is move somewhere with my friends and do life together...idealistic I know but it would be cool.

Next week my Aunt Carol and cousins Landon and Laura are coming out so that we can all celebrate my Grandparents 60th anniversary. It's really just so great to have grandparents that are still around and involved in our lives and I think it's amazing that they have been married this long!

Then the week after that I'm packing in a great trip that involved lots of time with some people who make me a better person for sure. I'm heading out to Kansas with Tate and some junior high girls and while they are at camp I will fly to Florida to see Matt, Melissa, Bryce, and Lily Christensen and spend the 4th of July there. Then at the end of the week I will come back to Kansas City to stay with Drew, Lindsey, and Elijah Osborne for a few days. Linz and Melissa I can't wait to see a bit of your worlds!

I love the people in my life...

Summer so far

Life is pretty relaxed and a bit random these days, but the rest and the refreshing change of pace feels really great. Here are a few highlights of the past few weeks...

A week ago we went to one of Ben's rehearsals for their summer tour. One of the things that Ben has started to do for their tours is to help design the look of the stage with the lights and set and everything and this tour is the biggest visual set they have had yet. As proud as I always am of Ben, it was so amazing to see what he helped do with this tour. Another thing about watching them that night that I appreciated was that they are doing their cover of "hips don't lie" on their show and when they play they song it just makes me laugh so dang hard. Way to go Ben, we can't wait to watch you rock it at red rocks in August! ( this is a picture of one of the "looks" of their show)





Along the lines of concerts, Sophie and I kicked of the summer concert season with the John Mayer / Ben Folds show at Red Rocks Friday night. Soph had been sick the day before the show but she pulled herself together enough to go see her BFF John. We had lots of fun, and it was a beautiful night to enjoy red rocks (I freakin love that place). Here are a few pictures from our night...



















One last thing is that Sophie left on Saturday for her missions trip to Alaska. She was really excited and we are really excited for her. She was feeling a little sick when they left but I think that she will pull it together and hopefully have a really great week. This will totally sound like a pathetic big sister, but sometimes in my mind she is still 5 so the fact that she is on her first missions trip is really weird and really cool. Here's us at the airport...we are weird...

I will probably have more adventures to tell you about soon!