Jake and Aubrie are ENGAGED... finally!

This past weekend my whole family plus some of our family friends traveled to Boston for the Baylor game versus UConn. The football game was exciting, and the trip was inspiring, but the best part happened on the tour of Fenway Park. While we were there... my brother proposed to his girlfriend of almost 5 years! Aubrie was shocked, her family was thrilled, and Jake was beaming! I'm so excited that Aubrie will be my sister-in-law. We could not have asked for a better addition to our family! Congratulations, guys. We love you both!

Restaurant Week in Dallas

*** I forgot to add one thing: It's confusing enough that there are two Rachael/Rachel's in the group, but the other two girls are both named Lindsey! :)

A few weeks ago Rachael and Matt Clark invited us to go with them and some of their friends (mostly from Tech) to the Capital Grille down in the Uptown area. It was KRLD's Restaurant Week in Dallas, so we got an expensive steak (and salmon for Brian) dinner for only $35 and part of it was a donation to the local food bank. Dinner was so good and the company was even better! Thanks for including us!

The whole gang

The two Rachel/Rachael's... it'd be easier if we spelled it the same...

Fat and happy after dinner...

On Friday Brian and I went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus at the American Airlines Center. Dani and David, Caylin, and Ryan Nix joined us. It was Brian's first time to go to the circus, and I hadn't been since high school. We had high expectations and were not disappointed. It was so much fun! We all left singing the theme song of the show, and it didn't stop until we got back to Caylin's apartment. 

Enjoy the pictures!

Babysitting Kinley Marie

Well, I've really enjoyed getting to keep my neice, Kinley, a few times in the last couple of weeks. She's almost 10 months old now, and full of personality. I'm so thankful that we live relatively close to Keith and Loree, so we get to know her and be around her as she grows up. Here are a few pictures of us playing!

Kinley loves her learning table

She was confused by the camera blinking at us

since I put in on the timer

All you need to make a kid happy is a laundry basket! 

Precious smile

Babysitting with my sister

Week before last, my sister, Anna, spent the night with Brian and I. We loved having her, and I think she enjoyed it too. She and I did lots of fun things during the day on Thursday, and then Brian took us out to eat at Steak & Ale for dinner. On Friday morning, she went with me to babysit the Porch girls. She was a big help, and the girls loved her. She took a "Safe Sitter" course this summer, so it was a good chance for her to get to practice. In fact, she did a great job changing her first diaper! I just wanted to brag on my little sister, so enjoy the pictures below. She's getting so big, so fast. (She'd want me to mention that she now wears a bigger shoe size than me. It won't be long before she passes me in height. But we all know that's not saying much...)

The twins with Anna

Anna reading to Emma Jane

I put the camera on a timer! Aren't I smart?!

We forgot to take pictures while Mollie was there!

It's been a while...

You know what's ironic? I check for other people's blog updates daily (sometimes more than once a day!), and get frustrated when their posts are more than a week old. Here I am, updating ours more than 10 days after my last entry. Yikes! I will try to do better :) 

A lot has happened, but I'll try to hit the highlights:

1) I finished school... forever! Thursday was the last day of my internship and I turned in a paper for my final. Pretty exciting! I have a few loose ends to tie up with some paperwork and then graduation check-out is August 4th. For some reason this year, UTD decided not to have a summer graduation ceremony, so I will not be walking, but I pick up my diploma on August 23rd - my actual graduation day! I can't believe I'm already done with grad school. At times, it seemed like I would be in school for the rest of my life, but looking back it really flew by. Now, I am going to thoroughly enjoy the fact that I never have to go back to school again (except that I'll probably work in a school one day...), and start looking for jobs. Brian would probably like me to hurry up with that, but it's nice just to breathe and enjoy being a little bit lazy! 

2) We went to Austin this weekend for Brian's Xterra off-road triathlon. These are a little different than a normal triathlon. First, they swam 1000 meters in a lake/river and they had to get up and run in shallow water for part of it. Then there was a 14 mile mountain bike ride. Brian and a lot of the other riders felt like it was one of the most technical courses they'd ever ridden. Finally, they had a 5 mile trail run. Parts of it were so steep that they had to pull themselves up by ropes that had been attached to trees. It was hot, but it started early so we were done around noon... before it got really hot! Brian did great... he said it was pretty difficult but he ended up doing better than he thought he would. His finishing time was just at 3 hours. Mia and I were his cheerleaders. We tried to stay hydrated and cool in the shade while were waiting for Brian to finish. Mia was very well behaved... several people commented on it... which makes me so proud of my sweet puppy! Also, I got really excited because there were two other Weims (that's for you, mom) there with their owner. Her husband was the medic on call out there, so we let the dogs play for a while during the race. One of her dogs was 2 years old and the other was 5 months! It was so fun to play with a young puppy again!

3) While we were in Austin, we also got to see Jenni and Kyle... the brand new Kriegles! We got to go see their new apartment and they took us to eat at The Oasis, a popular spot in Austin, overlooking Lake Travis. Amanda Smith just happened to be visiting in Austin the same weekend, so she got to join us for dinner too! It was so much fun! Brian and I love being able to catch up and keep in touch with good friends from college.

Here are a few pics from the weekend!

At the Oasis

Finishing the race

Mia supporting her daddy at the triathlon

The other weims we saw at the race

Independence Day 2008

I know I'm a little slow, but better late than never. I've been busy, people. Brian and Mia and I spent the weekend of the 4th of July at my grandparents lake house, err... lake trailer out in the little west Texas town of Breckenridge. We've been going out there since I was about 6 or 7, and it's always so much fun... minus the fire ants! It's a little on the white-trash side, but we love it! This year I think we crammed more people into that double-wide trailer than ever before. Let's see... Nana and Papa, my mom and dad and Anna and Luke (Jake was out of town with Aubrie's family), me and Brian and Mia, my Uncle and Aunt and 3 cousins, one of them brought a friend plus their 2 dogs, Greg, Pam and Hannah Hill, and my other cousin Katie... I think that brings our total to 18 people and 3 dogs. Pretty impressive, huh? Brian and I drove down there on Thursday night and stayed until Saturday afternoon. We ate a lot, played in the lake, laid out, played cards, went fishing, played with sparklers, put on our own fireworks show, experienced a brush fire, and taught Mia to fetch and swim in the water!

Enjoy the pictures below!

Brian's artful photography

Another one of Brian's cool photography ideas...

This is how Mia watched the fireworks for most of the night.

Nana directing us in a patriotic sing-along.

I think it was "America, the Beautiful".

Playing our favorite card game at the moment, Nertz.

A boy and his dog.

Brian was very proud that Mia finally liked getting in the water.

 

Hannah and Anna

Anna is thrilled her name is completely inside hANNAh's