If I Ever Get Back to Oklahoma, Gonna Nail My Feet to the Ground.

I'm sure if you're from Oklahoma then you've heard this song before, but it is a favorite of mine because I love my home state of Oklahoma a lot. I am beyond excited to share some super exciting news. Aaron and I will be moving back to Oklahoma in 2 short weeks. Aaron got a job at a wildlife management area about 1.5 hours South of my hometown. We are ecstatic and so excited about this new adventure and opportunity. We found out today that Aaron starts his job in two weeks so mass chaos is about to ensue. We have so much to pack, we have to find a place to live, I have to find a job, etc. My brain has been going ninety-to-nothing with a million different emotions and I can't stop thinking about how huge my to-do list is.

And then I think about being an hour and a half from my family, my best friends, two and a half hours from Aaron's family, an hour and a half from the majority of all my college friends, and super close to a decent sized city and shopping and I just want to scream and jump for joy. 

And then I think how much I will miss Mammoth and all the wonderful friend's we've made, the beautiful scenery, the quiet and slow pace of life here, all the fun things to do outdoors, all my friend's adorable babies that I've gotten to watch grow, my wonderful job and co-workers that I love and will miss dearly, this precious little house that Aaron proposed to me in and the first house that we lived  in after being married and it makes me want to cry. 

We will miss this place and the people in it so much, but we promise to come back and visit often. Mammoth holds a very special place in our heart and we will never forget the wonderful year we spent here during our first year of marriage. 

If you asked us if we thought we would only stay in Mammoth for a year (well, two years for Aaron, but one for me) we would have told you no. Our plan was to stay here at least three years if not more. We always thought that when we decided to start a family, we would start considering making our way closer to home. No we are not starting a family or anywhere close to that yet. 

It is quite ironic that Aaron searched long and hard for a job prior to moving here and the moment we got Arkansas, potential jobs in Oklahoma started knocking at our door. There were a lot of interviews that Aaron turned down because we didn't feel like our time here was up. We weren't ready to leave yet and it just didn't feel right. The last call he got for an interview was right up his alley and in an area we both could see ourselves living and starting a family in. He said it just felt right and he couldn't pass up the opportunity to interview. We found out about two weeks ago that he got the job. I think it will be a job that he will love and do extremely well at. As far as myself, I have no clue what I'm going to do. I'm going to keep my options open and search hard for a good job. 

Aaron and I have spent countless hours talking about our future and where we will be in 10 years and where we will be living and working. Although we don't always see eye to eye on our ideal place to live (I'm a city girl, he's a country boy) we both agree that Oklahoma will always be home and no matter how much we have loved living in Arkansas, we have always missed Oklahoma and we are thrilled to be moving back. We are certain it is the right decision for us and there is way more opportunity for us to blossom and grow there.

This picture was taken almost two years ago on August 14, 2012....the day before Aaron moved to Mammoth and also the day before he proposed to me while moving into our rent house. Crazy to think that 2 years later, almost to the day we will be moving out.....tear ;(

We are looking forward to dinners with family and friends, holiday parties, shopping, a 24 hr gym, more places to eat out, and most of all we are looking forward to not having a 7 hour drive home!!!

St. Louis Trip!

We spent this past weekend in St. Louis with my two best friends from childhood and their husbands. It was somewhat of a central meeting place for us. We came from Arkansas, another couple from Tennessee, and the other from Oklahoma. It was our first annual trip. We plan on doing this every year and hopefully going somewhere new each year. All of our wedding anniversaries fall within 4 months so we've kind of deemed it as our "annual anniversary trip". 

We got into town around noon on Friday. We had lunch on the patio at Three Kings Pub on the Delmar Loop. After lunch we did a little shopping and exploring of the area. We managed to find a few items we couldn't live without at a really cute store called Pitaya. You should go there if you're ever in the area.

Friday night we had dinner and drinks and then headed to a Cardinals game. The weather could not have been more perfect and the Cardinals won. It was a great night and we really enjoyed the game. Originally, we weren't going to see a game on this trip, but we all decided we should do it. Aaron and I were really glad we did. 

 Love these beautiful girls.

The whole gang.

The biggest St. Louis t-shirt emblem I've ever seen.

Did you know they mow the arch into the outfield? If you're blonde then you'll ask your husband what the circle in the outfield is for....and then your best friend will ask the same exact question hours later. Thank goodness we're on the same page :)

Saturday we got up and took a tour of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. Holy cow that place is huge and it was very interesting to see. 

Saturday night we went to a fancy dinner at Charlie Gitto's italian restaurant. It was AH-MAZING! We indulged in some delicious desserts afterwards and had to roll ourselves out of the place. 

Sunday we woke up and went to the St. Louis Zoo. You know you're getting old when you go on a vacation and no one has kids, but you go to the zoo for fun. I must say, I wasn't all that impressed with the zoo. It was free so that was nice and we did see one super cool thing that was the highlight of our zoo trip.

 We got to see a baby Joey come out of his/her momma's pouch. It was seriously the cutest thing ever.

 You could tell he/she was new at the whole walking/hopping thing. It jumped way up in the air and face planted it in the grass. It was so funny and so cute. I thought that it might have been the first time for it to come out of the pouch. I didn't know if they went back in once they came out, but I looked it up afterwards and sure enough, they do go back in the pouch after they come out for the first time. You learn something new everyday.

 Bahaha. We never miss an opportunity to put our faces in these things.

We're so thankful for these sweet friends and the time we get to spend with them. Since we all live far away from each other, we really do cherish weekends like this one. Already looking forward to next year. We've talked about a few places to visit next, but if you have any suggestions, let me know. Love you guys. Thanks for such a wonderful weekend!

Branson with the In-Law's!

Two days after we returned from Red River, we were back on the road again to Branson, Missouri to spend 4th of July weekend with Aaron's family. His parents rented a cabin right outside of Branson, next to Big Cedar Lodge. It was the perfect little cabin....complete with jacuzzi tubs, a hot tub on the deck, sand volleyball, basketball, golfing, fishing, and so much more. We had a blast just hanging out, shopping, and relaxing. It was a great weekend!

The three brothers and I went golfing on Friday morning. We played Scrambles. Aaron and I played terrible, just like we did at the family reunion. We are more "for fun" golfers and we're A-OKAY with that.

 Aaron

 The baby bro.

 The big bro.

 Pretend like I'm not Casper the friendly ghost ;)

 I loved that they put up festive flags on their greens. 

 The brosef's

Me and the hubs

Friday night we watched fireworks at Big Cedar Lodge. It was a huge show and so many people were there.

Waiting on the show to start.

Saturday morning we got up at the crack of dawn and took Aaron's brother's boat out fishing. 

 They each caught a few fish.

Saturday afternoon was spent shopping at Tanger Outlet....I love that place. Saturday evening we grilled out on the back deck and hung out at the cabin.

Sunday afternoon we went to Top of the Rock for the most amazing Sunday brunch. It was seriously a feast. It was super fancy, had some amazing views, and we were able to enjoy our brunch on our own little private balcony with some pretty great weather. They have a ridiculously nice golf course, wine tasting, museum, multiple restaurants, a cave tour, etc. It just recently opened up. It is definitely worth seeing. If you're in the Branson area, I highly recommend you go and try the Sunday brunch. 

 The practice range on the golf course. Have you ever seen so many sand pits? Yeah, right. 

 They also have this gorgeous wedding chapel. The back is all windows overlooking the cliff. Beautiful.

 My favorite picture of Aaron's family.

A huge thanks to Aaron's mom and dad for such a great weekend! We love you guys.

Stay tuned for another recap of a super fun weekend getaway with our favorite couples and a really exciting announcement...EEKKK!!!!

3rd Annual Family Reunion- 2014

A couple weeks ago we spent a week on vacation in Red River, NM for our 3rd annual family reunion with my dad's side of the family. Before I show you how much fun we had, let's recap in pictures the last 3 years.

 2012-Watonga, OK 

 2013-We replaced the reunion with our wedding in Oklahoma. 

2014- Red River, NM

Every year we make a family t-shirt and each individual family gets to choose their color. This year the t-shirts were a surprise to most because we had a little something special on them.

5 of my cousins turned 40 in the last year so we surprised them with a birthday celebration and a t-shirt with their baby pictures on them.

 While the old farts went to pick up the pizza we decorated the game room, put on our t-shirts, got the cake ready, and blew our noise makers. I think they were a little curious, but for the most part they were surprised.

This year we started a new tradition of having a family challenge. We split the family up in to three different teams and we kept score while playing a variety of different games. My family is super competitive so there was a lot of smack talking, practicing, and strategics going on.

These were the three teams:

 Gary's team

 Rex's team

and the coolest team....Bruce's team

We were scored based on these games:

 1. Baseball- Each team member got one pitch and you had to hit the ball to get a point. It was great because some of the kids smacked the crud out of the ball and some of the grownups whiffed it....not going to name any names. Aaron got up there and broke the bat and the whiffle ball. Way to go Aaron.

 Three legged pillow relay race.

 Egg toss. You should have seen how intense this game was. I honestly didn't know if the kids would make it through the first toss, but they were amazing and so good at it.

 Kennedy was pumped! Love this picture of her.

 Look at those faces.....they are serious about this.

Kaylee and I were the only ones that broke egg all over ourselves. YUCK!

 Golf in Angel Fire was also a part of the competition. 

This was the winning golf team.

 This was the blindfold football game. You have 3 people blindfolded. The first person snaps the ball, the second person has to set it up for the kicker and the third person kicks it. The only person allowed to talk is the coach who is not blindfolded. We timed each team and the team with the fastest time won. I think the winning team got it down to around 15 seconds. It was pretty funny to watch.

 Wheel barrel races.

 It was a pretty close race.

 Until Trevor and Colby fell.

 And tried to stop Justin and Steph from finishing.

We also played this really cool frisbee game. After watching this one, we are for sure going to buy the supplies to play at our next cookout. Everybody loved this game.

 We tallied up all the points and announced the winning team!

 They were so excited. The winning team gets to take home a traveling trophy with a plaque that has their team name on it. The team leader gets to keep it the entire year, until the next year when it goes to the next winning team.

Team Gary won...not quite sure how with the uncoordinated people they have on their team ;) Just kidding, but really they didn't even have faith in themselves when we announced the teams and they ended up winning it all...kinda funny!

We also swam, tubed down a mountain, rode go-karts, fished, opened Christmas presents (we do Christmas in July), rode a ski lift up a mountain, had lunch, and played frisbee golf. It was an absolute blast and I loved every minute of it.

Love my family! 

 My Me-Ma and her three boys.

 Me-Ma and all her great grandkids.

 Me-Ma and her grandkids. We were missing a few...sad you guys couldn't come. We missed you!

 So sweet!

Love my Me-Ma!

I'm so glad we decided to start doing a family reunion trip every year. It is always so much fun and I look forward to it all year. It's so hard for everyone to get together at once, but this has been the perfect solution. We are already brainstorming ideas for next year. So far, we're thinking Lake of the Ozarks, MO. Can't wait!