Throwback Thursday 8- Girlfriends- Then and Now

These are my college girlfriends!! We became friends as Freshmen at Ohio State- Jen and I lived together in Paterson Hall, Laura and Brenda lived across from us, and Jen lived off-campus, but we liked her anyway!! We all became really good friends, and even lived together our 3rd year!


Here we are in 1993/94:
Laura, Jen, me and Jen C. (now Jen H.)
We don't see Brenda anymore, but hear she is doing well- married and with kids, too.
We were so into taking pictures, and mainly of ourselves- so these are just a few of the many I found...
We just loved the camera- and apparently shirts with tons of writing- somethings change, others don't! (we still love pics, but the t-shirts, yeah, not so much!)
I remember this poster that we got for our apartment, and for some reason, we thought that it could be us when we were little girls, so there are many pictures of us with that picture in the background.
Lots of arm shots- Laura loves to take pictures, too!

And this is us now...

Jen, Me Laura and Jen H.- all OSU Grads and all moms- Laura is a mom to be- just found out!!
Laura, Jen, me and Jen H., who is due with her 2nd next week!!
Our cute hubbies at Ohio State- all Grads, too!!
Ben, Dana, Jen, Keith and Dan hanging out at Laura and Ben's house for a cookout.
And here are the products of our OSU families:
Carolyn (Jen's), Celeste, Landon (Jen H.'s), Konnor (Jen's), Leah, Alex, Makayla and Gwen(Jen's)! They are trying to do the O-H-I-O!! They are so cute!

While we were on campus, eating lunch at the stadium, a young OSU couple approached us and asked us a bunch of questions about how we all met and how many kids, and how old we all were- I am sure they were thinking, "this could be us in 10 years!" RUN!!
No, I am kidding- but seriously, we all met while attending OSU:

Jen and Keith met while we were Sophomores and she was working at Wendy's at the Union- he would come to her line everytime she worked, and finally asked her out- they have been married for nearly 12 years and have four kids!

Jen and Dan met around their Senior year, and then went to Grad school for Education together, graduating together for that degree too! They have been married almost 9 years and have a 3 year old and another on the way!

Laura graduated with me in 97, then went on to Law school at OSU, where she met Ben, a fellow law student. They graduated and are attorneys! They have been married 2 years and just found out they are due in February 2009!!

Then there is Dana and I, who met in between my Freshman/Sophomore year, and then I graduated in 97, and after his mission, he went to OSU and finished in 2002!

Is that not too fun?! We have remained friends throughout all these years and will for all to come! We love to get together when Jen is in town from Arizona, and take pics like these- it was so fun, and we love it!

Jen and her family stayed with us for nearly 4 days, and we had such a great time! We are so much alike, it can be scary- once we tricked our mom's over the phone just by our voice! She has a terrific family, and we so enjoyed our time with them. Here are some fun pics of them! Makayla, Gwen, and Leah at the sprayground.
Eating yummy burgers at Laura's house- Makayla, Gwen and Alex.
Celeste and Carolyn creating mischeif at the stadium.
All the kids hanging out where their parents love to be!
So, another Throwback Thursday for your enjoyment- I love these girls and know the importance of girlfriends- they help me be a better person- oh, how I need them for that!

Weekend at the Lake

***Disclaimer***I took 150 pictures, and even with the collages, this is a lot for one post, but I just couldn't help myself!

This was our annual weekend at the lake with my family! We have gone every summer since 2001, skipping 2002 (I was very pregnant with Leah), so this was our 7th year!! We normally go for the entire weekend, but with the growth of our families, we decided to make it just Saturday and Sunday. This worked perfectly!! The sun was never not shining! The weather couldn't have been any better- in fact, I think we had too much sun...Celeste got dehydrated, and threw up for the very first time in her life- all over the car seat!! We were only 22 miles from home, too!! That was the end to our near perfect lake vacation!
Here are the crazies:

Some shots of Dana and I with the kids...

Here are some other pictures of the clan: There were 21 people in our group- it consists of our 5, Sean's 5, my parents, our family friends, the Kinsons, their children Staci and her family, Kim, Fred and Maddy. What a bunch!! We had a blast and even got to ride the wave runner- I drove with Leah in the front and Dana behind me (sorry no pic of that), but here is Sean chasing my parents' boat as we took a ride...

Sean takes Adriana for a ride on the wave runner, too!

The girls love grandpa!!

Alex and Jared are really cute together and we hardly knew they were even there!

Sean kept throwing Jared and Alex up in the air, and they did back flips- check out the height from Jared's throw!

Going for a ride on the golf cart with Stacie.

Such cuties!

Heading down to the beach for some fireworks- more from Sean!

This is the best picture I could get- once again...not that great.

Sean and Stephanie before the show.

This one was cool, and since it was on the ground, I got a shot of it- kind of cool.

Celeste driving Grandpa's boat.

The beach was so nice this year- no seaweed, no yucky fish, just perfect water and sand!

Grandma just played with the kids in the sand, and we just focused on soaking up the rays.

The lake was so calm and so nice- what a great time we had!!

Stacie, Stephanie, Kim and I all had our last girls within a span of 6 months. So, every year, for the last 3, we have taken a photo in order of their births- here is 2006, 2007, and this year!

Stacie with Ryanne, Me and Celeste, Steph and Brianna and Kim and Maddy. So cute they are!

So, here's a recap (This was Dana's idea, by the way):

Gas for trip: $52.75

Food for trip: $25.00 (snacks we brought) $35.00 (mom bought at the store)

Wave runner gas: $30.00 (we only had $9)

Hotel: $100.00 (thanks mom and dad for paying that!)

Seeing this in the back of the van on the way home:

Priceless! (this was before the vomit, by the way!!)

Leah's Birthday Bashes!

Leah is a lucky one- she has already celebrated her birthday twice and will get one more celebration on Saturday! My parents came over on Tuesday to deliver gifts, we celebrated on Wednesday, and on Saturday, the rest of the family will observe her special day! Talk about fun- She is still excited!
So, Tuesday, my parents came out and we had dinner, with the cake you already saw, and presents from them....here are some pics of celebration #1:

Enjoying the Cherry Chip cake and ice cream!

The "best gift ever" - a trundle day bed for her American Girl Dolls! (Target's version, of course- the real AG one is $70- this one was still $50!! How can they charge that for a doll bed?!

Gracie and Sunnie love their new bed!

Leah wanted this bed, because her bed is the top one, and Celeste has the trundle that pulls out underneath- so cute!

So, that was Tuesday....on to the actual birthday!! Leah slept in till 8am, then came running in, so excited to be 6!! She ate Fruit Loops for breakfast- (we didn't even have milk!), and then it was present time- early, I know...this is how Christmas goes, though breakfast waits...Her presents from us:

Clothes for Gracie and Sunny.

A new journal!

A pillow to decorate, bubble bath, a new dress, and a microphone!!

At 12 noon, her two girlfriends came over to play!! Emily and Avery!! These girls are so sweet and so fun- they had more cake and then we went to Sonic and to the park! Leah was so happy!

We are now frequent buyers at Happy Hour at Sonic- thanks to Kim for spreading the good word!

The girls wanted to play at the playground at their school, they are so crazy- they miss it!

Climbing high!

They kept asking me to take pictures of the two of them- aren't they too funny?!

The day is not over, oh no...it is not even dinner time yet! Leah selects her favorite restaurant: Bob Evans, of course! So, we head there for food, and then on to the mall, where there was a jazz band playing and fun things in Claire's! Check out the fun here:

I couldn't resist this one of Celeste gobbling up a roll!

Listening to the jazz band- really great night for it, too!

At Libby Lu's- Leah said she wanted this chair to take home! Yeah, uh, okay.

How cute is that birthday girl?!

After our fun shopping - I am the only person who got something- a shirt from Aeropostale- we headed home. We tried to stop at McDonalds for sundaes, but their ice cream machine was being cleaned- really?! Who cleans it at 8pm?! Whatever. She had a great day without the ice cream! How lucky is she?!