I love my sister.

Last weekend I took a trip down to visit Betsy in her new home in Arkansas. My cousin Mitchell came to visit Brock and Betsy and I had a great weekend hanging out with my cousins and sister! I took lots of pictures (mostly of Betsy) and thought I would share a few!

On Saturday morning we went to a really great craft fair in War Eagle, Arkansas. It is held at this neat old mill that has a history that goes back to before the civil war. I loved it! They had so many neat things it was overwhelming. Not surprisingly, we purchased more food that anything else. :) Here are some pics from the fair...











Then Betsy got a little sassy with the camera...







As you saw in some earlier pictures, the Mill is built right next to a bridge. There are so many people at this craft fair that they only allow people to cross one way at a time so you have to wait in line to get across. I can't remember who came up with the idea to just walk across the river, but I know it wasn't me! Brrrr, that water was cold! And by the time we got across the water, played in the sand, and got our shoes back on, I don't think we saved any time. It was fun though. :)





Betsy and Mitt found a random red string sticking out of the sand. It led to this hunt to find the treasure it was connected to...because aren't all red strings connected to treasure? :)



Inside the Mill....it is still in full operation!



Lots of the food came fried and on a stick. That is my kind of food.



After a day at the craft fair, we all went home and took naps. Then Bets and I headed out to a KU watch party for the KU-OU football game. Apparently, all the other NW Arkansas KU grads didn't expect for the game and decided not to show. There was only three of us. :) But we had a blast anyways watching KU really hold their own against such a great team. I really think that the Jayhawks are on the rise and I expect some great things from Turner Gill! Rock Chalk!



Before we went to the watch party, Betsy let me practice my photo skills with her in their backyard and then a couple places up and down the road around their house. We were kind of chasing the sun the whole time (our lazy afternoon ran a little long...oops!) but I think we got some really great shots. It helps that my sister was one of the most naturally gorgeous people I know and would have looked great with her hair up in a pony tail or wearing a burlap sack. She was so great to just indulge me and I think we got some really great shots. Of course, we still got a few blooper shots. Like this first one.... :)







Pretty much every picture I took makes me jealous of hair. She has the best hair.







Fun Fact about Betsy: She is double jointed. So her arms do weird things that sometimes make it look like her head has done a 180 on her neck. Weird.



Sassy Betsy...













She loves those cowboy boots. She always said if she had to wear one shoe for the rest of her life...those boots would be it!













These last couple were some of my favorites even though they were blurry. My sister laughs...a lot....usually at her own jokes. But that's ok, because she is really funny. These are blurry because I was laughing, too and not holding my camera very still. I still love them though. :)





I already miss my her. Can't wait to go back to Arkansas!

Last Wedding of the Season!

For the past two months Robby and I have been to A LOT of weddings. While at times it has been stressful to try and get to all of them, we also feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends in our life that want us to be part of their big days. The wedding we went to this past weekend was for a friend of Robby's that he went to school with from pre-kindergarten through high school graduation. They also attended KU together before Robby transferred over to MNU. We have gotten really close with Dan and Kristen over the past few years and couldn't be more excited they are moving closer to us! In the past year they have gotten engaged, moved to KC, planned a wedding, and in two weeks they will be moving to Wichita! Their ceremony was in a BEAUTIFUL Catholic church in downtown Peoria, Illinois with a gorgeous reception to follow. Here are some of our pics from that weekend!

I rode up to Illinois with Rob and Ann since Robby had to work and wouldn't be able to leave until later. He then drove up to KC late Friday night, hopped on the first flight out of KC to Chicago, and then from there took a teeny tiny plane to Peoria where he made it the church ten minutes before the rest of the wedding party showed up. He then rode back with us on Sunday. Lots of time on the road, but since Rob drove the whole way there and back, I just spent the time in the car drifting in and out of naps. :) It was some much needed sleep. Rob and Ann's 34th wedding anniversary was on Saturday, so the way to Peoria we stopped at the restaurant Rob and Ann got engaged at....Mark Twain Chicken Palace in Hannibal, Missouri. :) It was neat to see a place that has so much meaning to them! So of course, we had to take a picture out front.



With all the weddings we've had, I have been seeing these girls every two or three weeks. I don't know what we're going to do now that we don't have any more wedding get-togethers to look forward to!



I loved seeing Dan's two sisters and sister-in-law watching Kristen walk up the aisle. Dan is the youngest and the last to get married...Kristen is the final piece to their little family puzzle!



Kristen and her dad coming down the aisle...and Dan's face as he sees his bride.











The picture below is probably my favorite from the whole day. I just love it!









I was bummed this pic was a little blurry (I had manually changed the focus point on my camera for earlier pics and forgot to change it back when I handed off my camera, so the man behind us in focus instead of us. Oops!), but I liked it enough to still post it. Isn't Robby looking so handsome!



One inside the beautiful church!



A great group of great friends!



After the wedding we got on a party bus for a while that drove us around Peoria while the wedding party jumped off and on and different locations to take pictures. I got a few pics, but they were all really close up (cramped quarters) so I decided to just skip straight to reception pics. :)

This picture makes me laugh...I feel like you see this expression on a lot of newlywed couples cutting their cake. Cutting wedding cakes is much more difficult than it looks! It is hard to get out a piece small enough not to be too messy, but big enough to take a bite of!



I miss this girl! Katie is the wife of Robby's best friend Will...but has become one of my closest friends along the way! We have very similar views on a lot of things and are interested in the same topics....which causes our sweet husbands to roll their eyes at many of conversations (lots of them revolving around weddings or babies....we love both!). :)



Some of the wives...unfortunately we were missing the bride! We all get along great, which I'm sure our husbands love. Robby's friends all picked very well. :)





These two couples share an anniversary now!



Out for a slow spin on the dance floor.



Now on to some real dancing pictures. It was the first Lebanese wedding I had ever been to and I LOVED it! All the Dabke dancing (I had to look that up to double check the spelling), finger cymbals, and the "ya-ya-ya-ya-ing" (the ladies would all shout that as they danced) was SO fun. I could have stayed on the dance floor all night! It is so high energy!









This one is blurry but it made me laugh so I had to put up here...



Classic Adam Alter...





One last pic with the Messamores...



And finally, the end of the night....we may not look tired, but by this time we were totally beat! Good thing we got to sleep in the car most of the way home the next day!




Congrats Dan and Kristen! Couldn't be happier for you!

Now that the wedding season is over for us, I'm excited to spend more weekends at home working on the house! Hopefully you will see lots of updates and projects rolling across this blog soon!