Father's Day 2010

During the summer time, our family usually finds that's when we can actually get everything together.

Well, that was definitely before we started going off to college. Once I was a sophomore, I started staying down at school, and as time as progressed, Annmarie and Doug and Megan found summer jobs. So now we find December is really the month that we are all together!!! :)

Regardless of missing a few people, we still get together, and did so for Father's Day. As everyone arrived, I realized something...

I was the only girl grandkid there! I walked into the TV room and found all the boys watching a silly Lego video. It was sooooo cute!


We played games, ate dinner, and finally watched Grandpa open his gifts! Notice how close Jack and Ben are standing? Haha, they love to help!!!!


Grandkids and Grandpa this year!

Even though my dear girl cousins were missing, we still wanted a picture. We had fun playing darts, pool, playing with the tracks, and watching Legos videos. I sure love hanging out with family and can't get enough of it... even if we do see each other every week of the summer for something or another!! :)

Class of 2010 - Partay!

One really awesome thing about graduating from ISU as class of 2010, is that my cousin Megan graduated from high school this year too, and is heading to ISU. How fun is that - 1 redbird leaving and another coming from the same family!!! Because of that, and the fact that we are really close, our families decided to hold a joint graduation party at my aunt's house. Talk about fun!!!

Megan and me with our awesome cake! It was soooooo good we ran out before everyone got served!!! lol

I posed with many guests before they had to leave cuz I loved having them!!! Erin and Stephanie came to celebrate with me!

Nicole came up from ISU to hang out in the burbs and stopped by for a bit!

The Hopkins clan came to hang out and Austin and Chase sang for the guests!

After awhile, my grandparents left... I LOVE my grandma!!! She is so great!

My dear aunt and I posing before she left near the end of the night!

Megan and I were lucky enough to have extended family celebrate with us from our Italian side as well as friends from school and family friends. The next morning we opened gifts and felt SOOOO lucky for all the love and support. What a fun way to end a school year and gear up for summer and a new chapter!!!

Colgate Showdown

I don't really like Colgate toothpaste. I'm more of a Aquafresh girl. Big on the paste, not gel... and I like the minty-ness of Aquafresh. I also particularly like how the colors are the same as the Italian flag. Sooo, it's a pretty easy choice when it comes to toothpaste purchasing.

Was that where this post was going? Hahah I think not. :)

A few weeks ago (did you notice how far behind I am on blogging? My goodness!) I went with Austin, Heidi, Tony, and Jessica to watch Austin compete in the Colgate Showdown. Check out the website, it's pretty sweet! Austin got passed to this stage and was invited to play at Joe's Bar downtown on Weed Street. We were excited to support him!

Colgate Country Showdown banner behind the stage

The emcee introducing Austin! Wooohooo!!!!

Starting to sing his songs

We were so excited for him!!!

Peace!!! He did a GREAT JOB!!!! :) :)

There were eight contestants total. They ranged from solo artists, to two person groups, to full bands. It was a little strange, because how do you judge them equally? Either way, Austin did great... he played one of his songs and an Eric Church song, too. I think we did a pretty darn good job cheering for him! Haha. Well, after all the contestants sang, they announced the winner. It was a band that has headlined for another country band before! That had us pretty confused.... but it's ok, he still did great! After that, there were a few bands and then the main attraction. I have to include a picture of this guy... he's... sort of a hunk.

Yeah, Keith Anderson was the headliner for the night!!! I asked him to be my date for Stephanie's wedding and marry me. He didn't give me a straight answer to either of those questions....

So I had never heard of Keith Anderson until we went to Joe's... and I am QUITE glad we stayed for the whole thing! Ohhh yeah! And there was a big ol' surprise during his encore!

Da group at Joe's! What a cute pic!!!

Then, these guys showed up!!! Do you recognize them?? THEY'RE THE CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS!! HOLLAAA!!!

At that point, it was only Tony, Jessica, and me... and we were SCREAMING so loud!! It was amazing luck that they Stanely Cup champs showed up at the Keith Anderson concert! What an awesome memory to end a fun night!

More importantly, here is some information on Austin Hopkins. Check out his stuff, support him, and be a fan!!! He does great stuff!!

Facebook fan page: Go here
Myspace page: Go here
Bandcamp page: Go here

Yeah, this is shameless plugging, but he does deserve it! Go check it out and leave some comments, go check out his Open Mic nights, and enjoy!!!

Are you tweeting your peeps?

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Stephanie's second bridal shower. I have not and will not post about them because she does a great job in her blog! I have this gut feeling we share quite a few readers, so I will spare you repetitive details, but seriously go look at the pictures and fun times that were had at each one!

She had some relatives in town from North Carolina, and they had the idea to bring them downtown to the Field Museum. I got a text the night before inviting me! How special I feel to be invited to their family excursions! :)

The next morning we set off for Chicago with Erin has our driver. Erin, Stephanie, their two cousins, their parents, and their dad's cousins joined us. We were a big group, but let me tell you, there were some hilarious times to be had!!!

We started out with a very hilarious parking debacle and a walk over to the John Hancock building for lunch on the 95th. WOW was it yummy food. Sad part - it was probably the cloudiest day of the year. It felt like we were eating in the clouds! I didn't get many pictures of lunch, but afterward we set out for the Field.

Part of the group walked to the museum and the other part drove. I was in the group that drove and we took some pictures around museum campus and the lake!

The Field!!!

The walking group had a LONG way to walk, so the driving group went inside and took some pictures! Stephanie and her daddy in front of Sue!

We ran up to the second floor and found some fun, random statues to pose with. Stephanie - DO NOT TOUCH THE STATUES!

Since I can't find a date to Stephanie's wedding, I asked this fellow. We call him, "Form Fitting Loin Cloth Man!"

While we were goofing around on the second floor, we saw the other half of our group show up! We showed them how to get upstairs to us and then waited.

Wait!!! Elizabeth had the idea to run to the other side of the 2nd level. So while our group was walking up the stairs, the four of us sprinted to the other side. It was HILARIOUS when they got upstairs and we were waving from the other side!

Once we were on the other side, we discovered the Hall of Plants and I was basically in love. We sped through the section and realized we didn't take any pictures with me and a plant! So I found this plant to pose in front of in the dinosaur section

After the Hall of plants, we wanted to see the Mastodon exhibit... except it was already closed. We wandered over to the Egypt exhibit to catch up with the other part of our group. Stephanie hates standing on glass, but Elizabeth got her to for a quick second!

The driving group got to the museum early enough to get stamped on our hands and it was hilarious when Stephanie asked why we got pigs stamped. They are actually the spot dog from Target!

Most of the group posing in front of a gorilla. Doris, one of Uncle Ed's cousins, is missing from this very cute family picture!!! Of course, I'm pretty sure Uncle Ed is making the picture absolutely priceless....

It was a very hectic, fly by the seat of your pants sort of trip, but it was still very hilarious! From parking, to walking, to running around the museum like a bunch of delinquents, I am so lucky to have been invited along!!! Maybe I'll have to return to the Field to really look around the Hall of Plants. :) Hmm, another installment of "Things I do for fun".....