new house

The big house news is that there is hardly any house news. Just kidding....actually the streets were finally laid so we are being told ground breaking will be in the next week or two. That's when the fun begins! Weeeeeee.

 Streets!!! YAY!! Been waiting for TWO months for streets.

 Decaln "in his room". Yes, we are in a drought... Ha!

friends

I feel like our friend group is pretty small. Everyone is so busy that I'm thankful to have a handful of great people in our life. These past few weeks we've been able to not only spend time with those we see on a regular basis, but those who we rarely. So blessed.

Courtney and I went to high school together. We had an instant connection over boy band crushes, real life boy crushes, singing Lauryn.Hill at the top of our lungs and making fun of ourselves. We had a great dinner out when she was home from Texas recently.

 Chris and Megan are both JBU grads (where I went to college) though we didn't meet until after our JBU years. Ahem, semester. (Not my fault---Mark lured me back to L-town). The 4 of us bonded years ago and really enjoy long dinners out where we talk about any and everything. This particular dinner was nearly 4 hours long. They're the best.

 Kevin (far right) is another high school friend. He met Makiko at the University and they married years later and settled in Japan. They have the most darling little girl, Lina. Loved seeing them as they visited Lincoln recently!

Nathan and I were connected at the hip all through Junior High. We thought we were really cool but I'm sure we just annoyed everyone around us with our secret stories that made us burst in to laughter. Regardless, some of my best memories were born at Johnson Lake high on Mountain.Dew+Hawaiian.Punch or on various retreats or trips. We had the opportunity to celebrate Nathan and his beautiful new bride Alyson. They live in NYC and Mark and I absolutely need to visit them soon.

 Linda and I have known each other over 10 years through our husbands but have hung out way more over the last few years. Our boys love each other and there is just something so natural about our friendship. This night, her and my bestie Kristi were out on a girls night. We had yummy ice cream, talked for hours at a coffee shop and even wrapped up the night at a local restaurant. So thankful for those ladies in my life!

*Color * Run*

Somehow a couple weeks ago I was talked in to doing the Color.Run in Omaha. I've been running off and on for a year but I haven't ran in forever so I was a little nervous. Last week I decided to run 3 miles and make sure I'd survive. I did, but it was hard.

Saturday we were all decked out in white and ready to roll.

There were 13,000 runners and we wanted to be in wave 1 so we stood in line ready to start for over an hour. The twist? It was 100 degrees and humid. Oh boy, it was toasty.

The Color.Run is a 5k where you run through different color stations. As you run through the stations, you are doused in colored corn starch. This was the blue station:

After the orange station (which got me good):

I've got to be honest...this race was TOUGH. I have never ran in heat. This was full sun, open road, and hilly. Holy crap, it was over my head. I haven't been working out or been eating many carbs (though I loaded up the morning of the race). I was dizzy and my head pounded the entire time. My husband was texting me during the race because he was worried. Fortunately my running partner slowed to my pace and made sure I was okay. After we passed the finish line, I opted to go rest next to the medic tent just in case. My friend captured this pic:

 Overall, HOT, but fun. I'd be down for another Color.Run in different weather conditions. They are all over so if you see one near you, go for it!!

zoo fun

We are lucky to have such a great little zoo just blocks away. With our membership, we don't feel guilty just stopping in for an hour here or there. Saturday Declan was excited to ride the horses for the first time. Our little cowboy:

 This is Leo, the paper eating lion. I remember feeding him paper as a little kid. Favorite spot.

iDump

We are having such a fun summer!!! It includes lots of swimming. :) For a change of pace we went to our only local spray park. To my son's delight, there was an ice cream truck that makes regular rounds (smart man). Even better? They had Sonic ice cream. For some odd reason, Declan is obsessed with Sonic. Oh the joy:

 

My adorable niece and sister in law:

 We have been getting lots of swimming time with the cousins lately:

 We even have our own little water park:

 Very difficult to eat ice cream when it's 105 outside:

 Celebrating Papa's birthday!! Such a good time!

 We started swim lessons this week and Declan loved it!! He keeps saying "remember, that time when I had swim lessons?" Yep, little man, I remember. We have 3 more lessons lined up. Excited to see him progress.

 Usually, this is what happens by the time we leave the pool parking lot:

 Friday night we had box seats at the baseball game per one of our vendors at work. Such fun times with my little cheeseball:

 

a sweltering good time

Mark's been in Chicago with friends so I've been trying to fill our time as to preserve my sanity. Last night, after only being home for a couple hours from swimming, Declan was climbing the walls so I made the last minute decision to go to an outdoor concert at our local mall. At 7:30, this was still the temp, blech:

Regardless, we embraced the heat and settled in at the concert. Declan lasted half a song sitting with me before he was up dancing and entertaining hundreds of people. He is uninhibited and outgoing! He soon took a break and walked right up to this couple (I didn't know) and sat with them.

We ended up hanging out with this couple the rest of the concert. Ah, to be "uncomfortably friendly" as I call it. Fortunately these folks were easy to talk with and we were no longer strangers after Declan broke down all walls. I feel like adults should be more like kids sometimes, ya know?

And my little sweaty, dancing, social butterfly shook his grove thing all the way to the car.

Declan, you are so active and exhausting. You need constant entertainment and attention. You get comments from everyone in your life about your energy (which can be hard to handle). BUT, darling boy, you are sooooo sweet and lovable. You are kind and friendly. People are drawn to you and your inquisitive mind. You put smiles on people's faces tonight with you dancing and your waving. You have your own style and groove in life and you are super silly. Wouldn't want you to be any other way than exactly the way you are.

iDump

Saturday we had a long awaited date night. Despite the high temps, we sat on the patio at our favorite restaurant and had a long conversation about where to travel to for our 10th anniversary next May.

 We love our local pool/spray park. So much that we bought a season pass. The best part? We bypass these huge lines and check in with our passes to the right where there is never a line. Worth the $ just for that! Ha!

 Owen and his mama Sara (my good friend) are definitely our pool buddies this year. We meet every Sunday and some Saturdays (oh, and yesterday). Couldn't ask for better pool buddies.