Happy FIVE Years!

This picture is from the day we stood up in front of our families and friends and promised to love each other and take care of each other forever, and it was taken FIVE years ago today! FIVE! I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we've been married for 5 years! It certainly doesn't seem like it's been that long. Time flies when you're having fun, right?  So happy happy anniversary Eric! I love you so much and I can't wait to celebrate with you tonight!

And here's a few wedding pics because I never have a reason to pull them out anymore and I wanted to look at them. =)

Wedding Recaps: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

The Dunns Decend on Indiana 2015

We spent this past weekend with a bunch of people and places that are very near and dear to my heart in the form of a great big family reunion at my grandparents' house in the town I lived in until I was 9. The last time we were all together was in Ruidoso, NM, which didn't seem like it had been that long ago, but then we realized it was 3 years ago...wow.

We didn't have any planned activities, so spent out time split between my grandparents' house and the lake cottage. There were boat rides, golf cart rides, card games, craft projects, just soaking up the time together, and of course there was lots eating going on, including Arni's Pizzas and Juniors, my grandpa's famous biscuits and hotcakes, and fresh lobster!

I think the easiest way to this will be in pictures...sorry in advance for the photo overload. =)

 The view from my grandparents' lake cottage...one of my favorite places. 

 Tubing was a must...Eric tried to knock us off but we were victorious!  30 years and counting of never being thrown off the tube for this girl!

 My grandma showing Eric how to crack the lobster...she's a pro.

 My grandpa steaming up the lobster!

 Lobster eating in full force!

No this isn't another picture of the lake; this would be a cornfield that was underwater from all of the rain they've had. Crazy!

 My aunt brought tie dying supplies with her and we made some amazing clothes!  

This kid...I can't believe the little girl who was my Jr Bridesmaid is growing up so fast!

 Just one of my grandma's beautiful gardens!

 I spent an absurd amount of time in the raspberry patch eating every single berry I could get my hands on!

 These babies are 100% better than anything you can get at the grocery store!

 Row boating on the pond.

 Family crafting...we had tie dying and sign painting going on one afternoon.

 Playing with the trucks that my grandpa made for my cousin's kids.  

 My cousin's son had a birthday shortly before we all got together so we made him a dump truck cake cake.  I am pretty sure this was the most fun cake I have every made!

 Mom and Dad with their sweet Maggie Sue.

 It still blows my mind that this kid is so much taller than me!

 All 3 of the Jones siblings.  =)

The Jones-Cagle Clan

I am so thankful for the times we get to spend together with our family.  I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend!

Happy 239th Birthday America!

Another Birthday for America is in the books! We have a habit of traveling on the 4th, and realized the last time we'd been at home (well at the lake and not out of town) was before we were married! We end up at the beach most years (2011, 2013, 2014), but there was that one firework-less year (due to forest fires) that we spend in New Mexico and we made the most of it with a hilarious firework impression contest.

My toes' firework impression was nearly the only show we got this year!

The boys stocked up on an arsenal of fireworks, including several "grand finales" because apparently 3 isn't enough. We pre-celebrated on the 3rd with some friends and a great band at the lake. I even ran into an old teammate from my HC basketball days who I had not seen in years!  It was so much fun catching up with her (but somehow managed to not take a pic....fail).  We ate pizza and danced the night away while dodging raindrops.  Little did we know that was just the beginning of the rain for the weekend.

We took our time heading up to the lake on Saturday, and arrived a little before lunch. We waited out a morning shower in our friends' camper and then headed across the lake for lunch with some other friends.  They cooked some delicious fish and I got to FINALLY do something that I've been wanting to try for a while.  I paddle boarded!  I started talking about getting one earlier this summer, but after checking out the prices figured I better try it first. It was a lot of fun and a great workout, and I am hooked! I can't wait to go again!

I look like a pro, right?

After we dominated the paddle boards (and thanked our hosts of course) we headed back to the campsite for a fun afternoon of swimming and kayaking, but the weather didn't hold up much longer. As the guys were firing up the grill for dinner the clouds started to roll in, and by the time dinner was ready it was monsooning....like so much water on the tent it's caving in monsooning while the wind simultaneously attempted to carry the tent away. Some friends who were in town called to tell us there was flooding and high winds on the way so there was no reason to stick around. As much as we hated it, we packed up and headed to the house after we ate. We ended up over at some friends' house for leftovers and watched fireworks on tv. The boys couldn't stand the thought of not setting off any of the fireworks on the 4th, so we shot a few off in the driveway in the rain and took one of the finales down to their neighbors' house and let their kids shoot it off.

The boys were itching to do something on Sunday since the 4th literally ended up being a wash. The weather was kind of iffy and not exactly conducive for sitting by the pool (our usual Sunday activity). We ended up at Huddle House for a brunch and after some scheming decided on bowling, followed by a sushi dinner. I am usually a sushi wimp, but I was quite impressed with the selection at Sushiyama. Between the sushi and fried rice (served with YumYum Sauce), I ate myself sick, but it was absolutely delicious!

He's a pro.

After dinner the boys FINALLY got to let their little inner-pyromaniacs run free as we shot off the last of the grand finales, much to our neighbors' delight.

Someday I won't get anxious when taking selfies and will get a clear one. 

Puppies and Gardens...an Update

How can 2015 already be halfway over?!  This is madness!  With the 4th of July holiday this weekend, I feel like this week has already flown by.  Our weekend was fantastic. Dad came down for a golf weekend extravaganza with Eric.  They'd planned to play a course North of here, but could not get a tee time, so they opted to play a little closer to home...no arguments here because it meant I got to spend more time with them.  But the best part of them golfing the whole time?  A whole lot of free time for this girl right here.  I actually got to sit around the house and do nothing on a weekend and it was glorious! Of course I got to spend some quality time with the most adorable puppy in the universe who got to go home to her forever home with my parents.....Miss Maggie (yes she does have a name now).

It doesn't get much cuter than her.  

It's safe to say my parents are in love with this sweet girl, and I am thrilled for them.  It's been several years since they've had a wagging tail waiting for them when they got home every day. I could wax poetic about this sweet puppy, but I'll spare you (for now).

Ok now I'm done...

In other news our garden is still doing well.  I still can't get over how much everything grew this past month. It's nuts! I have to walk around the outside of the garden and have just a few places where I can walk through to pick things. 

The okra has been producing like crazy! I pickled some (that didn't turn out well-you win some and you lose some I guess), fried some (that was fantastic), and gave some away.  I am currently amassing our next batch and will probably fry it up this weekend.

You can find the recipe here.  It was not hard to do at all....this coming from a frying novice (me).

My tomatoes are just now starting to turn, which is exciting. It won't be long before we're canning salsa and tomato sauce!   We had some early trouble with birds eating the tomatoes as soon they had any bit of red coloring to them.  I did a quick fix with a bird net purchase and we have not had any issues since then.  I bought another one I am going to put over my raspberries this week because the last batch of berries mysteriously disappearred.

We've eaten one watermelon already, and have 3 still growing.  Plus we have 4 cantaloupes that are almost ready, so we should be elbow deep in melons very soon!

The watermelons are the dark balls on the right side of the picture. The cantaloupes are on the left, they were still green and fuzzy at this point so they're hard to see.  The climbing plant in the back is our super duper cucumber producer.  That thing has not slowed down for a month! I am having a pickle making party very very soon because I have not more space to store them in the fridge!

With all of the excitement I am sad to report that our squash and zucchini crop has come to a depressing halt due to a garden pest that I learned about a few days ago from a coworker....squash borers. They're horrible and once you have them you can't do anything about it.  They are wasp-looking bugs that lay eggs near squash.  When the eggs hatch, the larvae bore (hence the name) into the stalks of your squash and eat them from the inside out. It's pretty terrible.  I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the leaves on our plants started to wilt and chalked it up to the intense heat we had, but after examining the stalks it was very obvious that we had borers. The Day 60 picture was taken literally the day before my plants started to seriously wilt. I am letting the current plants ride it out for now. They still have several small squash on them, but they are growing at a snail's pace since they aren't getting the nutrients they need. I am seriously thinking about just digging them up and planting another crop since we have such a long growing season around here. I'll keep you updated.

The yellow on these leaves should have been a dead giveaway, but since I didn't know about them, I was oblivious.  Apparently you can kill the larvae if you catch it early enough which I WILL be looking for next year. P.S. Check out the green onions growing on the far right. These were green onions I bought at the grocery store and when I was done using them (cut them down as far as I could), I stuck the stalks in the dirt and they have grown like crazy!  I wrote a while back about doing this in just water, which works too, but they have flourished in the dirt!

SO there you have it, the past 10 days in a nut shell. Of course there were a few other activities that went on like work, softball, football practice, and puppy walks (finally), but if there's no photo it didn't happen, right? =) Just kidding!