Vacation Recap...

In the beginning of August, we were able to spend 6 lovely days with the family in Texas. We arrived Saturday and spent a few hours out at the lake. We went to early church with Melanie and Jeff on Sunday, then spent the afternoon relaxing, eating, and enjoying the company of old friends who we miss a whole lot. We ran into one of Kevin's old mission companions at church, which prompted Kevin to call and invite another mission friend who we actually knew lived in the area. I didn't get too many group pics, but I did get a few :)
Danielle, Melanie, and Julianne chatting it up. I am pretty sure they were talking about strollers or travel systems, haha. Julianne is due in November and Melanie in February.
Doug and Kevin...not sure what they were talking about. We were sad we missed Tracy and the kiddos...but hopefully we will see them next time.
The girls (and Kevin) had tea, courtesy of Miss Maddy. She is so grown up, and so adorable!
We spent all day Monday at the lake and I am amazed that we weren't all burned to a crisp. We reapplied sunscreen every hour it seemed, and apparently that did the trick. It was a great day, but we were exhausted by the time we arrived back at the house!


Tuesday we had a special day in the Dallas Temple. Beverly had prepared family names for endowments, as well as sealings. It was a special day for her especially as she did the work for her mom, and then was sealed to her parents. I don't have the pictures from outside the temple, but we enjoyed a delicious mexican dinner afterwards. Great recommendation Jeff :)

We had one last hoorah at the lake on Wednesday, then headed back to Florida on Thursday morning. We had a wonderful trip as we spent time with friends and family.

Until next time...

California Love

Disclaimer: This is the longest post ever...apparently I am

NOT good at being selective when it comes to

pictures or words. Skim if you like :)

Well, it's official, my little brother is home from his mission to Sao Paulo, Brazil. In many ways, those two years passed quickly, but then again I felt like it had been forever since I had talked to him or been able to give him a hug. Jeffrey and I are very close, so I was very excited to see him again :) I finished up my last day of work and flew home Wednesday afternoon. Kevin couldn't miss Wednesday, so he had to leave Thursday morning and we were able to get him a flight that "happened" to stop in Dallas. Jeffrey flew from Sao Paulo to DFW, and him and Kevin were on the same flight in to San Jose. Kevin was able to surprise Jeffrey at the terminal, then they enjoyed a first class flight the rest of the way home, compliments of my father-in-law Jerry :)

You can see Kevin video-taping the whole thing as Jeffrey comes out of his gate!! The video is priceless as you see all of us hugging Jeffrey for the first time. We had a bet of who was and wasn't going to cry. Kimberly was almost dead-on with her predictions. Mom thought she wasn't going to cry, which was ridiculous, haha. I might have cried more. But Jeffrey didn't cry? Who knew. I was obviously wrong with my predictions :/

Our good friends the Helveys also came to the airport, but it was a small gathering. Signs compliments of Mom :)
I just love this picture. My dad couldn't have been more excited. We arrived at the airport a little early so we were sitting around talking with the Helveys. Dad walked over to where Jeffrey would come out, and didn't leave his post until he could see his son. When it was close to time, we also joined him, and Dad told Mom, "Lisa, you need to pay attention", because she was talking with Michelle, haha. He was really excited and Kimberly and I were getting a kick out of it.

We headed to In-N-Out for lunch, then straight to the Oakland Temple per Jeffrey's request. It was really special to all be in the temple again since we hadn't done that since he received his endowments 2 years ago. We were able to go with him to be released as well and that was one of my favorite experiences relating to the actual "homecoming". I am certainly proud of my little brother and the amazing missionary that he was.
All I can say is that I love my family. I am lucky to be best friends with my siblings and my parents :)
The next day we signed on our house, so we are officially home owners. Kinda random timing that we closed that weekend, but that was when the papers were finished and since we were buying the home from my parents, it actually worked out in our favor to all be together to avoid overnighting documents back and forth. A notary came to the house and we completed all the paperwork in about an hour.
Then we headed out for a day in the sun. Jeffrey thought he needed to work on a tan, haha. We had a great day together and the weather was perfect. The beaches were littered with seaweed and sticks, but I think it is because CA has seen a lot of rain recently. I had never seen so much debris on the sand before.

Saturday we had a BBQ at my parent's house and we enjoyed the company of close friends.

Kevin and Kimberly both left Sunday, but I was able to stay for another 9 days :) We enjoyed another trip up to Oakland to do a session and several sealings of children to parents. Jeffrey was able to find us some family names, so that was a neat experience.

The rest of the week was spent shopping to get Jeffrey reading for school, then packing/organizing, and hanging out together. Jeffrey headed up to BYU on Friday to take a few courses Summer term before he starts in the accounting program in the Fall. He is also looking for a wife, so anyone with any eligible matches, let me know, haha.

These are out of order, but blogger won't let me rearrange so that's life I guess. These pictures were taken after church the day Jeffrey gave his talk. (Had to document Kevin's new suit that he found one day while we were shopping at the outlets.)

Since I stayed a while longer, I was home for Father's Day. I can't remember the last night that has happened. Mom and I cooked an amazing dinner (If I do say so myself). The line-up: Filet with toasted walnut and black cherry sauce, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. Kevin and I are sure lucky to have such wonderful fathers in our lives.

And finally, I met up with a few friends in the area. My friend Jen (no pictures) and I had breakfast together and I also stopped by when she was working with one of her clients who happens to be our old math teacher from Junior High (she had brain tumors and has gone through chemo/radiation, etc.) It was a tender experience, and I am grateful I was able to see her again after all these years.

Then I met up with Brie (BYU roomate) and enjoyed an afternoon together. Love this girl. We laughed a lot. It was just like old times. Then we went to dinner when Jeff (her husband/also my friend) got home from work. What a fun evening :) I am glad they are living in San Jose because I can see my old roomie whenever I go home!
Overall, I had a fabulous time in California. I am grateful the timing worked out to allow for such a great visit. The only problem was that Kevin had to go home and work while I had a great time. The good news is that he managed without me :) But I was happy to be home with him again.

Memorial Day Weekend

I don't have a lot of time to post, but I wanted to get these pictures up so I can keep things in chronological order. I also have pics I want to post from my last day of therapy, and we go to California next week for my brother's homecoming. Lots going on, but life is good.

We enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend in Texas with family and our Miami friends, Daleth and Andre. It was an awesome weekend :) Enjoy the pics.

Labor Day Weekend

Needless to say, Kevin was in heaven over the weekend as we spent time at the lake. I think that is one of the things he has missed the most about Texas (besides family and friends of course). Every time we see a body of water here in Miami, Kevin will say something along the lines of "We could totally ski on that water". He misses it a lot, but we were lucky enough to have a perfect day at the lake on Saturday. As mentioned in previous post, we took a last minute trip to Texas for the weekend. We flew in super early on Saturday, and after some delicious breakfast burritos courtesy of Bev, we headed out to the lake. The water was beautiful, the temperature perfect, and the company lovely :)

That evening, we went out to Babe's Chicken, which really does have the best fried chicken I have ever eaten. I ordered the chicken strips and they were delicious. We also stopped by an old fashioned candy store near Babe's and picked up a few treats.

Sunday we headed back to our old Grand Prairie ward for church with our friends Vance and Julianne, who also used to be in the ward. They were sweet enough to have us over for breakfast that morning as well. It was awesome to see old friends and remember why we loved that ward. Only the Bishop knew we were coming, so it was kind of fun to be a surprise! That afternoon, we got together with our old Arlington friends, which was a blast. The Sturgills hosted the afternoon and provided yummy food for everyone. We missed a few friends who couldn't make it, but it was so great to catch-up with friends and meet two new babies that were born after we left. We really do miss these friends a lot. Below is a picture of Maddy and I. She acted as if she didn't know me when we got there, but by the end we were reading books to each other. She always had creative titles for the books she read to me, like "The bugs you never, never, never, never, never knew even existed." Hahaha. Creative kid :)
Doug, Tracy, and Britton Myers. (Cooper was at home with family taking a little nap.)
Mike and Kevin just doing their thing. We really do have great friends back in Texas and it was great to pick up where we left off.
Me, Tracy, and Danielle.
Mike, Maddy, Hudson, and Danielle Sturgill.
We headed back up to Flower Mound for dinner Sunday night and enjoyed time with family. Monday was another day filled with attempted boating, hahaha. The water was so choppy I felt that I was in the ocean. It took all my balance and energy to stay afloat, so I could hardly do anything on the board. And I definitely felt it on Tuesday because every muscle in my neck and back was sore. It made us even more grateful that Saturday was such a perfect day.

Overall, we had a wonderful three-day weekend and were able to pack a lot in to the schedule :)

Meador Family Reunion

On July 23rd, we flew to Denver, Colorado for the family reunion. We had a great time and it was awesome that everyone made the effort to come from all over the country. We didn't get to Colorado till almost midnight on Friday, but Saturday morning we headed over to the roller-skating rink to meet the rest of the family.
I hadn't been skating in years, and I am pretty sure the last time I went I was dressed in 80's clothes and was accompanied by all my college roommates :)
Kevin participated in the limbo contest, but I opted to man the camera instead!



We spent the majority of the afternoon in Uncle Larry's backyard. Events included bocce ball, baseball, and a little football after family pictures.


We did a lot of sitting around and chatting...which is what family reunions are for in my opinion.
We ended the reunion with a family home evening about missions, since one of Kevin's cousins just returned from a mission, and another one of his cousins is leaving on a mission this month. All members of the family that had served missions talked about their experience and offered any advice to the future missionaries. It was a great testimony builder, and great to learn more about members of the family. Grandma and Grandpa were then presented with their surprise gift that Jill(cousin) coordinated. Everyone contributed scrapbook pages about their family, and it turned into a beautiful book.

We will look forward to the next time this happens!!!