Graduations and Babies!

On May 8th my big brother Jeremy graduated with his Masters in Health Physics and my brother-in-law Jerry graduated with his Bachelors in Business, both from UNLV. Because of Jerry's graduation Shannon was able to fly out to be here for a few days so we decided to throw a graduation party and baby shower combined for the two of them. I was so excited that it turned out so well. Thank you to everyone that came out to support their little family and make the party a huge success! After the party I got to go celebrate with my brother and his family at their house for an awesome bbq! I am so proud of my brothers and am grateful for the example they have set for all of our family. I LOVE you guys!!

I made this for Shannon with the awesome help of Jerry and my husband. It's a wall hanging for Brinley's room, it's a letter Jerry wrote to Brinley. So SWEET!

The Drive to Virginia

Ok so this post has a LOT of pictures but we saw so many awesome things on the drive home and in Virginia. On our way back to Virginia from Boston we stopped in a few places, one of which was Hershey, Pennsylvania. Yes, the home of the Hershey Chocolate bar. When you pull into the town and roll down the windows the breeze has the sweet smell of chocolate, it is delightful! We went to the chocolate factory and it was AWESOME! At the end of the tour we got a free chocolate bar and perused the wonderful gift shop shown below. After Hershey we made our way to Amish country. I was so fascinated by them. They have such a wonderfully simple way of living and the talents they share are wonderful! The countryside they live on is incredibly beautiful and so well kept. I really loved the whole experience. By the end of the drive we had figured we had driven through 9 or ten states. The whole East coast was amazing. I got to see the Manhattan skyline all lit up at night, we drove through the gorgeous tree covered roads of Connecticut, stopped for breakfast in New Jersey, flew in and out of Maryland, house looked in Massachusettes, stopped at a couple creepy gas stations in Rhode Island, I drove through rush hour in Washington DC, cut through a corner of Vermont and stayed the last few days of our trip in beautiful Virginia!

While in Virginia we ate at a Japanese restaraunt, took the girls shopping for some new dresses and visited the most amazing animal park EVER!! It is a hundred acre safari park that you drive through with windows down and doors open. You have buckets of feed and the animals walk right up and eat from the buckets. It was TOTALLY AWESOME!!! There were Ostrich, zebra, bison, watusi cattle, camels both one hump and two humps, llama, elk, deer, asian pigs, kangaroo, lion's, spider monkeys and GIANT tortoise's. Most animals were roaming free then they have a village you walk through that has all the ones that are caged. I can't get over how amazing it was.

OK one quick funny thing about the giraffe's. The picture below is of Jessica feeding the giraffe and if you look real close you can see it's tongue completely wrapped around Jessica's hand. Her reaction was so funny I had to get her to do it again so I could get her face from the front. It is probably the most disgusting feeling ever. I fed it after her and it really was so weird but hilarious!

Thanks for such a great trip Jess and Kev!! We love you and miss you tons!