Day 17

Dedicated to my families, the best in the world.

Topeka...here I come!

A little cousin breakfast date at the IHOP in Topeka.

Translation- home and garden..? We thought it sounded good.

Emporia, I have arrived.

First, a little stop at the Emporia Zoo.

My cousins Jordan and Nick. Don't worry, most of the animals decided it was hiding time when they heard Nick screaming from 100 feet.."here BOBCAT..BOBCAT!!!!"

Pretty sure the bobcat only came out to see if he could eat Nick.

A little easter egg hunt at Grandma Laura's. Taken moments before the easter meltdown of '10. Don't worry Jen, we all go through the 12 year old, hormonal stage...unfortunately it doesn't get better until we're at least 25. Have fun!

On to my second half of the family. Centrally located in the woods of Hartford, KS.

Jaime thinks she has to throw up. I find this the perfect opportunity to catch her AND the peacock in the background.

My first duty is to save a child from the mud....as Jaime laughs and takes a picture.

Notice the one shoe on the ground that I had to pry out of the quicksand mud...the result of the quicksand mud on my hand.

All of the kiddies searching for easter eggs. Reminded me of when all of my cousins and I were little, we all grew up together around the same ages.

Ahhh, the great outdoors. Fresh air and greenery.....

A really large cow....

And some peacocks. Nothing like getting out of the city for the day.

Despite Jaime's many attempts at trying to fool the easter about my whereabouts on Easter, he finally found me!

OMG! The Easter bunny herself, my very own Aunt Pat. I wonder who got the tall genes in the family?

I wonder who got the drinking genes in the family.

I couldn't have said it better myself Fun Dip.

What I had waiting for me back in KC when I got home...a pile of fart.

It's days like today that make me realize how important it is to surround yourself with the ones that you love and how lucky I am to have some amazing people in my life. I'm starting to have days where I realize more and more that there's more to this life than I really know it.

Day 16

I'll be seeing you tomorrow Emporia, KS. This day long trip will probably start in Topeka where I'll be having a lovely breakfast with my friend Ty. From there, I'll drive the 45 minutes south to good ol Emporia. Morning/afternoon activites include seeing my mom's side of the family. We'll be celebrating my cousin Kenzie's birthday...mmm cake. Later that evening I'll be traveling to Hartford to visit my dad's side of the family. I hope the easter bunny knows that I'll be going there. Some random factoids below:

• The Braum dairy store chain, based in Oklahoma City, originated in Emporia in 1952 under the name Peter Pan
•  In 1953, Emporia was the site of the first Veterans Day observance in the United States
• Emporia was founded on February 20, 1857, drawing its name from ancient Carthaginian Africa

Pretty exciting stuff.

Day 15

I ate this thing today. Now I don't know the name of the place, but I do know where it came from. Alex/Lesley, you know which place I'm talking about where it's a little old lady and Alex was once taken to see the mixing machines. Anyways, I can't remember what descent they are, but it's a very, very small bakery in North KC where we've gone a few times to get some cookies. One time I even got these little miniature cake things. The bunny face slightly creeps me out though.

Day 14

What is that? Warmth? Well hot damn (literally). It was almost 80 degress today. In celebration of this spring thaw, Colby has thought it a good idea to have a "spring fling" backyard party. We'll be having outdoor games, bbq, and my favorite, smores around our stone fire pit. The shindig will be taking place on April 17th and anyone that is cool is welcome to come check out our gigantic backyard and enjoy the festitivies. Holla spring!

Day 13

Welcome to "Take This Job and Shove It" Tuesday! Proudly sponsored by our friendly neighborhood bar The Well. The Well serves nice large sized glasses of some weird drinks for 1/2 price. I had the fruit loop. Colby had the sangria. Johanna had caribou lou. We also ordered not 1, but 2 servings of hummus. It was pretty good.

We sat on the rooftop which is an open air type of tent. After awhile, we made our way down to the firepits. Soon after we saw a man beating his car in the carwash. Successful Tuesday night.

Day 12

I don't know if I could possibly be any more excited than I am right now. We miraculously snagged 4 tickets to the Lady Gaga concert at the Sprint Center on August 3rd. Lesley and I both had our computers ready, knowing they would go fast. It was literally a few seconds between each of us when we hit the refresh button at 10am. Mine had 4 tickets available, hers didn't. Thank God we both decided to do it at the off chance they went that fast...and they did. I think the majority of ALL the tickets were sold out within the first 5 minutes they were available. We didn't even bother to look at the seats because, well, we didn't really care where we were sitting as long as we were there.

This concert might just out do ya Brit and your circus, we'll see.

Day 11

I'm growing a plant. Or is it a flower? Either way, I'm a first timer.

The only thing I've ever been able to successfully grow is some mold in the fridge on some old chicken. The plant seriously looks like a 6 year old could tend to it, so I thought "hey, fits within my standards". Here were the directions:

1. Place the soil pellet in a bowl or cup (check)

2. Add approximately 3 tablespoons lukewarm water (it still looked dry...added about 6...check)

3. Let the soil pellet absorb the water for about 5 minutes (it look pretty well absorbed after one minute...check)

4. Use a fork to mix the soil with the water (check)

5. Put the soil in the pot (see what I mean by 6 year old standards now?..check)

6. Sow only 5 seeds in the pot and use the extra seeds in your garden (crap, it didn't say anything about the prerequisite garden...someone want them?...check)

7. Place the seeds on top of the soil and lightly press the seeds into the soil (how far into the soil? i had about 3 rounds of pushing them down...check)

8. Place in a sunny location (check)

9. Keep the soil moist (so far so good...check)

10. Transplant when the plants are 3" tall (uhhhh....transplant where?!)

Currently my new plant is sitting on the kitchen window sill. I feel like it's supposed to have a name. I generally tend to name things of the male gender, but since it's a sunflower does that make it more female? Any suggestions?