Catching up on summer

For about six weeks we had a friend from California come out and stay with us. Talk about a culture shock. Though I'm not sure what was more shocking, moving from CA to the middle-of-nowhere TN, or the fact that us "country bumpkins" don't actually pump our own water by hand, use outhouses, or light up lanterns at night so we can see. 

 We took him to Nashville for a day (during CMT festival, of all weeks!), and showed him our wonderful city! Oh, and we got him to admit that he liked country music! Booya! 

At the Parthenon...you'll just have to trust me when I say that all of us (minus Caleb) are there. Kenan and Kevin are somewhere back there. 

We played an awesome game of Ultimate Frisbee with three complete strangers while in Nashville, one of which played Ultimate professionally. Care to guess which team won? Yeah. His. So not fair. 

Dinner at Mellow Mushroom. Caleb caught up with us, and then we headed out to see a movie. 

Ever walk into the kitchen late at night and see a plate of cookies on the counter and think that a cookie with a tall, cold glass of milk would just be wonderful? Yeah, well it could be a trap. For misery. Especially if Kevin was the one making the cookies. 

Thanks Kev, for ruining my night!! Those things were horrible! 

But that's ok. 'Cause we know that two can play that game...

Then the Fish family came for a visit. 

They always want to help us out with a project when they come up, which is great! The last time they came, we milled up a bunch of trees to use for siding on our barn. This time, we put the siding up. I don't have a picture of the barn, but let me tell you, it looks great! 

Everyone had a job...even the younger ones.

But of course, it's never all work. Gotta have some fun in there somewhere! 

With Caleb's new job came a pretty sweet connection for fireworks sold cheaply in Nashville. Which meant that come July 4th, he was ready to put on a show!

And a show it was! I'm just glad the field didn't catch on fire. :) 

And somehow I missed pictures of our visit with my cousins. But we had a blast as always. In fact, it wasn't a long enough stay in my opinion. 

Life has been going on as normally as possible for us in the summer. We've helped friends move, pulled up fencing in our pasture, dumped 20+ loads of dirt in our yard to level it out, helped other friends with electrical on their new house, traveled to Nashville and back a million times, re-stained my grandparents house, and I'm sure there's about a million other things that aren't coming to mind right now. 

Next up: Florida! I'm getting kind of excited (ok, so I've been excited), but your prayers are still appreciated. For those of you who don't know, I have a reverse curve in my neck that has been causing a lot of pain and headaches for a very long time now. I'm headed to FL with a friend to see a chiropractor who specializes in very intense treatment for situations like mine. So prayers for travel safety, wisdom for the doctor, healing for my neck, and a good, relaxing time would be awesome.