14 years...and counting!

Next week Mr. Smith and I will be celebrating our 14th anniversary. I wanted to share some of the video from our wedding day, so I brought it out at lunch time to watch it with the kids.

The kids watched for a little while and then said, "can we fast forward?" I guess they thought it was boring. It reminded me of that part in that movie when Prince Humperdink is trying to marry Buttercup and Wesley is at the gate. Prince Humperdink says "SKIP to the end!"

So I skipped to the end...

Watching it with them was funny.  They were all like "I wasn't even BORN yet!!" and things like that.  It was also fun for them to see some of their relatives. 


I showed them our cake cutting...

Mr. Smith bit my finger!

After cake we had lunch at the church - I think I ate all of two carrots - and then back to my parents house for a party.  It was a crazy day. 

I showed the kids some of the dancing.  Bubba said "I want to go to your wedding and dance with Grampa!" Hahaha!

The next day we left for our honeymoon in Florida.  We did the Disney thing and the beach thing.  We were gone for a week and I think I called my parents every night, but I don't remember.

We swam in the hotel pool every day, visited the parks, ate at the worlds largest McDonald's, watched gators eat chicken at Gator Land, and swam in the Gulf of Mexico.

We have lots of pictures of our trip, but I cannot find the ONE of us together.  Bummer. 

After we returned Mr. Smith secured us a small apartment on Bluebird Street while I ate mini donuts at the State Fair with my sister.  What a good husband! 

How is it made?

I can't remember if I mentioned that Bubba wanted to know how ice cream was made a while ago. We watched a video online that explained it really well.

We decided to make a list of all of the things we wanted to learn more about.

Tonight we learned about crayons.



Gather the kids (or your coworkers) around and watch this short video.

Let me know if you learned anything.  We watched one on how gum was made too - but it said that gum was made of plastics and rubber.  Didn't really want to hear that. 

Day 4 - Tuesday

Today we decided to head up to the lake to see Mr. Smith's Grandma Elaine. Great Grandma to our kids. It had been three years since we last saw her and the two youngest kids had never seen her in person before.

We had a leisurely morning.  I took Jon for a ride on the four-wheeler and we visited the horses again.  We had a quick lunch and then loaded up in the two vehicles to make the trip North.  We stopped at Pamida to exchange the shoes I had purchased the other day for PB.  As we were driving, PB fell asleep in the car after crying for a little bit. Gaga also fell asleep. When I looked back to check on him, he had a wood tick in his hair. I grabbed it and threw it out the window - blah!

We arrived at the lake and were excited to see Great Grandma. We looked around the place and she showed us the bunkhouse and the garage and the lake itself. It looked the same as it did when we were last up there - when Fayfie was a baby. The only thing that was different was the fire pit had been moved to the lake side of the cabin.

The kids dumped out some antique puzzles and then we decided to have Mr. Smith take us out on a pontoon ride.

The latest fashion in boat safety.

See Grampa?  He's dry...

We took a nice trip around the lake. Mr. Smith gave everyone a chance to drive the boat. The weather was beautiful but a bit breezy. After going all the way around, we came back to the dock and everyone unloaded. It was almost time to eat.

Grandpa Smith cooked some burgers on the grill and we gathered around the table in the dining area. The kids ate at a table outside. The food was very good and there was cake and ice cream for dessert. After dinner we put in a DVD MR. Smith made of the kids at their music recital. We watched the DVD as the kids played outside by the dock. I was comforted by the fact that Grampa was out there to watch them.

While we were inside, JB came in to tell us that Grampa had fallen in the lake. He had tried to reach a large limb that Bubba threw in the water when he slipped on the mossy rocks and got wet. He had already removed his shoes so they weren't ruined, but he was soaked otherwise. So, we left shortly after that and made a quick stop at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house on the way out. They have a house in the woods a short drive from the cabin. We picked up some old pictures of Mr. Smith as a kid while we were there. Mr. Smith plans to scan them in to the computer so we can share them with the kids.

We made the long drive back to the farm and hung around the rest of the day. Riding the four wheeler and visiting with the animals.

The girls each found an egg in the barn that the chickens had left.

There was a beautiful rainbow that night.

And a gorgeous sunset.

I was thankful that the kids got a chance to see and spend some time with Great Grandma Elaine. It turned out to be a good day.