summer... part 2

since summer is officially over, i decided the part two of my summer blog is overdue. honestly i don't know if i can remember all the way back to when part one ended. but here it goes...

we celebrated MY 24th BIRTHDAY at the beginning of July. most of my family came to indy to spend the day with me, which felt backwards since we are usually together at my parent's house instead of our tiny apartment. but it was so nice! i had the day off. hung out with kelly and greyson in the morning. went to Moe's with dad for lunch. and then mom and wes joined us for dinner at Bazbeaux's. natalie was missed, but it was still fun and i definitely felt special. oh i also got crazy awesome birthday gifts! new white chucks, a pair of wedge toms, a new alex and ani paw print bracelet! so blessed.

on the FOURTH OF JULY we celebrated, as it should be, with a cookout and fireworks. we had some friends over for hotdogs, burgers, chips and salsa, etc. super fun! we used one of the apartment complex grills for the first time. played frisbee while Wes prepared
the meat. ate outside on the patio with two patio chairs, two lawn chairs, and the chairs from the dining room table. it looked funny, but it worked. we sat around and talked for a bit then decided to play tennis and kill some time before going to see the Geist fireworks. we grabbed all the tennis balls we own, which is a ridiculous amount for two people who only play tennis for fun, and the 5 rackets and headed to the courts. oh and the frisbee came too. it turned into a game that we named thunder bbq. i actually missed it... and i'm still uspet about that! i went back to clean the apartment up so cleo didn't get into anything while we were at the fireworks. we caravanned to chrissy's parents house to park and then walked to the fireworks on the Geist bridge. super crowded, but a great view. great night with friends!

the second weekend in July was really busy. on friday night we went to an INDIANS GAME. wes' first baseball game. ever. with keegan and emily dunn! and it was star wars night! people dressed up and star wars music played. it was fun. and weird. i'm pretty sure we lost, oh well. and since it was a friday night game there were fireworks. for minor league baseball, they sure do a really good firework show. like it was better than the fourth of july fireworks. on saturday kelly dropped of greyson for my WEEKEND with BABY G! it was mostly my idea. i wanted to borrow him. or steal him, but she won't let me. anyways i got to babysit for a little over 24 hours. he was a little fussy on sunday, but did great on saturday. and slept through the night in his pack and play! i thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with my little nephew, who is really not so little for his age. adorable outfits, snuggles, we took him to church and confused everyone, wes read to him probably one of the cutest things ever. i would do it again. or maybe we will just have our own #babyfever

we had another theme night with friends. ITALIAN NIGHT. wes and i made zucchini pasta. so yummy! with caesar salad, some kind of delicious pepperoni stuffed bread, and pizza... the pizza was a last minute thing. we weren't sure if we would have enough zucchini pasta so we grabbed a little caesars pizza on the way. so lame, but we thought better safe than hungry. we were introduced to a new board game, ticket to ride. crazy fun, put it on my wish list. and watched ratatouille, which we realized was actually french, not italian. i'm not sure why it took us so long to figure that one out. oh good times.

the month of August... of course we had to go to the STATE FAIR! its just one of those things you have to do. ate fair food, walked around and saw the terrifyingly unsafe fair rides, and my favorite... saw the fair animals. the baby barn is the best. newborn calves! and the piglets in the pork barn, so cute. it's basically the same every year, but always fun to go and walk around.

the second weekend in August, wes and i went on our all inclusive vacation to JAMAICA. only a three hour plane ride from indy to jamaica. who would've thought... we should do that more often! on the plane a flight attendant asked where my parents were while wes was in the bathroom so that was neat.

i guess i don't look old enough to travel alone or be married. customs took forever. and then we had an hour or so drive to our resort, which felt like forever, but we got to see a little bit of jamaica. i was surprised by the amount of large, wealthy looking homes. and they had a lot of stray herds of goats. our resort was in Ocho Rios. apparently there is a lot to do in that area, like dunn's river falls, swimming with dolphins, zipline, bobsledding, and whatever else; we didn't leave the resort once we got there. 
it was one full week of pool, beach, ocean, food, alcohol, ice cream, sunshine, and sunscreen. so much sunscreen. i'd never been on an all inclusive trip before and it was kinda hard to adjust to that mindset. it felt rude to just leave dinner without paying or tipping. we got better as the week went on, but it was still weird. i absolutely loved the you can eat ice cream. it was the prefect, relaxing get away we wanted. no obligations, no time line or schedule. just sat and soaked up the sun, read, and hung out. it was nice. so nice. i could've stayed longer if cleo was with us. i missed her. speaking of cleo, she turned four in August. its weird to think i've had her for four years! i love that little fat fur baby! #crazycatlady

after our trip we toned down the excitement for a few weeks. got back into work routines and the simplicity of our daily life. the Haag's took us to the ZOO the first sunday in September. i LOVE the zoo! we hadn't been all summer. and it was the first time i saw the new orangutan exhibit! they were inside, but it was still neat watching them move around and swing on the ropes. they almost don't look real! hah! the weather was perfect. everyone probably already knows, but my favorite animal to see are the elephants. i will work with them someday. it was a super fun afternoon with really awesome people.

the second weekend in September, we had a weekend away with some folks from Leavener at HOLIDAY WORLD. wes and i camped in an RV for two nights and hung out around a campfire. on saturday we went to the park. it was too chilly for the water park, but we walked around and rode a few rides. the raven was my favorite, a 45 second wooden roller coaster. i think we rode it 3 times, twice in the back and once in the very front. the park wasn't super crowded so while we were walking around we were constantly running into familiar faces. it was another relaxing little trip, but surrounded by friends.

and that wraps up our summer!