Fireworks Show

Our friends Josh and Mindy invited us out to a Fireworks Show in Lonejack, MO. this last weekend. It was freaking awesome! The pictures can't even do it justice! Josh's dad puts on firework shows all the time for places like Corporate Woods, etc and all these guys get together each year and put on a show of their own stuff. When I say their own stuff, the loudest, coolest stuff you will ever see! Stuff you could never experience at a standard show. Some of them were so loud, it was like a sonic boom that shook the earth! They even had a water bomb that looked like there was a monster or something in the lake. The ground shook under my feet! I'm going to try and post a video, not sure it will do a very good job depicting what the real deal was like though. I was very impressed by the whole thing and can't wait to go again next year. Thanks for inviting the new bee's! :)

One Year Anniversary

It's hard to believe that we have been married a year already! We went to Chicago this last weekend as a gift to each other for our anniversary. We did a ton of fun stuff like going to a comedy club, shopping, having lunch with friends on the Navy Pier, riding bikes through the city, going to Wicked, shopping (oh did I already say that?? There was lots of that!) and eating at good restaurants. It was a whirlwind of a trip but a blast! We stayed in a great hotel called Amalfi, no complaints there!

Monday August 25th was our actual anniversary. I brought Russ some lunch at his work from the Mixx, one of our favorite places. We cooked a nice dinner at home including Filet Mignon, spinach salad with warm shallot dressing, and coucous. We tried a piece of our one year old cake topper. It still looked pathetic but tasted surprisingly good. We even shared with the neighbors! We topped the night off with a chocolate fondue at the Melting Pot, another favorite of ours.

It has been a wonderful year and I can't wait for many more. I am so lucky to have this guy in my life! :)

Boulevard Brewing Co. Reception

On Saturday, Kevin and Jenny had their KC wedding reception. The space was so cool and the reception was so much fun! We got to enjoy lots of difference Boulevard beverages on tap and eventually dance the night away. I never knew some of the dance moves some of these people had been hiding! :) Jenny's parents had this really cool poster made for them from their destination wedding in the Dominican Republic. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed hanging outside on the deck while catching up with old college friends. They had delicious cupcakes instead of a traditional cake and they were wonderful! I thoroughly enjoyed my strawberry cupcake! We've had a lot of fun celebrating with Mr. and Mrs. Macfee this summer and wish them the best in their new marriage!

Finally, At Last!

Many of you know that Russ and I have a couple of rental houses. Well, conveniently they both became available at the same time in June. We got super lucky with the Independence rental and found a couple pretty fast. They have been working out great! The house in Waldo had been sitting empty for a couple of months though. It was getting frustrating for many different reasons. IE: The money, time spent on showing the house to potential renters, cleaning, etc. Well, patience and hard work paid off because we just signed a year lease yesterday! Yahoo! Plus, we couldn't have asked for better renters. I guess things really do work out the way they are supposed to in the end. So, we can breath a little easier now that we were able to take the For Rent sign out of the yard and can take the add off of Craig's List. We just can't wait for the day that the market gets better and we can sell these houses.

Family Time

After Camp was over we spent the rest of the weekend with family. Russ's Grandpa Russ (yes same name) passed away and his services were this weekend. We are saddened by his passing but rejoice that there will be no more pain and suffering. Some of the Graham clan even made it down from Wisconsin and Iowa. Sunday we went to Sue and Mark's church to hear Sue share her sermon. Russ and Carolyn played in a praise band at the memorial service Sunday afternoon and they recieved many compliments on their wonderful music. We were able to go over to Aunt Lynda and Uncle Gary's house for dinner and then to see Batman with just our immediate Pearson clan. Busy weekend! This morning was the service at the graveyard which included a few honorary NAVY members shooting their guns in honor of Grandpa and his service to our country. I had never seen that before and it was quite touching. Now we must get back to our everyday lives but hold memories dear to our hearts.

Here is a picture on Grandma Elva with most of her children. We have our angel Diane watching over us and Steve was unable to join us. Having a big family has brought them so much joy and their family gatherings are so much fun!

Camp Courage

Saturday Russ and I hung out at Camp Courage for the afternoon. This is a camp for sickle cell anemia kiddos in the Kansas City area. This camp is sponsored by a place called Turning point. "Turning Point’s mission is to empower and transform the mind, body, and spirit of individuals, families, and friends living with serious or chronic physical illness. We provide innovative education services and tools that inspire people to take charge of their illness and live life to its fullest." (I took this directly from the website where you could probably learn more about sickle cell anemia if you are interested). Russ and I have been involved with this camp for several years and regretfully could not attend this year. Thankfully we were able to at least go up for the first afternoon.

I think it is so neat that this has also touched Russ's life and he is now a big advocate of Camp and Turning Point. It was so cute to see the "big boys" faces light up when they saw him. They remembered some of the card games he had taught them last year and they couldn't wait to play.

One of the biggest highlights for the "little kids" is the sandbox or AKA the sand from volleyball. They can entertain themselves for hours! Note to self: Must have sandbox when we have children.

The biggest highlight for all of the kids is SWIMMING! These kids are fish and cannot get enough of it. Some of them wore swim caps so they wouldn't get their hair wet. I think all age groups loved playing with the pool toys and squirting each other.

It is has been so neat for us to be involved with this and enjoy watching these kids get older. We hope to get more involved throughout the years. If you are ever interested in helping out, check out Turning Points website.

Life with the Pearsons

Sorry we have no pictures but thought it was time for an update on our lives. This past Thursday some of us work girls went for another happy hour at Kona Grill. Yum! We were hoping to make this a regular thing but now are finding it difficult when to get together again. Russ met up with us at the end to eat a couple rolls of sushi before we headed out for some shopping.

Russ and I have had some college friends, Aaron and Precia shacking up with with us for the past few days from Michigan. They brought their newest addition to their family, little Miss Raelyn (spelling??). She is super cute and really well mannered. I hope they realize how lucky they are!

For the 4th of July we had a quick little BBQ with Russ's parents. With Russ's Grandpa in the hospital, we had to work around when we was going into surgery. Then we went over to our friend Michael's house for some yard games. We enoyed another BBQ at John and Kelly's before driving out to Corporate Woods for the fireworks show. It was great! It wasn't so great waiting about 30 minutes in the parking lot to get back home though. Oh well!

Saturday night we went to the Power and Light District with Jamie and Emily for some fun at Howl at the Moon, the dueling piano bar. It was lots of fun but decided next time we need to get there much earlier to get a table.

Russ and I have been enjoying our bikes that we got for Christmas. We biked down to Brookside to pick up a few groceries today. Boy was it hot! I'm sure I was a sight for sore eyes trotting around the grocery store!

So, that's about it for now. Not too many pictures since our travels and weddings are over for at least a month! :)