Laura is married!

A few weeks ago Jess and I went off into the wild blue yonder in search of the hoot & hollering wedding of our fabulous friend Laura. And by hoot & hollering I mean it, she was getting married on her farm in Milan, MO to her new beau who has something to do with deer hunting, Missouri agriculture, and I’m not sure what else! When we left KC in good spirits we were very excited and happy to see Laura tie the knot. And while I assured Jess I wasn’t going to blame her for her lack of navigational skills, I am. I gave her one responsibility and she failed! We didn’t realize we had gone too far until we saw a road sign that said Hannibal 20 miles, OMG we were almost to the Mississippi!  I have a note for those girls out there driving around, don’t get so busy chit-chatting that you miss the cow in the sky (the landmark we were supposed to turn at). Well not really the sky and not really noticable (that I blame on Laura). You see, even though Laura has only been away from the city less than a year, she is already giving directions like a country girl.   ie, turn left at the cow farm and go yonder past the Smith’s brown barn and turn left when you’ve past the 10th dead deer in the road. Seriously, we were so late (1.5 hours) and so hungry we were about to grill up some road kill on the car motor. All the GPS drama (or lack of GPS) aside, I’m very happy for Laura and Adam; I think they are going to be very happy and I’m so excited Laura is talking about kids already! Yay.

Laura & Adam

Me & Jess

Wow, my kid is smart.

He’s learning to write his letters and it is so exciting. Here he is practicing his N’s.

Big boy

Thanks Daddy for working so hard with him. On another note, Stacey, John, & Baby Gabe came to visit last week, Marrick can’t quit talking about Gabriel. They are doing great and Gabe is already getting so big. We are horrible friends, I hadn’t seen him since he was born. What the heck happens that it is so hard to keep up with everyone, our lives are just too darn hectic. You can read more about the Rinnert family here.

I have a wife!

Wife

Or so I hope. Quinton has this week off with Marrick. In my little head I have dreams of a clean house, dinner being served (it was last night … on paper plates), and a warm bath being drawn for me at the end of a long day. A girl can always dream; I’ll update you on Saturday. I found this post, just switch woman for man and all is well.

What a week!

This was a fun filled week for Marrick.

Three-wheeler

First, he finally got the hang of his three-wheeler and can ride it without assistance.

Slide

Then he has fun at the park … as noted in this slide action shot.

On Saturday we headed to the Ren Fest, Mommy didn’t get to have any fun watching the hunks on horses (Marrick started wailing).

Wise soul

Q & M Ride

Instead we got to see/smell an elephant take a crap poopie while waiting in line for a ride.

Llama Ride

Then we headed straight for the Llama rides.

Ride

Mom finally had fun on the rocker ride, and Marrick loved it. He was squealing in delight the entire time. Cool, he’s not afraid of fun rides (Just hunks on horses).

Pet snake

Pets Llams

A day isn’t complete without a trip to the petting zoo.

And finally as a reward for sleeping in his bed (almost) all week, we took him to T-Rex Cafe.

Trade Show = Ugly Shoes

I spent most of last week in Seattle and had OK success showing off/pimping out the new site I’m working on. While at the conference I confirmed the fact that trade show = ugly shoes. I REALLY wish I would have used just one ounce of common sense when buying my “conference shoes”. I would have paid really good money for these.

Hot Shoes

That said, Seattle really is as wonderful as everyone says. Even though I didn’t have much time to do all the touristy things, I loved it. The sites, sounds, and smells of a big city, with the feel of a smaller town (like Lawrence, only on a huge scale). I was walking around Saturday morning before I had to head for the airport and was completely engrossed in my Seattle experience. The sounds of street musicians

Cat

(Yes, with cats), the beautiful crafts and flowers,

Flowers

the smell of fresh baked bread and steaming coffee (I was very happy to visit the first Starbucks ever, if you know me I don’t have to explain!),

Starbucks

and then it hit me … FISH!

Fish market

I loved it when I ate it, but sure didn’t like its assault on my Saturday morning senses, wow. Anywho, while my sense of smell was assaulted, my sense of taste was not. I had great food and must tell you about a great little restaurant called Lola, they had the best breakfasts EVER. The eggs had a perfect blend of well, eggs, feta cheese, basil, and tomatoes … yummy, the potatoes were a perfectly crisp, the bacon was real (not that turkey crap I eat all the time), and sourdough toast that was wonderful. Yep, two pounds later I made my way back to my family I missed so much. Did I tell you what Marrick is going to be for Halloween? You guessed it, a Dino. Please nobody tell him this is really an alligator costume I bought him! It looks good to me.

Dino boy