The past week or so...

Last week, Erica and Christopher invited us and Nick and Joy over for dinner. They made an awesome meal - steak, chicken, veggie kabobs, fruit salsa with homemade cinnamon pita chips and Erica's awesome banana pudding. Everything was delicious! Afterward, we played "corn hole" (aka - bean bags). Christopher built the boards and it was fun to play outside.Both couples wearing yellow and blue!The newlyweds playing corn hole!

Last Friday, Janet and Brandon invited us and Nick and Cassi over for dinner. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends! We had a great dinner and a fun time playing Uno. Here is a picture of Adam and Brandon - Adam looks so grown up!
This past Tuesday, 5 of us from our bible study volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House in Rochester. It was a game night so we lead the Bingo and brought some treats for the families. Each person got to win a prize (either a brand new toy or a gift card) which I thought was pretty amazing. Even the adults got to win! We then got a tour of the home. On the main floor, there is a large kitchen and a game room. On the 2nd and 3rd floors there are rooms which have a queen bed, a bunk bed and a bathroom and there are also kitchens for the families to use. The house can hold 36 families and I guess there is usually a waiting list of around 30-40. They are looking to expand. I learned a lot but the thing that fascinated me the most was they the house accumulated $12,000 by collecting the tabs of pop cans last year. I didn't realize that those tiny tabs actually helped out that much but I guess they are pure aluminum. Needless to say, I am now collecting my pop cans and am making my coworkers do the same!
Lesley, Me, Emily, a little girl, Catherine, Leslie and a father at the houseLesley playing in the game room!

The last couple of weeks there have been a couple of picnics for the ortho residents. This past Thursday, one of them was held at a park. The boys had a great time playing baseball with a kids plastic bat and a plastic ball. I enjoyed getting to know some of the wives better.

Brandon with some of his fellow residents - Dave, Presley and Trevor

Last night, we celebrated by going to a bbq at one of Brandon's classmates house and then headed over to Nick and Cassi's for dessert and games with Erica and Christopher. Cassi made a patriotic cake and Erica made a delicious chocolate trifle to go along with my sugar cookies. We were all full from eating the desserts but tried to work off some of the calories by playing Nerts. I think for the first time ever, I ended up winning!Sorry it's upsidedown..The chocolate trifleAdam had to go to bed, but Erica, Christopher, Brandon and I headed downtown around 10pm to watch the fireworks. I thought that the top of a parking garage may be a good idea and didn't think it would be very crowded but when we got up there, I think around a couple hundred people also had the same idea! Oh well, we still found a spot and enjoyed watching the fireworks.
Brandon and Christopher

Erica and I

Brandon has had the day off so we have had a great day spending time together. We went to church, then came home and ate lunch outside, watched the awesome Federrer vs. Roddick match (we were sad to see Roddick lose after such a long match), went for a bike ride, came home a mowed the lawn/pruned, ate dinner outside and are now hanging out downstairs together where Brandon is ready and I am catching up on blogging! The weather has been awesome today and I am really tempted to go lay in the hammock when I should really be running with Erica...

Erica and I started running a couple of weeks ago and have really been good at keeping each other motivated. We are also getting better and can run a lot farther now than when we first started.Flowers outside our house