Memorial Day Parade

I had to post the pics from the parade. Some of them are too good not to share. I love our small town! Well, it's not THAT small. We are like 5 mins. from South Bend and Notre Dame. By the way, while we are on that subject. Congrats to all our friends that just graduated from Notre Dame! We had Obama here again as the speaker for commencement. It was a big deal 'cause obviously the Catholic church is against a lot of his ideas. It was still cool to have the President here again. 

Anyway, Jos was only mildly interested in the parade. She would rather play with my zipper and suck on the strings of my sweatshirt.

She did like the bands, though.

Representing Ludwig of course!

The parade started out pretty normal. You know, the local police on motorcycles, the fire engines, the mayor, etc. Near the end it got really weird. You'll see what I mean. Throughout there were tons of old cars. If you didn't know, South Bend is where all the Studebakers were made. Lots of old Studebakers and such.

This pretty much sums up the Mid-west.

It wouldn't be a parade if the Shriners weren't there..........

.......or the Masons!

Why is there always a group wearing unexplained costumes?

Lots of guns. This is Indiana, remember!

The Purdue Train

The "Happy Hands Club!"

Kids pulling kids pulling kids.

A van from the Indiana Paranormal Society?

There were TONS of random cars with signs saying"Special Guest" or "The Smith Family" or something like that as if you know who they are. They wouldn't even be in nice cars. It would be like a '95 minivan with a random family waving out the window. Awesome.

There were random people in dog costumes. 

The Hulk. And his mom.

Some awkward girls hula-hooping. It was pretty funny to watch, especially since they kept dropping their hoops. 

Ok, you may need to click on this one to see him, but the guy in the back was twirling a baton. He was in back of this little girl baton squad. None of them could twirl worth a darn, but the guy in the back was twirling away. It just looked really funny.

I still laugh about this one. Again, you may want to click on this one to see it. There was one guy on the high school flag team. He was wearing the same head-to-toe spandex outfit as the girls. It looked extremely uncomfortable. It was even worse from the front. I'll spare you. 

To be fair, there were some floats. Not sure what "Fame" had to do with anything, but ok.

And lots of shirtless overalls:

Overall, it was a fun time. It was great to see the whole community out and celebrating the armed forces. It left us wondering why we didn't just put a sign on our car saying "The Packard Family" and join the parade. We wouldn't have stuck out. Doesn't this make you wish your city was this cool? Mishawaka's awesome!

Kevin's B-Day weekend festivities.

 As you know, Kev's  36th birthday was on Thursday. Perfect, because of the long weekend! His birthday festivities began when he arrived at work on Thursday morning. His boss and colleagues decorated his office and made him a special "drum cake." They had a mini party for him that was very sweet. Unless you watch "The Office" and saw the episode of Kelly's birthday, this photo won't really be funny to you. 

Seriously, you won't understand the "It is your birthday" thing unless you saw the episode.

After eating the yummy cake his boss made him (cool boss, huh?) Jos and I came and we all had a picnic outside. It was a PERFECT day for one! 

Kevin left work early and we headed out to the Triway Drive-In in Plymouth. Since there are several big movies out and one just came out that day, we thought it would be absolutely packed. Especially with graduation and the long weekend. Surprise! We got there, and were the first ones! They hadn't even opened for business yet cause no one had showed up. There ended up being only about 10 other cars in the entire place. Only 2 at our screen. We saw "Star Trek" and loved it!! The drive-in was awesome! We could take Jos, eat whatever, relax in the car, and not disturb anyone around us. Jos slept through the whole movie. We will definitely be going back. It was actually a decent place, even though it was in the middle of nowhere. 

We spent Saturday morning somewhere totally unexpected. At the emergency room! Kevin woke up with the whole left side of his face swollen. His lymph nodes on that side were huge and you could see a big lump there. We figured it wasn't life threatening or anything, but since it only costs us $25 to go to the ER, we thought we'd check it out. It was a little painful and we didn't want it to get worse. After a couple hours there, they determined he had salivary stones. I know, I've never heard of them either. Apparently, like kidney stones, they can spontaneously develop in your salivary glands. They come out on their own and are usually pretty harmless. He's doing fine now and doesn't have anymore swelling. 

Monday, we woke up early to go to the ward pancake breakfast and then headed over to the Mishawaka Memorial Day Parade! It truly deserves it's own post, so I'm working on that. It was amazing. By amazing, I mean amazingly hilarious. Parades in the midwest are awesome! I love it here! So there you go. Our weekend. 

Happy Birthday, Kevvy!!!

I'll edit this when I have pics, but just wanted to recognize my amazing husband's birthday. He turns 36 today! Of course, he looks and feels more like he's turning 26, but I think older men are hotter anyway! We are going to the drive-in tonight to celebrate since we can bring Jos with us. I'll post pics later. Love you SO much, baby! Happy birthday!!

7 Months Old!

Our little Josie is now a little closer to a year and we can't believe how much she's changed! She is so much fun right now and is learning new tricks everyday it seems. I'm not sure on exact measurements, but she is now over 18 pounds!! What a porker, huh? Not sure where she gets it, but I'm loving every fat roll. She is still very healthy and has now started eating some "real food" aka baby food or mashed up adult food. She likes fruit and sweet potatoes the best. She is on and off with sleeping, probably cause those stubborn teeth have not poked through yet. You can see where they are about too, but they are still under the surface. On good nights, she sleeps from 7:30 or 8 till 5:00, wakes up briefly, and is back down till 7:30 or 8. Lately, she has still been waking up upset at least a couple times a night. The hard part is now that she is more mobile, when I put her down for naps, she does not want to stay put. I often have to let her crawl and roll around in her crib for a little while before she wears herself out enough to position her for sleep. She wont sleep on her tummy, but refuses to stay on her back long enough to fall asleep. *Sigh* Nap time is fun : ) No really, it's not that bad. She takes a 1.5 to 2 hour nap in the morning and  a 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon. She's also starting to grow some hair. Yay! Here are her highlights:

Josie's tricks:

*turning around while sitting up (like to get a toy.) She has been sitting up on her own for over a month now.

*climbing onto my lap, or up my legs if I'm standing

*crawling.....slowly, but she can get almost anywhere she wants now. 

*feeding herself

*talking in the cutest language ever. I just wish I could understand it. 

*eating her feet. She can put both in her mouth at the same time.

Josie's loves:

*me, all the time, all day, every second. Did I mention how I never get anything done?

*watching daddy mow the lawn. She thought it was hilarious.

*watching mommy vacuum. As soon as I get it out, she starts "talking" to it.

*sitting outside and exploring the world

Doing her daily push-ups. She's very strong.

Indy with Auntie Sheri

My sister Sheri is a nanny for our aunt and uncle in Evansville, Indiana which is about 5 hours away from us. She just turned 23 so we decided to meet up halfway and spend some time together for her birthday. Every time she has a birthday, I am reminded of how close we are in age. She is about 18 months younger than me. It was great to see her and spend time in Indianapolis. We both took tons of pics. She has an awesome camera and is becoming quite a photographer. You can see her photography here.

We first met up at the art museum in Indianapolis. It's free to the public and is quite nice. We walked around and chatted while looking at great artwork.

After lunch, we made our way into downtown. Kevin and I have been to Indy several times even before we lived in Indiana. We always wanted to go see the war memorial they had there. We finally went inside. It was amazing!!

It opens up into this huge room full of marble and gold inscriptions. The flag that hung down was incredible. In the center, there was a big tomb-like thing that had quotes and dedications on it.

This was my favorite quote.

Jos loved it too. Her eyes get so wide when she is seeing something new.

We then went over to another memorial a block away in the city center or "the circle." This one Kevin and I have been to. You can walk up a million stairs to the top and look out over the city. It was closed this time.

There was this cute newlywed couple. Great place for pics!

There is also a Scottish-rite temple/cathedral and Masonic temple across the street. It was closed for an event, but just the outside is magnificent. Kevin has been inside and says it's amazing.
I stole the next couple from Sheri. She says this one looks like Superman and Superman's sidekick. 

Obviously, Jos was done taking pictures.

We had so much fun! We are meeting up again this summer in Nashville when Kevin and I go for work. We miss you auntie Sheri!