Part I: a really, really fun week!

On Memorial Day last week one of my best friends, Betsy DeFord, had her graduation open house at her home in Iowa. It was a great party!! All the usual "Omaha" people that always come out to DeFords and visit for any excuse like Jake and Miranda Shudak, Dan and Anna Beasley, Ben and Ellie Stangl, Liz Brown, and me and Isaac. This time few fun extra people came on out too! Lesley and Ashley Hoover, Miranda and Jake's cousin Cassie, Esther Beasley, and Zach Stangl were the fun "extras". My whole family decided to come on out and see Betsy too, so we drove separate cars because Betsy invited me to stay at her house several days after the party. Here are A LOT of pictures taken at the party and then pictures from my stay at their house.

Isaac D, Jacob S, Dan B, Caleb Weikert, Caleb D, and myself on the left.

Rita, Nate Allan, Marlys, Colin, and Emily Carris on the right.

AWW! I love this picture of Lesley and Miranda. ; )



Leah (Betsy's 8 yr old little sister) was being camera shy...she usually isn't. for real!

Anna B. took this lovely picture...

Caleb being Caleb

Kendra on the swing! See! there are some benefits to being adorably petite! : )

uhh...

Honor (Betsy's 11 yr old sister), took this picture. too pretty, huh?!

This is Daniel, Tim's (Betsy's dad), cousin. He is about 40, I think and has Downs Syndrome, but he is so funny! He always has everyone laughing so hard! This time he was mad at Jake S. for standing next to his sister Miranda, because Miranda was his (Daniel's) girlfriend and he was afraid Jake was trying to steal her away from him. hehe! We all laughed and laughed!

This picture is him reading a certificate that Betsy gave him which allows him to get hugs whenever he might need one. : ) (he didn't like that idea though....lol)

Me n' Marlys. I love her!!

uh oh, this seriously is a bunch of trouble....these two together, I mean.

Goodness! I had to spend the rest of the week with them two!

oh Anna, you're so adorable, it's not fair!


Betsy and Kendra with the soooo happy cake that Kendra made for her

Trouble, again.



Uncle Doug, and "angelic child" (Gavin) with "Daddy" (Nathan). :-P lol



Too cute not to post. Caleb and Marlys have to be one of the cutest couples ever! They are adorable together all the time. : ) and Caleb is a hoot! It's really crazy when he and Caleb D. are together. Things can definitely get interesting! :-P

Leah. April, and Aaron on the See-Saw. Adorable kids!

Grace and Alyssa. Men in Black. :-P

This is a much better picture of us.

I love you Rachel even if you are blond inside!

jk jk!! totally jk!

This is after mostly everyone had cleared the eating area.

Can you spot Rachel's lovely Chinese lanterns hanging from the trees?

After almost everyone else had left but us "Omaha people", we headed down to the town park and played volleyball. It was quite fun! We had four teams, but we did not play speed. We played that a team stayed on the court until beaten, the losing team has to leave and is replaced by the next team and so on. My team is the one on the far side of the net. We never moved. : D

Me and Ashley. : ) I'd have to say she hits pretty high on my list of favorite Ashleys!! ; )

I love her!!!

Beautiful Anna and Sunburned Dan

CASSIE!!! She is so much fun!!!

Me and my adopted big sister. : )))

Alyssa, Rachel, Anna, and Betsy watching v-ball

My team (I'm not playing at the moment, obviously.

Dan wouldn't let me take pictures on the court :-P ).

One of the losing teams. : D

this is prolly like the 101st picture we've taken of us two. ; )

adorable person!

Honor was taking odd pictures of people all afternoon...

Alyssa, Rachel, and Anna looking so darling.

Esther dear.

Liz and Betsy. I love you girls!

Gorgeous! lol hehe

Cassie looks so cute here...

Jake and Dan waiting for the girls to gather themselves and get in the van

Part of the van load of "Omaha people" headed back to Nebraska.

Betsy and I were soooo sad to see them go!

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After party pictures:

The whole DeFord family Left to right

Back row: Rachel, Isaac, Caleb, Colin, and Tim

Front row: Leah, Honor, Rita, Betsy, and Titus

The silly picture. I love Caleb's nose thingy, Colin's whole tongue "Phhtt",

and Betsy's "muscle man" imitation. lol

Betsy opening her gifts.

On Tuesday, Betsy, me, and the kids all went to her dad's shop so that she could work for a few hours. Tim owns "Lord's Clothing", it's like a Men's Warehouse, so he sells like suits, ties, etc. and Betsy and Rita tailor the suits according to orders.

just keep smiling, just keep smiling, just keep smiling....

Honor's unique hand writing...

ya, we'r go'n for da hole gangsta luk

(Titus)

Yeah, after listening to a few Odyssey episodes (on Honor and Leah's plea),

we found other things to occupy our time. ; )

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Later Tuesday afternoon, Betsy and I headed to DesMoines to stay with Rachel at her apartment and hang with her and Colin for the next two days. It was a lot of FUN! I'll post pictures of that later. The rest of these pictures were taken after we got back from Rachel's.

Eating Sardines. Did I like them? Well, I finished that whole can. : D

Betsy and Leah tried some too...

and Betsy also liked them. It was the first for all three of us.

Leah sweetie.

My minature boss and me. : D

My little maids! They were so sweet to me all week. Every time I come to visit, they spoil me rotten! This time Honor did my hair (blow dried it, and curled it, and both Honor and Leah gave Betsy and I foot massages in the foot tubs and then rubbed lotion on our feet, etc!) In return, I usually sing them a song or two and scratch their backs while they go to sleep at least one night when ever I come visit. :-P They love it... (I don't know why!)

Titus in his hunting garb. Hunting starlings, that is. ; )

But don't get me wrong, Titus has also shot a few deer in his days as well!

Isaac and Rita during lunch time on Thursday

Titus out a-hunting. : D

I think he's completely cleared his neighborhood of those pesky birds for a while!

THE END.

P.S.

Now that I've bored each one of you out of your minds, please forgive!!

I had a blast last week and I wanted to share it with you all. : )