Falon’s World

Well, this is usually one of my very favorite holidays. With my birthday, beautiful beach days and fireworks – what’s not to like. Unfortunately, this year my birthday was mediocre, the weather was mildly chilly and rainy and I had to work, therefore missing the fireworks.

Before all of that though, we went to Rebecca’s place for some hot dogs, burger, fruit and rice krispie treats. Gus has grown so much!

She calls him her crocodile – he’s growing so incredibly fast though!

Afterwords, I went home to nap for awhile before going to work. I met everyone downtown before work to hang out for a bit and then headed in. Eric got some pretty cool fireworks photos though:

I had been dreading this birthday for the last couple of months. No specific reason besides a vague feeling that I am not as…far as I had hoped to be by the time I turned 24…and one step closer to 25. Added to the fact that I also had to work the night before and the night of my birthday when previously I have always gotten it off. Eric managed to arrive to pick me up on time with a beautiful vase of gorgeous flowers and a cute card.

I got some really nice cards, several checks and a sweet gift card to Barnes and Noble from Eric’s mom (my parents got me a Dresser don’t forget).

Today, Rebecca, Eric and I went out to dinner at Uccello’s, which was delicious and then out to a movie, to see the Night at the Museum two. It was pretty good although I don’t care for the fact that he falls for a different woman in each of the two movies…what happened to the first one?? It was lovely having a friend that could go out with just the two of us without acting like or feeling like a third wheel – really, really nice. CJ was supposed to come with but ended up having to work. When we got home, Eric was so tired he went right to bed so I soon followed suit.

We left late after I woke up for the day and Eric showed me my surprise, we headed out for Dylan’s 2nd Birthday Party. We got there for the tail-end of the food and to watch him open his presents – I think he had a pretty good time!

After the party, we went to Rebecca’s house to deliver her present and see how much Gus had grown. He’s soooo leggy now! He’s extremely energetic and has a bit of a biting problem – and his puppy teeth are crazy sharp…

I worked last night and when I woke up today, Eric had brought me a surprise (early) birthday present – from him and my parents.

A dresser!!!!! Up to this point, my t-shirts had been living folded on the floor of my closet.

I LOVE it!!!

Rebecca’s Birthday was last week and Father’s Day was today, so Eric and made a trip earlier in the week to Hobby Lobby for our latest present projects.

We made a little photo book of Gus from birth to 8 weeks old for her to be able to show people in a small, easy-to-carry form. I also wanted to do some kind of framed art for her new place, but then Eric had the best idea for the photos and this is what we ended up with:

For Dad, Mom had what photos she wanted to use and a vague idea of the sizes, Eric and I filled in the mat-board, the frames and put them all together. I think they turned out quite nicely:

Everyone seemed quite please with their gifts

Well today was the big kick-off for B93’s Birthday Bash 17. We bought our tickets months and months ago and were ready for a day out in the great weather with some live music. I was especially excited for today with several people I was really looking forward to seeing. The torrential rain from the night before had disappeared and it was a beautiful and sunny morning. We headed out a little late since I worked last night, got out at 7:15 this morning. Eric picked me up (late as he slept until past the time he was supposed to be at the hospital to get me) and we headed home to catch 2 hours of sleep before getting on the road.

It was a sloppy, muddy mess at the fairgrounds:

We missed Frankie Ballard and the first special guest, Bomshel. I was ok with that. Last minute, Eric decided to park in town and walk in, paying $5 extra rather than wait in a line at least an hour before getting in. That enabled us to be in our pretty excellent seats for The Lost Trailers. I was excited to see them and was not disappointed, they put on a great show!

Next up was Julianne Hough, I had no idea what to expect but she was pretty entertaining as well. Tiny little thing, definitely could tell the men in the crowd liked her lol .

Next up was Zac Brown Band. I was really excited to see these guys since we had only saw part of their show at the Intersection last time and what we had seen was really good. Their flight from Denver got canceled and Kenny Chesney sent his jet to get them to GR. They had to stop to buy new guitars and other instruments and then at Wal-Mart – attire was Dickie’s all black and white bandanas…pretty freakin’ cool!

Next was supposed to be a Special Guest, Craig Morgan and Blake Shelton. We went out for a break and some water, saw some friends:

When we got back, we discovered that they were clearing out the grounds due to mass flooding from the river into several different parking areas, leaving many people stranded…

They announced the Special Guest as Michelle Branch and put Craig Morgan and Blake Shelton up on stage with her all together. They each played about 2 songs and then they closed the place down .

Craig Morgan is one of my all-time favorites and I was beyond disappointed that he wouldn’t be performing an entire set.

I was also excited to see Blake Shelton, Eric says he’s a great show and I’ve never seen him but enjoy his music…another bummer…

We left very disappointed to hear on the way home that they were cancelling the second day of Bash and refunding for the tickets. Then we realized how burnt we were and that was the cap to the evening.

Eric’s Croc got caught in the mud at one point and sprayed mud all over his back…resulting in a very interesting burn…

Eric is 27 now!!! Hope your birthday is fantastic!

We drove to Holland to meet Eric’s family at Grandma’s house for his birthday. Good food and good cake!

We don’t often get to Holland to visit anymore, but today was Lilly’s first birthday and they rented a hall for the party so we headed down to visit and celebrate.

Here’s the fam along with Jennifer’s sister’s fam:

The Birthday Girl:

Bella, Lilly’s cousin, is possibly the most photogenic child I have met, she LOVES to pose:

Can’t forget Dylan’s little trick of putting olives on his finger before he’ll eat them, he’s so adorable!

Although we celebrated the night of Adam’s 21st, we wanted to all go out together with the rest of the fam for a true celebration. And did we ever! We went out for some drinks in a small bar just the immediate fam, then we headed to Hart to meet up with everyone else.

We went to Schooners next. Which was all but dead, but we had some fantastic food and drinks there…

Before heading to Walkers, which was jam-packed full of people from high school, but still a good time…

Then, I saw this:

And said that it was time to go…but…

here’s Dad asking Adam if he (Dad) can have one more beer:

I said no, Adam said yes and shortly thereafter it resulted in:

To end the night especially fun, Adam yacked the whole way back to the house and we had to keep pulling over. At which point a cop came up and gave Dad a sobriety test and took his fireman badge. I made Mom lock the door of the car so Adam could dry-heave into a hankie instead of all over a cop’s shoe. We finally made it home and I made sure Adam was set with water, towels etc in the bathroom before heading to bed.

ETA: the cop ended up coming back and giving Dad his badge back…some people shouldn’t choose their jobs based solely on the the power trips it gives them… *eye roll*