Summer 2009

First thing's first...the highlight of this summer was my 10 year H.S. reunion. Yes sir...I graduated from Hereford High School 10 years ago this year. The sad news is that only 15 of us out of nearly 300 in our graduating class) showed up to ride the float in the parade. It was fun seeing some of my old classmates and friends. GO MAROON, GO WHITE..GO MAROON, GO WHITE, FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT! Alright, I'm done now.

Moving on..............

Our summer was full of excitement..as usual. Roughly counting, we have around 12 birthdays we celebrate in the summer between close friends and family! It may be costly, but we wouldn't want to miss even one of those birthdays! Keri celebrated her 22nd Birthday this year and was treated to one of my homemade cakes after dinner!

Here is our 4 year old cousin, Brady's birthday party. Dustin and Jocelyn went all out and rented a GIANT inflatable water slide. I must admit that I had as much fun as the kids..only I'm sure they didn't regret it the next day! By the way, all but a few of these kids are cousins of ours. Big families are great!

Also this summer we had Jonathan and Keri's wedding! Lots of Greg's family came to celebrate with us. This may be one of the only family pictures this group of girls will ever have. We had such a great time with the family. I wish we could get together more often!

And look at this crew! Summer is always time for playing at the park for my kids. We pick up our cousins, call a few friends and head to the park, sometimes up to 5 times a week! Sure helps burn some energy and break up the long summer days. Of course, the mommies sure enjoy the adult fellowship too!

Perhaps one of the best things about summer for me is that my BFF, Sarah, is done with the school year and off for the summer!!! She is a school teacher and so getting together is often difficult. We sure try to take advantage of the time we have
together in the summer and spend as much of it with each other
as we can. Kade and Kenzie are her two babies. Our kids really do have a great time. Our boys are only months apart, and Halee is a great big sister. Sarah and I have been BFF's since 1998. She is my forever friend. I love her and her family very, very much.

Greg, myself and Halee also celebrated our birthdays this year. I had a BBQ and made a homemade pinata. It was an adult only pinata, which means that all of my friends and family were blindfolded, spun and made to take a wack at a high flying pinata. Some of them were surprised when it smacked them in the head as it swung back. It was hysterical. Thank you dear friends and family for humoring me and for being there. I love you all!

Greg turned 30!!!!!! It was awesome. I threw him a surprise birthday party the weekend after his actual birthday and he was so shocked. We had a great time with a hotdog cookout and I organized a poker game for him after. We had it at our friends, the Davis' home. They were so kind to let us have the party in their backyard and it really helped the surprise!

Another big part of the Shelley family summer's are the highly anticipated golf tournaments. Greg plays in several big golf tournaments each summer. One of those is the Budweiser Partnership. Every year he plays with his long time friend and old H.S. golf mate, Josh Shields. The last time they won was in 2001, and 8 years later...VICTORIOUS AGAIN!

Josh, Sam, Andrew and Ainsley are some of our very best friends. They moved back to College Station last year and we've missed them badly. We love when they come home to visit throughout the year and we are so grateful that their family allows us to share that time with them while they are visiting. At the end of September, Josh, Sam, Greg and I are vacationing to Puerto Vallarta together...DID YOU HEAR THAT?? This is the best of all worlds...vacation with best friends...no kids, no responsibilities. We are very excited about this and I've now begun the countdown! 26 days!!!!

This is an older picture of Andrew and Halee playing dress up. I'm quite sure Andrew is not upset that he's missing out on these playdates anymore. Sorry Josh..had to post this one!