Hangin' with the Gardiners

I guess Jocelyn and Jameson couldn't stand to be away from Omaha for too long, because they came back for a visit just a few weeks ago! I like to think that they came back just to see us, but their visit might also have had something to do with the fact that Jameson's family is here, or that they had tickets to see ColdPlay, or that they had week-long tickets to the College World Series... Nah! I'm sure they came back just to hang with us. :)

On Wednesday, we were invited to a College World Series game. Unfortunately, because I was in dumb ol' Micro, I wasn't able to go, but Ryan went and had a great time! Jameson's dad's company had box seats to all the games, so everyone spent their time running back and forth from seats outside in the hot sun to the air-conditioned, food-filled box. Ryan thinks he probably gained 10 pounds from eating all the delicious food.

After I finished working on Friday, we drove the 40 minutes to Jameson's parents' house where we were going to have dinner with Joc, Jameson, and their family. Misha was invited to go too. This is what she looked like as we made our way to their house...

It was so funny to watch her jowels flap in the wind!

I never knew Iowa to be so gorgeous. In the summer everything is so green and plush and there are rolling hills as far as the eye can see. The drive to the house was beautiful and Jameson's parents' house was even more beautiful. Jameson's family owns quite a bit of land and so their house is in a large clearing that is surrounded by big trees. I wanna live in a place just like this someday...

I'm pretty sure Misha wouldn't have a problem living in a place like this someday either because I've never seen a happier dog in all my life! When we let her out of the car, she breifly met the family's two labs and then ran her little heart out in all that open space for the rest of the evening.

Misha was even lucky enough to have her first close encounter with a cat. It came as no surpirse to us to learn that she's afraid of them. It made everyone laugh because it was obvious she desperately wanted to play with it, but the cat would arch her back and hiss whenever Misha would get too close and that totally freaked her out. She resorted to whining at the cat, and crawling underneath the chair the cat was sitting on and sniffing her that way. Seriously, what kind of a dog is afraid of a cat?? What a silly girl...

While we were waiting for dinner to be finished, we played a game of softball in the front yard which was really fun, although we were dripping sweat by the time the game ended. We had build-your-own kabobs for dinner complete with chicken, beef, tomatoes, onion, pineapple, peppers, and spices cooked on the grill. We also had garlic bread, baked beans, and slushies to drink. Yum! After dinner, we got to do a little of this...

While Jameson did a little of this...

And then the boys did some of this...

When it got too dark to see, we went inside and enjoyed a delicious dessert of lemon poppyseed bread, homemade strawberry sauce, and whipped cream. Afterwards we played around-the-world ping pong and spoons, then relaxed, chatted, and listed to Jameson and one of his friends jam on the guitar.

We had such a wonderful time hanging out with Jocelyn, Jameson, and their family. It was really nice of them to invite us to their home. I hope we were good enough guests to be invited back soon!