Hey, hey, hey! The gang's all here...

Tiff & I sharing the bathroom - just like old times!

Friday when we arrived, it was just Mom & Jordan, and then Dad & Chris rolled in a little later after work. Tiff and Mark got in late, so we didn't see them until the morning, and Matt, Steph, Ethan and Seth rolled in around lunchtime, so Chris had a staggered introduction to the Timken clan, which hopefully was a little less overwhelming!!! But Chris fit in perfectly and my family absolutely loved him... like there was any doubt!! :-)

I love this one! Seth's face is priceless!

Despite the weatherman's predictions of thunderstorms, God blessed us with blue skies and sunshine on Saturday! We all had to laugh, though, when Chris thought it was pretty windy. We all tried to explain that it was nothing more than a little breeze in our world!! He would experience true KS wind on Monday with lovely 40 mph winds!!! But anyway, Saturday we headed to Frontier Park after lunch and played some Frisbee Golf. Chris was brave enough to fish out a couple of discs around the stepping stones (none which were mine, by the way!) but unfortunately, he lost his disc a few more holes down with no chance of retrieval. It probably disintegrated the minute it touched the water... ick.

Chris bonding with my nephews! They LOVED him!!

They were in attack mode at this point!

Chris, Dad, Matt & Steph

Chris, Tiff & Mark

Ethan, Jordan & Seth

Jordan was picking flowers for his mom! Too sweet!!
(Krisson was in Omaha but came back to Hays that evening)

Yikes!!! I was scared... but thanks to Chris's encouragement,
I tried and actually made it across!!!

Again for the record... this was NOT my frisbee!!! :-)

SNOWBALLS!!! My favorite!!!!

Dad was making homeade ice cream!! Yum!!

A good aunt probably would have stopped this...

The big boys played Hillbilly Golf...

... and the little boys played Washers!

This was a common site during the weekend...
the boys in Chris's lap playing games on the iPhone!

Jordan quickly picked up on Chris's sayings... "Nice"!!!
It was the cutest thing ever!!

Me & Alison

Kansas or bust! - Day 1 & 2

It's road trip time!!! Chris's adventure actually started around 5:30 am on Thursday morning as he drove the 4 hr. stretch from Port Angeles to Portland. When he got to town, we picked up the rental car, loaded up and were on the road by noon! We were both just excited to finally be on the road... together!!! That first stretch of I-84 in the Gorge is just gorgeous!! The plan was to drive straight through and arrive in Hays by Friday afternoon. We were on a mission! We did stop in Meridian, ID, though, to have dinner at my friends, Heather & Doug's house. They graciously hooked us up with SONIC and provided a nice bathroom to change into our PJ's for the long night ahead of us!! We stopped about every 300 miles to fill up and take a bathroom break, in addition to a very important 4:30 am pit stop at Little America, WY for 50 cent ice cream cones!! Nothing like a good road trip to jack up your nutrition habits. We also had Arby's Regular Roast Beef sandwiches for breakfast in Cheyenne, WY!! Mmm... delicious!!!! I drove a little bit (key word - "little")... but Chris was a stud and drove through the night and let me sleep!! I'd say he was an angel... but the fact that he took incriminating pictures of me sleeping, knocks him down a few notches!! LOL!!!

Quick stop at a view point somewhere in Oregon!

SEE?! Proof that I was behind the wheel at one point...
not for very long... but I DID drive!!!!

Our saints in Idaho! Heather, Jenna & Doug!!!! Thanks guys!!!

Checkin' in with Dad in Cheyenne, WY!!!

My turn to drive again... all the way to the KS border!!

YEAH!!!

It took us about 26 hrs. to roll in to good ole Hays, America! We got to the house to find Mom and Jordan anxiously awaiting our arrival. We had time to shower before Dad and Chris both rolled in after work... and it wasn't long before we were off to Taco Shop, and a mandatory stop for a snowball on the way home!!! The day I'd been waiting for for MONTHS was finally here!! Chris was getting to meet my family!!!! Let the fun times begin!!!!!

It's that time of year again...

It's race time... a.k.a. "t-shirt collecting" season!! :-) Ana joined me this year for the 5K run, and some other friends were doing the longer distance runs, but I had to rush off to shower and get ready for church, so I missed out on the fun times afterwards at the post-race party! But that's okay! Race season is just beginning!! I think this is my 4th time running the Shamrock Run, and in the past I've always lucked out with great (dry) weather. Not so much this time!!! It was freezing, windy and wet... but it was still fun!! I ran a slower pace with Ana for the first mile, and haven't been training much so far this year, so I pulled off my slowest time yet... but that's okay. I'm taking it easy this year!! :-)

Reunion time!

Brooke and I met back in 2000. We met through the crew at Crossroads church and she quickly became one of my best friends out here! She was definitely a blessing as I was adjusting to life in the NW that first year, away from the comforts of home!! Time passed and we kind of went our separate ways, but she's always been on my heart. So I was SO excited when she found me on Facebook and after several weeks of trying to get together, we finally were able to hook up on Saturday!! I got to meet her husband, Chad, who happens to be a HUGE KC Chiefs fan!! And her precious daughter, Josie!!! It was so good to see her again and catch up!!!! I'm excited to have her back in my life!!!

Just another night at 1-on-1...

... and there's no such thing as a dull night! Last night we had a lesson on Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego, and Omar had the kids (and some tutors) help out with a skit! I bet you didn't know that King Nebuchadnezzar had an afro & a "mini me"?! :-)

And then you can't bust out the afros without ending the night with a "Praise Train" (our version of Soul Train!) Good times!!!! :-)