mama brough came to visit!

we went to crossfit friday morning--and of course no time spent with julie is anything if we don't stop at mcdonalds. so we got the egg white dream or something with water (me) and diet coke (her) for breakfast. :)

then since jordan was working this day we went home, got showered, ran a couple errands to joann and ross (where she bought me the cutest dress!), and went to visit him out at the mine! we were hoping to take a tour and see the sights. sites? sights...
except i wore shorts. because it was 103 degrees this day. so that was super super fun. and jordan forgot to remind me that that's not kosher. so i had to stay in the truck. womp womp.

jordan scheduled it for us so we would get there right as they were doing a blast. it was a pretty cool little thing to see--i'm sure it's huge up close. but from our vantage point it was small. but the boom was huge. and it was awesome.

caught julie mid "wooo!" also, i love being nick schwind. his hard hat is my hard hat. hahaha

i told jordan to look official. what a boss.

isn't that awesome? yeah. it looks a lot like kennecott. but way cool.

mother and son... cuties.

we also got to see newmont's fish pond--it was so gorgeous free from the snow and ice that was here when lindsay came to tour it!

just over those hills is the mine!

we went home and cooled down for a bit just relaxing until jordan got home. julie then treated us to dinner at matties! it was delicious. and she was so generous. we had a lovely day that was finished by our hour spent at relay for life. i loved feeling the camaraderie of everyone walking on that track and lighting luminaries, and the beautiful sunset.

and we had a fabulous time. although it's incredible how exhausted you can be after just walking for an hour straight...! hahaha. and the missionaries were all out helping because it was a community service event. and i felt all warm and fuzzy. we had a good time.

but then i read that the american cancer society doesn't actually give all of its proceeds to cancer research..? so that makes me pretty ticked off... but it is so good to see the good that everyone is trying to do--getting the community to come together.. and it makes me wonder what kind of work would need to be done to make changes to get an event that would get proceeds to actually benefit those who need it...
but this guy with the walking stick camping hat and backpack was my favorite.

this was us for a solid 45 mins after we got home. we were all spent. ha

saturday we went and saw white house down! we would recommend it. i would highly recommend it. because it has channing tatum. yes sir.
and right after the movie jordan had a soccer game! so i was not the only white spectator and julie got to watch her son play soccer. and it was only marginally hot.

someone got them together to take a team picture...! how cute is that? so you know i jumped in there! (to take a picture. not in it...hahaha)

that night we had a late dinner and decided to watch something on netflix. julie recognized the movie heart and souls with robert downey jr. and we watched it--seriously just a cute and funny show! we loved it. and to have two good movies in a row...?? it was like a weekend anomaly! i would recommend that one too. as a big rdj fan as well, it was so fun to see him in his younger years of acting.

julie stayed til chips and salsa after church. sunday we went to nisbet's oldest son's scott's farewell talk, then showed up at our own ward in time to teach sunday school (which julie sat in on) only to find out we'd missed a kid in our ward's farewell talk! fail. luckily he wasn't a bff of ours, (obviously, or i would have known it was his too!) so i didn't cry about missing it. but i was still sad.

i got a bajillion compliments on my super cute new dress that julie bought for me, and we sat through combined priesthood/rs/ym/yw, and got to play with mr. drake. he played typing on julie's ipad for a couple minutes, and i snapped this shot that i just think is the cutest.

we had the best time with this lady--i'm a lucky girl to have such a wonderful mother in law! it was so so nice to have family come visit... man i miss our family!! any and all others are welcome to visit-- come on out! we'll even take you on short notice! :) it's a quick drive ;)

lately...

facetiming for days with this loves

our love garden is growing!! ardis and i weeded for 2 hours. she is the best company.

and this happened.

he loved it.

we made and ate kabobs with matt and grace! and jordan made this happen...but i definitely was able to snap a picture before it ended!
they are the greatest to humor our madness.

the georgia brough's had their family pictures taken. and if this doesn't make you smile to yourself, i don't know what will.

it was also this kid's birthday! our package got there way late, and jordan was at work when they could facetime, so i got to watch him open his present! he looked like this most of the time...

it was kind of a grumpy day. but sometimes i got this cute excited face! he loved the little package of dinosaurs! and maybe in a year or two he'll love his little cape! that i didn't post pictures of because i didn't want kendree to see.

ta da! done in like 5 mins. and it was freeee! thanks to jordan's old tshirt and fabric scraps. so hopefully one day soon he'll love it. and his cousins will all wear theirs around and run and play together! 

those are my dreams. ;)

oh yeah. kabob night, this also happened.

special kids. 

we had graduation parties for daaayys! the older kiddos were so nice and invited us to all their graduation parties..! we had so much free food, and this one had the tastiest cake.
shout out to jessops for the rides around town--and singing "yoooou! you got what i neeeed!" all day. it was a good saturday.

that ended with babysitting a new couple in the wards' kids--and they both looked just about like this the whole time.. he was watching old yeller, and she was being old yeller. ha! i just came up with that. i kill myself.

father's day and car notes

the card is funny--cause the gift was a tie.

THIS tie.

boom. because all he wanted for father's day was a green tie and a crossfit t-shirt! and to wear his baller cuff links.

and i'm making his t-shirt...so he doesn't actually quite have that yet... oops.

but he had a lovely day! and saturday stefani was in salt lake for the weekend and since we were cooking so much food already, and kevin had been REALL REALLY excited about the sound of baja chicken salad, we had him over!

thiiiis is what happened when i told them to pose.
cheeseballs.

i wrote another note to another neighbor. and he has been so considerate since then! best news ever.
even better news is that i saw him check his car position when he'd pulled in a little close. ha. he didn't fix it... but i saw him pay attention! kelli ftw!

the jessops

we spend a good deal of time with these guys... and as a result i have a lot of pictures of them on my phone... and i feel that that warrants its own blog post.

they crack us up--it's so so great to find another couple who shares our sense of humor and is always willing to talk into the night with us, make cookies, let us play with their baby, feed us dinner, etc etc etc.
we love the jessops. okay.

jordan made porkchops one night. kevin couldn't stop raving about them. like--for real. every 2 mins--"holy crap! these are so good!" aaaaand then he took a creepy picture with them.

i don't remember why we traded apartments--i think to go play games but drake had to go down for bed? but they needed to pick up their place so we just kept drake for like a half hour and had a blast playing with the kiddo

some of us may have gotten a little carried away..

homeboy didn't want to go to bed...he wanted to play with aunt kelli-- and that was fine by me! he's my bud.

another sunday a couple weeks ago jordan had to go to work after sacrament meeting, and he didn't get back in time to take me home after relief society, so i caught a ride with the jessops. turns out i was also locked out, so i just walked to jessops to hang out til he got home.
he ended up bringing our chips and salsa because drake was sleeping at the time, and then jessops fed us dinner, and then i made swig sugar cookies--and i ended up spending the entire day at their house..! i just was so thrilled when jordan was able to join me.

and i didn't even nap...! but we trucked through that whole day. and they were the sweetest to let me live with them. hahaha

every time we hang out we end up talking about working out. and jordan tries to convert them to crossfit. kevin always talks about how he can't squat worth beans--it hurts his hips. and jordan finally threw down the gauntlet and said "come on kevin! we're gonna teach you to squat!"

so, that happened. except not very well. and something else happened that made them do this

for like 5 mins..

so grateful to have family away from home. love you guys!

memorial day

that saturday we went the gym--as always, and i did "annie" while these guys did some ridiculous wod.. i don't remember what it was. but i finished my workout, hung out to cheer them on, went home to shower, came back, and cheered them on for 5 more minutes til this!

crazy biznatches. total time: 1:30:16. or something like that. that night was the intern dinner--the employees treat the interns to a dinner to welcome them for the summer. we ate at a place called JJ's out in spring creek. it was the tastiest bbq i've ever had. their cornbread left much to be desired, however.

one of these mornings i also stepped outside to this lovely cigar resting on the stairs to our apartment. thanks, intern neighbors. (it really is so lovely having no one live there 9 months out of the year..! and really these guys aren't so bad for the 3 months this summer)

my heart just overflows with love for these gorgeous girls. we were missing a few and our man clancy this day. but oh man. we love our ss class.

monday we were invited by the nisbets out to their cabin for a little bbq get together! ...maybe 9, maybe 40! ...it was closer to 40. ha. it was a lovely time, and fun to see all the kiddos i sub in their natural habitat. (kidding. i prefer to see them in the zoo). but it was still a good time. 

our girls were all there as well, and half of them decided to make a moving pyramid...

and it got bigger from there

these kids... i tell ya--the youth in elko are phenomenal. think i'm exaggerating? come visit. :)

there was a creek running through the backyard, so i made jordan take a picture with me there. it was also much chillier than we expected--so i got to borrow a navy sweatshirt from the cabin's supply. just the nicest people, there.

it was weird to not go around to visit graves and spend times with family. but these guys are our family away from family. and that's what makes elko feel like home.