Illinois in July

Here are a few pictures I took when I was down in July for Grandma Rankin's funeral. Although it was a sad time for us all, it was nice having everybody together for a couple of days.

Thanks for checking in and not giving up on the Rankin Girls blog!

Kendall :)

Emma and me. I can't believe how fast she is growing up! She is turning into such a young lady!

Stop growing up Emma (mostly because you're almost up to my shoulders already!)!!

Anna and Sophia. She did such a good job getting Sophia to sleep-she was SO good that she

almost put herself to sleep!

Emma and Anna holding Sophia and Henry. They do such a great job helping

out with all of the little kids that are around!


I LOVE this picture of Henry and Anna! Henry looks like such a little man!!



Hmmm..who's who???

Colby about ready to pass out, but not wanting to miss out on anything going on!

Reading Anna's favorite book-Colby loves reading too!!

MILLIE!!!!!

Chris wearing Millie's sunglasses...

Scott chilling in the pool..nice farmer's tan!!

SPARKY!!!!

Rollin' On The River With Cletus! Oops, I Mean Creedence

A couple weekends ago a bunch of us met up in Fargo and went to a Kenny Chesney concert. We all had so much fun! There were two opening acts: Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert. I think I was more excited about those two than Kenny Chesney (not that he wasn't AWESOME as well, but I just love the other two).

Gretchen, Kim, and I drove down to Fargo early Saturday morning in order to get some shopping done and eat lunch at the Olive Garden(when you live so far away from restaurants, you get VERY excited about going to a city that has some good ones!). We made it down there right around lunch so we ate quick and then met up with our friends Noel and Ryan at the Fargodome to get our tickets and then met up with Jen and checked into our hotel room and THEN we finally got to get a little bit of shopping done! After that we went to our hotel bar where we met up with Jessie and Dusty and had a few beers, ate some appetizers, and then headed up to the hotel to get all dolled up!

Top night girls (and boys), TOP NIGHT!! :)

Love ya!

Kendall

Gretta and me getting ready for the concert!!!

Jen and Jes getting ready while Ryan mans the music on the laptop!

The bathroom was so crowded with all of us girls getting ready, we had to improvise a bit..I'm standing on the toilet curling my hair!

The Girls!

(Jes, Jen

me, Gretchen, Kim)

Us on the bus to the concert! Our hotel provided a bus that shuttled to and back from the Fargodome..it cost five dollars but worth it!

LADY ANTEBELLUM!!!! LOVE THEM LOVE THEM LOVE THEM!!!
By the way Mom and Dad, the middle guy is your future son-in-law!!

Jes and Dusty :)

Noel: Pre-concert..he wasn't too stoked about it!

Gretta and me...there was a really sad song!

Miranda Lambert!!!!

Kim and Jen!! Though it appears Kim can barely keep her eyes open,

she barely drank a thing all night...she had to play mom for all of us!

Here comes KENNY CHESNEY!!!!!

He floated up out of nowhere and over the crowd to the stage...awesome!

Jen was getting ready to watch "Twilight" when she got home!

She had to get her face ready for the vampires!

A little softer side of Jen...or maybe she's just picked out her next victim!

Kenny...from a distance....

A little happier Noel! Yay for beer!

Gretchen was pouting cause they didn't play her favorite song!! :P

Just Wingin It With My Besties 2009

Everything is A-OK when you're going to the Bahamas with your besties!

(Here's the skinny with the showercap..the boat we had was a European boat so we did not have regular plug-ins, so we couldn't really do our hair..so I just didn't wash mine the first day!)
This is our hotel...just kidding! This hotel is the Atlantis in the Bahamas..it's AMAZING!
There is a huge aquarium and it is all so beautiful! Someday I will make my future husband take me there to stay..or if Al and I both aren't married by thirty we are going to go and stay there!

This is some really cool chair by a cave..I don't really remember the story exactly on it but it's still pretty!

Gretchen and Al when we first got on the boat...everybody got along so well even though it was only like the third time these two have hung out together!

This is the first afternoon on our boat!
We all took turns being models..however, I don't have pictures of the other two during their modeling times!

AWESOME!!!!!

Not as awesome..but still pretty awesome!
I think this is Florida on our way back...

Gretchen, Al, and me and the restaurant we ate at in the Bahamas...

Our boat: The Bahama Celebration..or something of that sort! This is what it looked like when we were about to get deserted!

All three of us ordered fried fish at the restaurant in the Bahamas..and this is what we got..
We were not expecting to have the head and everything still attached!

This is in the Bahamas..it's called the "Queen's Staircase"
There are 62 steps....we walked down them and then our tourguide picked us up at the bottom..there was absolutely NO exercising while we were on vacation!

Sooo...there are my first batch of pictures. I have some more developed, but I know how all you people are and you can really only handle one group of pictures at a time or you won't comment on them all. I had an awesome time and although I was very nervous about going, I don't regret any bit of it! I LOVED the warm weather and really could consider moving to the Bahamas, I wonder if they have a shortage of vet techs or teachers there???

Love,

Kendall :)

PS- sorry the pictures aren't really in any kind of order..I get impatient with this whole thing so I just kind of throw them on here with a little explanation..when I'm home again I'll bring my pictures and tell the extended stories on them!

I also have more pictures from the Florida part of my trip..so be expecting them sometime this week!!

How Many...

...pictures does it take to get a good shot of Kendall and Emma together! They could pass as sisters! They take pictures exactly the same!

Here we go!

Who says you can't have fun in -40* temperature!

Okay, so you all know a few weeks ago we up in Minnesota were dealing with negative 40* temperature, and that is not wind chill, just straight up that freezing cold! So one day at work the other girls I work with were telling me about blowing bubbles and throwing boiling water up in the air in this weather and what it would do. I'm easily amused and wanted to try it so my friend Lexie (whom I work with) and I got the bubbles out of the cupboard (yes, at a veterinary clinic we had bubbles) and boiled some water and set out to make some magic!

As you can see, the water freezes in the air! If you look at the building

you should be able to see "Clearwater Veterinary Service, LTD." but the water just freezes

and you can't see all of the letters!

Lexie throwing water up in the air!

Me throwing water up in the air!

If you look closely you can see the bubbles just chilling on the ground..they never popped!

Now if you look you can see some bubbles are half broken! CRAZY!

BUBBLES BUBBLES BUBBLES!!