Busy Busy Busy!!

July and August brought a lot of visitors from down South. It was so nice being able to spend time with each sister and their family! When we go down to Illinos it can be a bit overwhelming because EVERYBODY is at one place and sometimes I don't get to spend enough time with each person.

The weekend of July 4th our first guest arrived: Gail came up to spend the weekend with us. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of this, but I don't think there would have been any fun ones. We spent most of the day sitting out on Kim's deck. At night, we pretty much did the same thing. There were many games of Speed played and a lot of talking..aka...gossipping going on. Thanks for coming up Gail!

Mom, Kelly, and Colby were the next to arrive late July. They were up for a long weekend and we pretty much sat around and relaxed which was quite nice.

Then in the beginning of August the James crew "surprised" us up here. Being that I was so shocked that they were up here, I completely forgot to take pictures! Sorry! I had a blast hanging out with all of them and playing with the girls! Also, my Dad and Raylene were up at that time so they were in Clearbrook hanging out a couple nights.

The last and final group actually came in late August. Kori, Ben, and Amelia showed up very early on a Sunday morning and stayed for a week. I am sometimes overwhelmed by them staying in at my apartment (usually everybody stays out at Kim's), but I love every minute of it. I loved getting the few minutes every morning playing with Millie before I went to work.

Thank you to everybody (including all of my friends) who made the trip up here to visit!

Love,

Kendall

Millie and me! We tried to get a good picture of both of us but it just wasn't working for us, so this one will just have to do!

I really enjoyed having the Machlitt's staying at my place. It was nice being able to spend time hanging out with Kori again!

The highlight of their trip for me was when Kori told Kim that Millie didn't like cottage cheese, so of course, Kim tries to mix in a little bit of cottage cheese in with Millie's applesauce. The child actually ate the applesauce and spit out the cottage cheese, now that's talent!!

Jake with his gas mask on...silly boy!

Colby with her sly little look. I can't believe how happy yet silent she is!

Yup, that's what was going on during this visit. They were probably online talking bad about the rest of us to eachother!

Mom hanging out with Colby and Jacob while watching a movie!

GOOD MORNING BALTIMORE...I mean GONVICK!!!!

These little guys greeted me every morning when I got to work! The mom built the nest right above our side door! Although we all enjoyed seeing them every morning, it is nice to not worry about getting a little dropping on our heads!

Just wanted to say thanks to Grandma Budke for losing her camera and buying a new one and then finding the lost camera! If it wasn't for her, I would not be able to take pictures and post again! Thanks Grandma!!! Love you!!

Have a good day!!

Kendall

Turner and Chester

Turner watching some TV.

This is what sparked Turner's interest: bull riding.

Turner and Chester.

Chester and her new haircut. She was leaving hair clumps everywhere so my friend

Lexie offered to shave her. I LOVE not having hair everywhere, however, I do not think

she loves the new do!

Turner bored out of his mind while I watch the baseball game.

Now I know most of my family are not really animal people, however, I do not have any kids so this is all I've got!!!

Kendall

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!!