bittersweet

I've been spending a lot of time with family before moving to Chicago this Thursday (June 21). I'm actually really sad to leave.. i have such a good time with my family and friends and Jersey is AWESOME but i'm also really excited to go to Chicago to start my job and see my loves. here are a few pictures from home and birthday celebrations. Thanks to all who wished me a Happy Birthday, and those who spent my birthday with me!

first off cutest kids ever.... Samuel, Christopher, and Alyssa. The Jackson kids are beautiful and they are HILARIOUS. love them. Another Jackson baby to come in August!!



VBS decorations My mom is the VBS director this year (VBS stands for Vacation Bible School and it's a weeklong summer camp for kids from kindergarten to sixth grade) and I got suckered in to doing decorations. I remember all the VBSes that i went to and how awesomely transformed the church was, so i feel a lot of pressure to give these kids the same feeling. The theme is Avalanche Ranch, so i'm building a corral, a barn, cutting out animals that are mounted to foam (SO HARD), and other things. here are a few pics of me laboriously working for my mom.










i'm teaching yoyo to use a manual camera so this is him taking a picture of his rubiks cube that he has been attached to for the past week. he can solve it in 5 minutes. smart kiddie.

EATING! i've been doing a lot of eating. it's actually kind of horrendous and even Nancy told me that my food intake is scaring her a bit. oops =) anyways, mom and i have been doing a lot of food shopping and cooking... AND we went to the Seafood Festival in Belmar BOTH DAYS. delicious. My family is a clan of eating monsters.


yoyo's photography skills


dad is in seafood heaven. look at him covered in lobster guts. AWESOME.


jeff can't even take a break from eating to take a picture


yoyo turning into what he ate.


mama!


yoyo waiting for mom and i to finish making steak, asparagus, and corn. mmmmmmm


jeff, yoyo, and i made chocolate covered long-stemed strawberries with sprinkles.


then we dared yoyo to eat a chocolate-sprinkle covered dorito


homemade watermelon slush MMMMMMMM


CHOCOLATE DOME. if you ever need me to do anything, give me one of these and i will do it. i know i'm making myself vulnerable but i will sacrifice that for some of this.


so will jeff.


and yoyo


and mama =)

Birthday We celebrated my birthday/fathers day on June 16th. We drove around the shore and jeff and i took some pictures. Then at night we went to Olive garden and stuffed ourselves til it hurt. MM!


jeff and i =)


yoyo with his two slaves


jersey is beautiful




rt. 36

Melting Pot Nancy, Shawn, Tiff and our family went out to dinner at the Melting Pot for my birthday. I think it's become my new favorite restaurant.


Tiff showed up to my house unannounced as we were waiting for nancy to pick us up for dinner to bring me a birthday balloon. LOVE YOU SO MUCH BABY GIRL. thank you so much for making today special for me =)


(l to r) Shawn, Tiff, Nancy, me, mama, Yoyo, Jeff
we were all food happy at this point. we destroyed all the platters.




MMMMMM! lobster! chicken! filet mignon! tuna! shrimp! being with my loves! HAPPINESS! (whew)


yin yang fondue. MMMMMMM!!!!


and my favorite... almaretto milk chocolate fondue


and last but not least, THANK YOU JEFF for this awesome birthday gift, my first designer purse ever! =)

I love you guys.