Grandma Michel's Passing

For the first time in years, all three of my Dad's girls made the trip to Lincoln at the same time. Unfortunately, the occasion that brought us together was the passing of my Grandma. Mary Evelyn Michel passed away on May 19th at 84 years of age. It may have been the only family gathering so far to include all 8 of her children, all 21 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. Yes, it's a motley crew, but one she was very proud of :)

The service was very nice, starting with a church service and ending with the graveyard burial. 

Following the funeral, the weekend quickly turned into more of a celebration of life.  The whole family hung around together and enjoyed each others company.

This is my Uncle Mark and his offspring and husbands.

My Van Ackeron cousins Andrea, Sarah Ann & Ben.

The three amigos...Kayla, Kelli & Erin.

Jacob, Dad & Kel

Kel and I

My Dad and his old man.  This is one of my favorite pictures of them :)

Below is my cousin Adrienne & her husband Scott & their son, Tristan.  They live in North Carolina.

My Aunt Marna and Uncle Ronnie

My Aunt Susan and Uncle Jake 

Easter Sunday

Jacob and I stayed in KC for Easter....we decided Easter is extremely uneventful when you don't have any kids to go Easter Egg hunting or any extended family to cook a big meal! In fact, our Sunday went exactly like almost every other Sunday - church followed by lawn work. Except instead of looking forward to exciting Sunday night TV, we were disappointed with re-runs! Maybe we should hide some eggs for Tex next year...

Surprise!

Kelli surprised my Dad by coming in town to celebrate his 60th Birthday on April 30th....and yes, he was very surprised. I had invited my Dad over for dinner on Friday night, however little did he know that Kelli and Mark were here too! We made an all appetizer dinner - got a favorite fried appetizer? You name it, we had it! Kelli has a list of her favorite places that we hit up everytime she's home. I think I got my fill of Pizza Shoppe and In A Tub until she comes back in June.

First Annual Kentucky Derby Party

We had our First Annual Kentucky Derby Party on May 6th. I think some might have thought I was joking when I encouraged obnoxiously big hats!!! I guess next year they will know that I wasn't :) It was a great time despite the fact that the race occurred an hour earlier than I thought. Those dang time zones got the best of me! Lisa Sutterby was the lucky winner of the friendly gambling pool. Now that we've mastered preparing mint juleps, I'll have to do a little more homework on the horses next year!