Thanksgiving 2007

Here is a picture of the Apollo "kids" and significant others at Thanksgiving. It's about time we have a new generation of "kids" since obvioulsy we're all a little old to be in that category anymore :) Kelli & Mark, and Mom & David made the trip down from Wisconsin. Uncle Logan & Aunt Teresa and Jessica & Matt made the trip up from Fredonia. Monica & Corey drove across town from Prairie Village. Erica came up from Wichita. We had a great time eating and laughing and catching up with one another. Exactly what Thanksgiving family gatherings are intended for! :)

(Pregnancy tracker - 37 weeks or a little over 8 months)

36 Weeks...and counting!

Yet another picture of my growing belly at 36 weeks - or 8 months along. Only one month left! We're hoping this belly has a little Christmas present inside...but we'll just have to see if he chooses to come in time. Still feeling great - just biding the time 'til the little guy arrives.

Our Couple's Shower

We had a couple's shower at Jill's on November 3rd. It was a great gathering of current and old work friends, and Jacob's parents made the trip from Tulsa up for the event too (and to help us celebrate Jacob's birthday too, which was the day before!) They all pooled $ together bought us some of our bigger items, including our stroller! I couldn't believe it. We SERIOUSLY are barely going to have to buy anything. I can't believe how much people have spoiled us. It makes me feel bad b/c I know that we could've afforded to buy a lot more than we ended up having to. I still have a big gift card to use, and I don't even know what to use it on!!!! I'm sure the list of things we'll need after he's here will keep growing, so we'll probably just save it. The generousity of our friends and family has totally amazed me! We are so lucky!

Dad's Re-Birthday

My dad had an emergency triple bypass! He has been experiencing heart pains for MONTHS, maybe even years now, but the doctor's have always attributed it to heartburn related to his digestive tract. He finally went to see a cardiologist and was scheduled for a procedure the very next day (Thursday, October 25) where they pump a colored dye into his heart to test the severity the blockage. Good news is that they found the source of his heart pains...bad news is that he had an emergency triple bypass. Two of his arteries were 80% blocked and a third was 99% blocked! The doctor said it was a wonder that he hadn't had a heart attack yet! The entire ordeal was a little unexpected and scary, but couldn't have had a better outcome. After five days in the hospital, he was released to come home and is well on his way to a full recovery. He feels like he has a new lease on life. The best news is that he hasn't smoked since the day he went into the surgery....which is a bad habit he's had for over 40 years! I guess he's taking this new lease on life seriously :)





His health is so much better following the surgery than it was before.  The below picture was taken 2 months before the surgery and now that I look back at the picture, I think he looks sickly :(.  We now refer to this scary surgery day as his "Re-Birthday" he feels born again!  His better health allows him to do so many things that he could never do before!  We are so thankful for the successful surgery!

Jacob's 1st Half Marathon

Jacob completed the Kansas City Half Marathon in October! Here is a picture of him (in the orange) chugging towards the finish line....actually it looks more like he's floating! :) If you were to ask him, he'd claim that he trained to be able to run 13 miles in a little over 2 hours...however I would disagree! He somehow managed this magnificent feat with barely any training at all! He amazed me! He was literally barely even sweating at the finish line. Unbelievable! I think I solidly gained all of the weight that he lost :)

2nd Wedding Anniversary

This is a picture of me on our 2nd wedding anniversary - September 24, 2007. I'm about 27 weeks pregnant or 6 months. I'm finally starting to get a belly, but am still kind of in that "is she just gaining weight or is she really pregnant" stage. Yeah, it's wonderful (that has a hint of sarcasm). I started to feel him move around right around 20 weeks, which is the weirdest, coolest feeling! I can almost set a clock by the times of day when he's the most active 6:30am, 2:30pm, 5:30pm and 9:30pm. Doctors says all is well...just counting down the remaining months now!

Vancouver

Over labor day weekend, Jacob and I took a trip to Vancouver. What a beautiful city!!!! We really enjoyed the long weekend spent wondering the town and enjoying the scenery. We even rented a tandem bike for one of the days and rode around the city & large local park. We ate lots of seafood! It was one of the more relaxing, fun vacations we've had for a while.

(Pregnancy tracker 24 weeks or 5 1/2 months)

IT'S A BOY!!!!

We just found out today that we're having a BOY and couldn't be more excited! You know what they say....now we only have to be worried about one boy in town rather than if we had a girl, we'd have to be worried about ALL of the boys in town! Ha - just kidding!

Philadelphia for the Fourth

We took a trip to Philadelphia for 4th of July to visit Jacob's brother's family for the holiday weekend. This is a picture of us taken in front of the Liberty Bell. The rest of Jacob's family made the trip too....so it was quite a house full! We had a great time catching up with everyone and seeing some of the sites of the town!

(Pregnancy tracker - 16 weeks or 3 1/2 months)

Jacob had to pretend to be Rocky and climb the historic staircase!

Grand Canyon Hiking

In May 2007, we took a trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon with Brent & Emily Beller and Matt & Michelle Hoppe. We stayed at The Palms in Las Vegas for 2 nights, 1 night in a hotel at the top of the Grand Canyon and camped inside the canyon for one night. We returned to Vegas for one night and stayed at MGM Grand.

We also got to share the exciting news that we were expecting our first baby. Yes, Mandi hiked the Grand Canyon 10 weeks pregnant...and was probably one of the only sober people in Vegas! :)

We hiked the Bright Angel trail 10 miles down to the Colorado River at the bottom of the Canyon. Our campsite was 5 miles down into the Canyon.

The long hike called for a trip to In-N-Out Burger :)

Kelli graduated!!!!

Jacob, I and my dad and even a few of our other family members travelled to Minneapolis to attend her graduation from the University of Minnesota in May. My mom and David threw her a big graduation bonfire party at their house in Prescott. There were tons of people there to help her celebrate. We're so proud of her! She may not have taken the most direct or traditional route, but she's got a degree none the less. Let the job hunt begin! (Here is a picture of Kel and her boyfriend, Mark.)

BIG Announcement!

The Folks family is expanding...and so is my waistline :) This picture was taken the day we found out that we're expecting a baby this winter. We're both excited and a little nervous... We're still going back and forth on whether we will find out the sex in July or not. We'll probably cave :) I hope this doesn't jinx me, but so far I've been feeling great. No big side-effects yet...but I'm sure they're soon to appear.

Royal's Opening Day

We hosted our annual Royal's Opening Day party again this year.  We invited 65 of our closest friends from work :)  It is an annual tradition and one that everyone very much so looks forward to!  My dad offered to drive a group of us to the stadium in his RV.  The keg came along for the ride too and made for some interesting times....fun memories for sure!

Sunny Cali

Jacob and I planned a "post-busy season" trip to California in late spring. We spent a few days in San Diego and then drove up the coast to L.A. Although we enjoyed our visit to Hollywood, I think we liked San Diego better than L.A. Jacob convinced me that no trip to San Diego is complete without a trip to Tiajuana. I'm thinking we could've done without that experience....but none the less it was an experience!!! While standing in line to get back into the States, we saw them let a group of mexicans out of jail that had previously been arrested for trying to sneak across the border. They were returning all of their belongings, including their shoelaces and belts. Overall the trip was a great way to unwind, relax and reconnect after a few months spent apart. We had a great time!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't believe it's already 2007! We rung in the new year with about 30 friends at the Martini corner party. It was a blast. The only downfall with it being January is that busy season officially kicks off. It'll be a busy couple of months, but we've got a vacation scheduled for mid-March.

Mandi the Professional

I had to have my professional picture taken at work for Ernst & Young to use for client proposals, etc.  Wow - sometimes my own maturity surprises me!  I still feel like such a kid, but I guess we're all grown up now! :)

The Real World - Greece

This following is a summary of a story of a young American couple set out to explore Greece, with no knowledge of the language; their exposure to the alphabet is limited to fraternity and sorority symbols.

Episode 1 - Mandi and Jacob enjoy a delightful traditional Greek dinner in Athens, "oopa"ing along with the live Greek music. When the bill comes, Jacob's fine-tuned auditing skills notice a mysterious $20 addition. He demands an explanation. Mandi fears for his life as the restaurant and manager request him to join them in a private room to "discuss". The next day's meals consist of Hard Rock Cafe and McDonalds.....




Episode 2 - Mandi and Jacob take a leisurely
walk down the cliff to the ocean in Santorini. After enjoying a carafe of wine while watching the sunset, "discussions" ensue regarding options for the HIKE back up. Jacob would like to accept the locals numerous offers to ride one of their donkeys. Mandi refuses as these poor donkeys are sweaty, dirty and over-worked! They don't even have any water to drink! They finally compromise and take the cable car back up.





Episode 3 - After a LONG day of sight seeing, Mandi
and Jacob buy a soda from a restaurant and sit down at one of their little outdoor tables to wait for the bus home. The waiter comes to the table and begins RUDELY talking in very broken English. Eventually, they figure out that he is trying to communicate that it will cost an additional $5 to sit down at the table. Both Mandi and Jacob feel this is completely ridiculous and further more there is no need for this man to be so rude about it. True to their natures, Mandi simply walks away from the restaurant. Jacob, on the other hand, pours his soda all over the table, including splashing on the couple next to them, which of course are conveniently also riding the same bus home. Oops....

Episode 4 - Mandi and Jacob borrow the hotels bicycles to tour a few of the local wineries in Santorini. Three wine tastings and 18 hills later, they are a drunk, sweaty mess and figure out why no one else at the hotel had borrowed the bicycles....

Episode 5 - Mandi is horrified by the number of stray cats and dogs in Greece. Jacob is constantly lecturing Mandi not to pet or talk to the mangy animals because several of them have followed them for blocks after this type of treatment. Little does Jacob know, Mandi is secretly trying to find one small enough to fit in her purse for the flight home. Do you think Tex would mind a sister/brother named Zeus?

Episode 6 - In order to navigate all of the sights in Santorini,
Mandi and Jacob rented a four wheeler. Although they enjoyed a long day of sightseeing and a nice dinner on the coast, they did not plan for a 20 degree drop in temperature following the sunset. Jacob and Mandi looked a bit like dumb and dumber on the COLD hour ride back to the hotel.


All jokes aside, we had a GREAT trip and hope you enjoy the pics. :)

Fourth of July in Maine

We headed to Jacob's parents' lake house in Maine for the 4th of July.  We had a great time reconnecting with his family and enjoying the lake setting...boating, swimming, cookouts, campfires! 

Our Niece Allie enjoyed fishing off the dock.

Jacob & nephew Reade sport matching Army shirts.

Reade goes canoeing with his Daddy, Colby.

Mandi in her 4th of July gear.

Niece Allie showing her her mice friends.

Major Hair-cut

Well...I got my haircut! I decided that I'd had enough of my long hair and decided to donate 14 inches to the Locks of Love organization. It has been somewhat of a change and definitely drawn quite a few comments. It's always funny to see people's first honest reaction before the required compliments set in. Some are more honest than others! This is a picture of Kel and I at my cousin, Jessica's wedding on 6/24/06.

The First Apollo Wedding

My cousin, Jessica, got married this past weekend in Fredonia, Kansas. She made a beautiful bride! Family from all over, including my Mom, David and Kelli, made the trip to be there for the celebration. No the man pictured is not her husband.....it's my grandpa. We had a great time and we couldn't be happier for them!

Here is my mom and her two "not so little anymore" brothers.