Dayne and Lina Photoshoot

This mosaic is made of all the pictures I took the day of the photo shoot.

This past summer Dayne had the heart-wrenching experience of having to say goodbye to her best friend, Lina, as she packed up and moved to Philadelphia, PA.

Fortunately, Lina has family here in Lee's Summit so they have plenty reason to visit.  In early October they had reason to come back for a visit and a soccer game!  Lina's dad used to play for the KC Wizards and is now a talent scout for the Philadelphia Union.  The Union was playing Kansas City Sporting (formerly the KC Wizards) so it was a great opportunity for the girls to get together and enjoy each others company and soccer!

I took an afternoon off and let Dayne miss school one day so she could spend some time with Lina.  We really enjoyed the Lee's Summit area photo shoot!  Below are some of the day's results!

Taylor Swift Concert Fun

Around February the announcement was made that Taylor Swift would be coming to Arrowhead Stadium in September!  Immediately I thought to invite Trista and her girls to KC for the weekend for some concert fun!

The stadium starts to fill up

Kylie's first concert!

Two of the coolest moms around

As soon as the sun fell, so did the temps!  It was pretty chilly but it didn't stop us from having a blast!

I thought Taylor did a great job!  It was almost like a  play where she told a story behind each song and one transitioned right into the next!

Taylor takes the stage!

"Mean"

"Back to December" ... she made it "snow" by dropping confetti from the top of her stage, cast a blue light on the confetti and the wind carried it all around the arena. Well done!!

The girls were ready to get back to warmth!

It was so wonderful having a good friend and her daughters join me for a wonderful time!

Labor Day - 2011

This represents how glorious time at Grand Lake is!

This year, as with many summer weekends and holidays, we were lucky enough to be invited back to the Reustman lake home in Grove, OK.  ... and a bonus was that Gretchen & the kids were able to join us! (Donna hadn't been feeling well and didn't think an 8 hour road trip was a good idea so she didn't join us: ( ).

We arrived in Grove late Saturday morning and got right to some R&R!  The weather was beautiful, the company was great, the food was great, the water was warm ... it could have only been better if our Nana had been able to join us!

Dayne and Zoe (who is 100% fearless!) tubin'!

Kylie patiently awaits her turn on the tube.  She and Dayne did a face dive into the water and it really scared Kylie (understandably!)

One of the many delicious meals we had, courtesy of Chef Dick, was smoked beer can chicken.  To an outsider, it may not be that funny ... but, as is the case with many things, we can make fun out of some really odd things!

Each of the three chickens were each posed in a way that said, 'Hey, how *you* doin'?'

Dayne and Kylie in the hot tub. The temp dropped 30 degrees in 24 hrs ... so the hot tub felt good!

Graden with his sister, Gretchen

Graden & Dick preparing the 5 racks of ribs for our feast!

It was a great holiday weekend filled with good fun, good people and new memories for all!