Toying with Ryan

So Ryan is a little bit anal about things getting wrecked or dirty or ruined and few things trigger that compulsion more than paint.  I had wanted to spray paint a corkboard to display Faith's kindergarten stuff for a while and finally got around to starting on the simple project.

I called Ryan to ask where the painter's tape was and thought to myself "He's probably going to freak out about me doing a painting project" because, truth  be told, I'm NOT the most careful when it comes to, well, anything really.

He answers my question, we talk for a while and then, right as we are getting off of the phone, I hear him say, "Wait!  Why do you need painters tape?!" I decide to hang up on him, just to make him sweat it a little bit.

He calls back and I don't answer...and start this series of texts:

and then I sent him this picture:

At this point, I'm literally crying tears because I'm laughing SO HARD at myself.  And then I about lost it when HE WALKS IN THE DOOR.  AT 10 AM, DURING THE WORK DAY.  He was so scared that I truly didn't understand the concept of spray paint drift that he couldn't take the chance and DROVE HOME as fast as he could (it's a 5 minute drive, at least.)

After I gained control of myself, we had a discussion about my understanding of drift and my already formed plan to use the backyard, and he went back to work.  Honestly, he was probably still scared but he knew it would be too insulting to actually wrest the spraypaint can out of my hands.  

I'm so fun to be married to.

Sherrill Family Reunion 2013 (that's how far behind I am)

It's been more than a year but I wanted to document our fun fun trip to New Mexico last October.  We had never had a family reunion with my side of the family and when we heard my dad and brother were going to meet up for the Balloon Fiesta in Albequerque, so decided to make it a family affair.



So of course we drove there.  And in the planning, we decided that since we were 8 hours away from the majority of Ryan's family, we might as well take a 16 hour detour to Dallas.  For basically one day.

As usual it went way better than everyone thought!  We stopped in Butte (where we realized that our family of then 7, needs two hotel rooms now---lots of squishing in beds and on the floor), Ft. Collins for the night and a fun visit with my cousin Spencer and Erin and kids, and then straight to Dallas

We spent the day chatting, eating, playing and the park and swimming (in October!), and when we left the next day, my kids all voted the detour resoundingly worthwhile.  Yay for family (and kids with good attitudes!)

We divided up responsibilities for the reunion and I was in charge of lodging.  We decided to stay in Santa Fe (a 45 minute drive from Albequerque) because there were way more options.  We were so glad we did!  Santa Fe is super cool, had great weather and the house I picked was so so great.

We fit all but two couples/families in the house and they stayed in a local hotel.  It was so nice to have a kitchen, big family rooms to gather in, and a cool, huge desert in the backyard for kids to run around.

I cannot say enough about the Balloon Fiesta, but it does depend on weather and we lucked out! No wind was key and we woke up at 3:45 to get there early enough for the dawn patrol and it was so so cool.


And then it just got better and better as hundreds of huge colorful creative gorgeous balloons went up.  We just raced around looking and taking pictures and picking favorites.  Everyone was impressed and we were so glad we had chosen that spot.

We spent the next few days touring Santa Fe, getting family pictures, eating at my brother Nate's old missionary favorites, attending the temple, having family devotionals, talent shows and park days.  It really couldn't have gone better.  So excited for the next one!

We started our drive home, planning on two days with a stay in Salt Lake City...but like we've done before, decided we'd rather just drive straight home.  It was around 24 hours through some of the prettiest country in the world.  So lucky to see it all!