Keli's Family

As you might have got from the last post.. I have decided to make going to my family reunion an EVENT... so after I checked into The Whispering Pines Motel.. I went over to my cousin's Cundiff and Ellen's house and made two different kinds of Chex Mix for the reunion the next day.. just the regular kind and the "muddy buddy" kind. 

THANK YOU ELLEN FOR LETTING ME USE YOUR KITCHEN!!!!! 

My cousin Jennifer ( Cundiff and Ellen's daughter) and her fiance .. NOW HUSBAND.. Rusty came in along with Jennifer's three son's 

Alex

Mark 

and 

Cole. 

Ellen fed us all a delicious spaghetti dinner and then she watched Cole, 

WHILE THE REST OF US WENT DISCO BOWLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had NO IDEA that Kilmarnock had a snazzy bowling alley like this one we went to.. it was SO NICE..

we went in and they had music videos of popular pop/country/rap songs playing on big screens.. all the lights were turned off and they had disco lights/strobe lights/lasers.. whatever those things are called going..

We got our shoes and then had a great time bowling.. Even where we sat was so posh.. they had nice couches for us to sit on while we waited our turn...

Always nice to find a gem like this in a small town..

I am glad that they built that and hope that the surrounding communities take advantage of it! 

here are some pictures from that night..

 LOVE BIRDS .. JENNIFER AND RUSTY!!!! :) 

 COUSINS.. Jennifer and myself.. love this woman.. have known her my whole life :) 

 Jennifer and her mini-me .. her oldest son Alex...

 myself and cousin Alex.. all the disco lights are on us.

 Jennifer's middle son Mark.. such a sweet guy! 

 Mark, me and Alex just chilling ...

 I found someone that loves having his picture taken ..as much as I love taking pictures.. ALEX LOVES TO BE IN PICTURES!!!!! 

 FOR REAL!!!!

It was a great night and when I went back to my hotel room I felt so happy to have some family somewhere that LOVE ME!!!! 

in 2014 our plan is to do MINI GOLF!!!! I look forward to another fun time! :) 

Keli travels

My grandmother Wright, Mabel Inez Simmons Wright was born in Lancaster County Virginia. She was my dad's mom. She died when I was only six years old. I do not remember much about her, but I do know that I sure did love my Granny Wright. She grew up in Kilmarnock, VA along with her seven brothers and two sisters. Every year I do my best to go to a Simmons Family Reunion that we have on Labor Day. ..there are a lot of little tourist attractions down there and I thought I need to start visiting some of them.. so in 2013 I went and visited the Kilmarnock Museum right in downtown Kilmarnock, VA. 

They had some neat displays of the Kilmarnock of yesteryear and I had an enjoyable time looking through photo albums and finding several family members.. I looked and looked and I finally found a class picture with my Granny Wright in it...

 how cool is that!?? SO COOL! 

besides lots of family in newspaper clippings and yearbooks and other random photos I also found out this ..

 my great-aunt Louemma donated her curling iron..pretty neat.! 

THEN I SAW THIS AMAZING RED CHAIR.. they said that every year that Kilmarnock crowns someone QUEEN OF THE HOLLY REALM ... I had to BEG to sit in it PLEASE! they said "well usually only the Holly Queen gets to sit in it...but I begged and begged.. and well..

 they let me sit in it and hold her sceptor.. 

 there I am close up.. when I showed these pictures later to some of my relatives they said "HOW DID YOU GET TO SIT IN THE HOLLY QUEEN'S CHAIR?" I said "well.. I begged...." hahahahah 

I had a great rest of the afternoon in Kilmarnock.. going to boutiques.. thrift stores ..consignment stores and checking into the Whispering Pines..where they gave me a great room with a sitting room and a really nice bed.. I told Ralph I feel kind of bad that they gave me this large room and I am all by myself.. he said " don't feel bad.. just enjoy it" ..

and I did! 

next year I think I will visit the historic Christ Church that they have down there and who knows maybe some of my family will even come with me! 

Keli Dates

When I was dating Ralph, I insisted that he take at least one picture with me every month...

HE.HATES.PICTURES.

I.LOVE.PICTURES.

so he gave in...he was busy most of August .. or when I saw him it was just not a time where we could take pictures.. so I stopped by his house one day and said we needed our August pictures and this was the result...

 picture number one.. nope.. he is not smiling..

 picture number 2...I said "smile and look at me" 

 oh man.. I don't know how many more takes he can do..

 I guess that is the best I was going to get.. 

crafty Keli

In August 2013 I had a paper airplane week with Bryce and Blake.

 the boys with the first airplanes that we made..

 Bryce flying the airplane up to me from the bottom of the stairs.

then I made a collage .. I was WAY into collages in August 2013..

 while Blake was sleeping, Bryce and I made more paper airplanes..

 then he flew them to me.. 

then I made a collage..

 and we made even MORE paper airplanes and I made more collages...

I did this thing with hula hoops and we flew airplanes through them..

 HOW COOL IS THAT?? and you can get hula hoops at the $ store they did not last the whole day.. but I was out a big $3..

 we made one out of popsicle sticks..

 put stickers on things..

 read tons of airplane books... that I got at the library...

 then I filled this box with all the ones that we made all week and on Friday we flew them off the front and back decks and that was tons of fun..

I will have to admit .. airplane week was WAY FUN...

and I now know how to make FIVE DIFFERENT PAPER AIRPLANES!!!!

crafty Keli

In August 2013 I had a paper airplane week with Bryce and Blake.

 the boys with the first airplanes that we made..

 Bryce flying the airplane up to me from the bottom of the stairs.

then I made a collage .. I was WAY into collages in August 2013..

 while Blake was sleeping, Bryce and I made more paper airplanes..

 then he flew them to me.. 

then I made a collage..

 and we made even MORE paper airplanes and I made more collages...

I did this thing with hula hoops and we flew airplanes through them..

 HOW COOL IS THAT?? and you can get hula hoops at the $ store they did not last the whole day.. but I was out a big $3..

 we made one out of popsicle sticks..

 put stickers on things..

 read tons of airplane books... that I got at the library...

 then I filled this box with all the ones that we made all week and on Friday we flew them off the front and back decks and that was tons of fun..

I will have to admit .. airplane week was WAY FUN...

and I now know how to make FIVE DIFFERENT PAPER AIRPLANES!!!!

Keli eats

While watching Blake I got REALLY into the show Breaking Bad.. to say that I got REALLY into the show Breaking Bad.. is putting it lightly.. I think one day they will have Buzzfeed or whatever the equilvalent lists that say things like you know that you were an adult at this peirod of time if you watched Breaking Bad.

I looked up ALL THE SPOILERS for Breaking Bad and STILL was in shock and gasped when certain things happened....

AMC was getting ready to air the last eight episodes and I spent a week catching up on tons of intense episodes on Netflix that were leading up to the ones that would air on Netflix

then it was time... no more spoilers.. I could not look anything up... there were eight new episodes on AMC.. and it was the last eight..

My friend Bunny invited me over to watch it with her, the first Sunday I could not I had food poisoning .. I had to watch it with my mom that sucked.. because she was watching some other show where Dean Norris the actor that plays Hank was a bad guy.. so she kept saying well that guy is bad.. and I am like um .. no that guy is GOOD ON THIS SHOW...

I was like I can't watch the other seven episodes at my mom's so the very next week I was at Bunny's house. 

Not only did we watch the Episodes we celebrated by eating food that was iconic in different Breaking Bad episodes.

Breaking Bad was such a good show because it had so many elements.. 

One of the characters Walt Jr. was always shown eating breakfast.. and talking about breakfast and wanting to know what was FOR breakfast .. .once he asked his mom to buy him Rasin Bran Crunch and she got him Raisin Bran .. and he was like "it says crunch on the box!" I need Rasin Bran Crunch.. on his brithdays Walt always had pancakes and then put his age on the pancake with bacon.. so we had to do that..

 here is my age as of August 2013.. and well still my age 39 on pancakes..

 and here is some Raisin Bran Crunch with the pancakes..

We also made Breaking bad cupcakes with blue jolly ranchers on top..

We had pizza that was uncut.. we had to cut it of course..

Los Pollos Hermanos Chicken..

a cook out

Mexican food

and a few other fun things ... 

I also dressed up like several of the characters

in the earlier seasons Skyler always wore blue.. so I wore blue one week.

Marie always wore purple I wore purple one week.

Holly always wore pink, I wore pink one week.

Lydia was always in a business suit.. I wore a business suit one week.

Jane was always in black, I wore black one week.

I miss that show and I miss watching a show with people that also watch it so we can talk about it.

and I made it through this whole post without saying Jesse Pinkman's favorite word which admittinly I kept sayng for awhile after watching six episodes a day there for awhile.. 

shhh don't tell anyone.. cause I am sure no one has ever watched six episodes of something in a day.. or more hahahah

Keli eats

In August 2013 we had a potluck for the LDS mid-singles in my area.. 

It said to bring "man food" I am sorry but what the FREAK is MAN FOOD?? I mean seriously... so look what I brought..

 Slim Jim's I thought .. some man can enjoy "snapping into one of those.. " and I know I sure did... even though I am not a man..

So yeah this is the kind of effort I put into potlucks in 2013... as for some of the other ladies... 

 LOOK WHAT REBECCA IN MY WARD MADE!!!!! Those MINION CUPCAKES YOU SEE ON PINTEREST .. and they came out GREAT!!!! how cute are they...??? 

I need to have that kind of talent/concern about what I bring to/for the potlucks...

maybe in 2014.. maybe then... 

 Here is a picture of Rebecca and I.. we are both wearing purple. She is just because purple is awesome..

I am because during the last eight episodes of Breaking Bad I dressed up as a different character every Sunday..that Sunday I was Marie.. who was obsessed with purple.. everything about that character was purple.