On the way home from California

After the wedding and of course, the reception party, we trekked back home. There are so many things I love about Debbie and one of them is she is adventurous. The night before we left to head back she wanted to go see Lake Tahoe since we were so close.... so we did.... and had a blast for a few hours. Truly a beautiful place and HUGE lake. I had no idea. So we get to town and see a mini-golf place and stopped so I could kick their butts. After that we took in lunch by the lake and hung out by the dock and skipped rocks for a while. What a great place and great day.

So about in the middle of NOWHERE... I mean smack dab in the middle of Nevada on the way to the wedding we caught sight of this strange building and I said "what the hell was that????" and I quick and looked at the exit in case we wanted to see it on our way back. Well we did and we were.....surprised??? hmmm strangely haunted by being here?? We were all alone off the freeway about a half mile on a dirt road. Have you ever seen anything like it? Its actually a historic site but also says "enter at your own risk". It reminded me of several horror or slash movies.. you know... innocent tourists are suddenly ransacked after pulling over for a rest. Anyway... here is the link if you want to read more about it. Just click the words below -

Thunder Mountain Monument

I bet you didn't know..

both of Sam's parents
have their PHD in Psychology. Yep they are BOTH Doctors of behavior and mental processes.

While we were in Kentucky, Sam and his parents
joked about him being "studied" his entire life, and always being asked "how does that make you feel?"..

So am I right, I bet you didn't know that!

Red Fish 2011... the best place on earth

What a crazy summer but we ALWAYS look forward to our yearly Redfish Lake trip. This year didn't let us down at all and even blew us away a little. The weather was awesome hitting in the 70's every day and MY WIFE TURNED 40!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! while we were there. (just had to throw that out quietly lol)

Sarah came for the first time this year, had a blast and will be back. Tyson brought a few friends from California and had his bachelor party in a camp ground. We rode horses, kayaked, hiked to Lily Pond and the falls and just had an incredible time. Too many pictures to post and too many fun things happened to mention them all. Each set of pictures has its own story worth its own blog post but just not enough time or room to post it all. Enjoy the pics. I cant wait for next year!!! Love this place!!!

Dog Knapping!!!

So Sam and I have been gone for a week on vacation and we told a friend of ours that we would watch their dog, Cowboy, when we got home.
So on the way home Sam said..
"We have to go get Cowboy as soon as we get home, they left today and Cowboy is home alone."
so being the great friends Sam and I are, we rush over to their house.

Go in their house,

take their dog,

notice bags laying around and said to each other "they must have forgotten a bag".

Cowboy runs to our car, he did not put up a fight at all, in fact he JUMPED in.

We take him home.

Think to self, maybe we should text Jeff and let him know we have Cowboy so he does not worry about us forgetting him.

Text Jeff... "We have Cowboy"

then, we go outside and leave our phone inside.

Well they were NOT on vacation, they had run to the store and spent the last 2 hours looking for Cowboy and had their neighbors looking for Cowboy also.

they left for vacation this morning and Cowboy is safe and sounds with his dog knappers...

This would ONLY happen to Sam and I.

Just a Harley???

The guy that bought my brothers Harley just came to pick it up. Well in my head I was thinking "This is just a bike, this is NOT my brother, this is just a bike, this is NOT my brother". When that man started that bike up and I heard that rumble I seriously wanted to chase him down the road. Like a little kid chasing his parents in a car. My heart told me "THIS IS NOT JUST A BIKE". The man that bought it was so nice. He told me he understood and was HONORED to have it and he knew he would always have a guardian angel when he road this bike. So I have had my Meltdown for this week.
We are paking to head to Redfish and I hope all the memories of Mike and I around that lake does not have the same "melt down" effects on me. However, I think that a good melt down is good for me!!! Happy Riding!!! :-)

Five Days.

Ya know when you go on a "family" trip and you think. "This is going to be great to see everyone, and get to meet some of Sam's cousins, see family we hadn't seen in almost 3 years, and just enjoy some quality family time". Well that is kinda what I thought about this Louisville, Kentucky trip. I knew it would be great to see everyone and etc. etc. etc.. but I had NO idea how much fun we were going to have. We had a RIOT. Brock was charming, and so fun to have on this trip with us. We might as well taken him half way around the World, He was so excited to see, explore and was A BLAST.
Here is our trip in pictures, minus all the wonderful moments we didn't capture by picture.


This is Sam's sister Coye ann, and his Aunt Shirley (Shirley is married to Norma's brother, David and they live in Louisville). Shirley has always been so good to us. She treats us just like her own and is such a sweet woman. Shirley came to our wedding so I had met her before and I had forgotten how much I love her.

Brock getting ready to head to Louisville. I can not say enough wonderful things about Brock this trip. He was SO MUCH FUN! He brought life to everyone that spent this five days with us. Most of the trip Brock was the youngest by far, but he made the best of it and was spoiled ROTTEN the entire trip.

Brock and Sam at the Louisville slugger museum in the batting cages there.

We went to David and Shirley house on Sunday for a bbq. We got to see a bunch of the cousins from that side, they were so good to us. I ate an ENTIRE pint of Pimento Cheese at their house, and I made Sam go to the grocery store and buy us some Pimento Cheese to bring home with us. I gain 4 pounds on this trip.. Way to go Debbie!!!

I have the best husband on Earth. The more I get to know his family and extended family etc.... I realize how lucky I am. They love me, they treat me like I am their own, and truly have raised such a great man that I am lucky enough to call my husband. Sam and I have so much fun and I LOVE his family!

We went to Mammoth Cave. It's the World's largest cave. We went on a hike that seemed to have steps to the center of the Earth. It was so much fun. Sam's Mom even went with us. on Saturday Brock, Sam and I went into downtown Louisville alone. We had worn out Sam's Mom and Dad the previous 2 days. So we went on a paddle boat ride down the Ohio River.

left is Sam's Uncle David (Sam's Mom's brother) he lives in Louisville, Sam's cousin Gary he lives in New York, and Sam's Dad. Sam had not seen Gary since 1981. It was great to get to know him and spend some time with him.

More Mammoth Cave pictures.

We went to the Louisville Slugger museum. It was very interesting and a fun day!

Sam's Mom, Norma, and Sams cousin Samantha (that lives in Louisville). I had met Samantha, she came to Sam and I's wedding. Brock LOVED the way Samantha talks, she has a HUGE southern belle accent! Sam's Mom again, with Sam's Aunt Norma and Uncle Dickson, they also live in New York. Brock LOVED Dickson, he kept saying that "Dickson is my buddy". This was the first time I met this side of the family. Norma is Coy's Sister. Brock and I filled up water balloons and had everyone come out and play a tossing game with them. I sure if anyone looked out the window they would have thunk we had an old folk home playing a game. As simple as a water balloon game is it is one of my favorite memories of this trip. We all laughed so hard!

more Mammoth Cave pictures. This is Brock and I and Sam's sister Coye ann. Coye Ann spent a lot of time with us this trip and I love being around her. We laughed and cried and got to know each other a lot better. I miss them all and wish we didn't live across the country from one another!

Brock was SO excited to see fireflies. It was so much fun to catch them and every single night we were there I couldn't wait for it to get dusk so I could go watch them. I LOVED those little things. Brock caught them in a jar and we played with them for hours.

Sam's Dad makes and plays Dulcimer. He played it one night and it was so fun to watch.

Sam and I go a LOT of places, and see a lot of things, and have a lot of fun, however this truly was one of my most memorable trips EVER and we had a BLAST. Thank you so much to Mom and Dad Campbell and I can't wait to see you guys again!!! HUGS!

Can you guess?

Well it's official summer vacation has begun here at the Campbell house and now let the dash to get everything in before summer ends begin. (left, Brock and I even set up a tent in the backyard.)

We have been running like crazy people the last cpl weeks. Mostly adult stuff, Brock has been gone to his Dad's the last few weekends so Sam and I have played hard. Mostly on the bike. We went to Park City on the bike last Saturday and we had a GREAT time and by the post below ya already know we did our first "overnighter" on the bike to Idaho Falls and that was SO FUN! We really have a great group of friends. (right. one of our biker stops on the way to Park City, we stop about every half hour or so if we don't our legs cramp)

So now its time for the family vacations to start. The end of this week you will find us in Louisville, Kentucky with Sam's parents and then the week after that off to my favorite place on Earth...any guesses where that is?

SIMPLIFY???

What a week, month, hell what a year so far. Its like we can't get and keep our feet under us. We live this busy complicated life with kids, dogs, house, deaths, friends, sickness, etc.. etc... etc... AND I AM NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT MY LIFE, our vacations, my home or kids, I just miss a few things and wanted to share the things I miss.

• MY BROTHER!!!


• Sam not working 12 - 14 hours a day. ( I am so proud of Sam and his career accomplishments but sometimes its hard to share every minute of our life. Sometimes I am selfish and want him all to myself)


• Little kids in my house. We have all these grown kids and the pitter patter of little feet sound so fun right now. *disclaimer...this does not mean Sam and I are having any ideas about a baby or does not mean we want grandkids right now.


• A clean house. (I don't really need to say much more about this other than the word REMODELING)


• home cooked meals. (we have been going full blast since January I don't cook like I use to, I cook a meal here and there but we are never home so the chef in me is GONE.)


• ignorance. Sometimes the things you don't know are the best things!!!


• sleep. (What is that?)

well now I have to go because Sam should be rolling in any second and we are taking off to a bbq at Sam's boss's house. ...

Adult Weekend.....

For the past week or so we have been packing and painting and trying to get our house back to normal. As projects go, it always takes longer than expected so we had a MESS of a house this past weekend. We had an opportunity to take our bike on a road trip with a bunch of friends on their bikes to Idaho Falls and the 2011 Beer Fest. We had an absolute BLAST. We got into town, checked into the Hotel and took a shuttle to the place and WOW there were a lot of people. I thought the lines would be so long there would be no way to get a taste. We got in the place and there were so many different vendors we could have all the drinks we wanted at any time... if you could just get through the crowd... hah.
While we were there we learned that a friend of ours, Tim Barns, earned a couple of awards with his brews. Its Black Tooth Brewing from Sheridan Wyoming!! Congrats Timmay!!!!

Anyway.. Here are a few pictures from our adventure. What a great time with the buds.. and the frothy buds as well!!!!!

We Finally Get to Paint!!!!

Well I say "We" loosely because "We" are not painting.. we are hiring it done because there is SO much to do.....and we want our lines straight hah. I think our worst fault with both of us is we are not patient at ALL. So when we start painting a room we get the first few strokes done and say "I HATE PAINTING... WHAT THE HECK ARE WE DOING THIS FOR" ... so we hired this job.

Monday we de-decorated and packed up just like we were moving. Talk about a chore... but it wasn't as bad as we had anticipated. We packed in shifts and hauled things to the basement. The painters came in yesterday and started mudding and taping. They will get after it today and hopefully be done by Friday. As expected when we get into a project like this, we say to ourselves "while we have this apart lets do this... and lets do this... and lets do this" so we are going to replace our front door, re-tile the fireplace, replace our ceiling fan, bathroom lights etc...

Debbie why do we do this to ourselves... lol.. it will be so nice when done though. We will post more pics of the finished job soon.