Flat Tire

The morning of Kasey and Adam's wedding, we headed over to the farm to hang out for a little bit.

We were almost there when we heard an EXPLOSION!

I have experienced this sound before....on a freeway connector where there was no shoulder...so I knew what it was.

I told Amy to stop driving, and being the oldest and bravest, I stepped out onto the dangerous road to inspect the damage.

Lucky for me, there was mud right outside of my door that my lovely shoe got to take a bath in it.

After a thorough inspection, my prediction was proven correct. Our tire was not just flat...it had exploded.

In case you are wondering, we did not keep driving on it after the pop.  The little nail we found in the tire did that damage all by itself.

Thankfully, Uncle Russ took charge when we got up to the house.  He orchestrated a huge rescue operation.

He hopped in the truck, grabbed the jack and Brandon and Derek and headed down to the car.

As you can see, we were very concerned about the heavy traffic traveling down the road. 

Fastest tire change I have ever seen.

(But I am sure that AAA had someone just around the corner....right?)

And can you guess how old Uncle Russ is?

You're wrong...He's not 70.

That man, the one operating the jack in all those pictures, is 87.

He is unbelievable.

I love him!

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jones road

After Meghan and Evan's birthday party, we decided to go for a little walk to see all the leaves.  It took some convincing to get Brandon to come along, but that's normal.  We have spent much of our time trying to convince Brandon to do things.  Like coming to California...that took a lot of coaxing. Honestly, I am catching on to his little trick.  We all know he just loves to feel loved, so he pretends to not want to do things so that we will beg him.  I know what is actually going on in his head.  It is probably something like this....

 "Oh my gosh.  I am SO excited to hang out with the Swenson girls.  I want to spend every moment I can with them. But, I can't let onto this fact. I have to play it cool.  But, I really hope they beg me."

Derek is the same way.

You will never guess what we convinced him to do on his wedding night!!!

(actually, it didn't take much convincing.)

But, that is a story for another post.
Let's just say Annette is a trooper.

Anyways, the walk was beautiful.

 {Brandon and his son Arden}

We could not get over the different colors the leaves were.  They were not your typical red, yellow and orange.  They did not look real.  The trees looked like they were spray painted with fluorescent paint.

 {Some of the people in this picture were too lazy to walk.  They drove to meet up with us.}

And then some of us hung out in the leaves again.

So, now we are trying to figure out what other family we can convince to come out for Thanksgiving.

Update

See more pictures from Annette's blog here.

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Birthdays and Exciting News

Derek and Annette (second cousin and wife in case you forgot)decided to have a birthday party for their kids Meghan and Evan over the weekend with all the family that was out for the wedding.  They both have October birthdays, so it was the perfect opportunity.

Meghan thought that there were going to be party hats at the party and was so excited to tell us that we would get to wear them.  After she went to bed, Annette let us in on the fact that she did not actually buy party hats, and she was worried that Meghan would be upset.  So, we pulled our resources, found some ribbon, paper, and glue and made her her very own crown.

We partied at the playground.

If you are wondering who the cute redheaded girl is in the picture, that is our second cousin-in-law, Steph.  She is married to our second cousin Brandon, who is brothers with Derek.  The little boy she is holding is their son, Arden.....so cute!

Our family isn't confusing at all.

I will explain more about their relationship to us in the upcoming "Meet My Family Monday" posts.  That's right.  I'm bringin' it back!

After the party, we went for a little walk around the Warren Center Community Center, where the party was.

First, we went inside where we found this awesome picture!

{Aunt Ruth is my grandma's younger sister.  Kasey (the one that got married) is her granddaughter.}

Then we walked over the covered bridge and around the little walking path they have there.

Aunt Ruth's house is just down the street from the community center.

{Her house used to be a hotel.  Isn't that cool?!?}

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In other exciting news.......

1) Brandon and Steph are coming to visit for Thanksgiving!!

We are soooooo excited!  Oh, the power of persuasion.

2)Hope International's soccer team beat Biola!!!!!

You are probably wondering why a Biola alumni like myself is so excited about this news.  I don't think I've mentioned yet that Nick is coaching Hope this year with our friend Joe, a fellow Biola alum.  It was an incredible game that went into overtime.  I have never wanted a team to win so badly.  The refs were awful!  I'll share the whole story later, but just wanted to post the exciting news.

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Favorite Place

The majority of the time we spent in Pennsylvania was spent on the farm.

In case you are not familiar with my family, my mom is from Pennsylvania originally.  My Grandma grew up on a farm there that was owned by my Great Grandparents.  Then, my Great Uncle Russ took over.  He and Aunt Carol live on the farm now.  We grew up going out there every summer.

This is my favorite place in the world!

 {My great grandparents lived in that house.}

This is the barn.  It is not what it used to be.  They used to have the best barn I've ever seen.  It was built in the 1800's and was BEAUTIFUL. It burned down on my birthday several years ago.  That was a very sad day.  Someday when I find all my old pictures, I will scan one in and post it.  So, they had to build a new barn, and this is it.

{Uncle Russ and Aunt Carol's house}

{The amazing view}

We had a ton of fun playing in a big leaf pile out in front of the house.

 The really cute fifth girl in all these pictures is our second cousin Mallory.

Here we are with another second cousin, Derek, and his daughter Megan.

We told Megan that we didn't have leaves like that in California.  She thought that was a travesty and took matters into her own hands.  She dragged Aunt Betty's purse down to the leaf pile and filled every nook and cranny of that purse with leaves.  She handed it to Aunt Betty and said, "Now you can make your own leaf pile."

Wish I was still there.

You can see more pictures of cute little Megan, as well as her brother and parents, Derek and Annette, on Annette's blogs.

Here

and

Here

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Kim on a Plane

I have much to share, so I will start at the beginning.  

Heading to Binghamton:

I had the privilege of sitting next Kimberly Joy on our long, long flight to Philadelphia.  Yep, I was the privileged one who got to sit in the coveted middle seat on the plane.

{Note me in the middle seat.  This is pre-take-off, as you can see by the smiles on our faces.  They were soon to disappear.}

 

So, as I mentioned, it was a red eye, and we wanted to sleep, so we all put the armrests up between us.  I was peacefully resting my head on the armrest that was between Kim and me and had just dozed off when the armrest was abruptly jarred back from under my head.  I awoke to Kim's face in my face and her angry demon whisper (which is not a whisper at all and can be heard 10 rows in front or behind us) telling me that the armrest was digging into her back.

I pulled the armrest back out, without acknowledging Kim, and rested my head on it again.  It was jarred back again, and I heard more angry whisper yelling.  So, I called her a brat and turned to the armrest on the other side.

Out of nowhere, she grabbed my arm and squeezed the crap out of it.  We're talking an outrageously hard squeeze.  Followed by angry demon whisper yell saying, "How would you like to have this thing digging into your back while you're trying to sleep."

I ignored her.

But after a couple of minutes my arm still hurt, and I was growing angry.  So I punched her in the leg.  Then she punched me back.

I was about to punch her again, but thought to myself, "Mindy, you are 29 years old, and you are resorting to toddler level conflict resolution."  So I left things and slept.

Zzzzzzzzz.........

When we landed, Kim turned to Amy and me and said that she didn't sleep at all.  

I said, "Your breath smells like you slept."  

She started crying.

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New York and Pennsylvania....Here We Come

On the plane from LAX to Philadelphia.

I am sitting in the Philadelphia airport partaking in a 3 hour layover with the two girls above, who happen to be my sisters.  Our fourth sister will be joining us tomorrow.  We just got here after a red eye flight from LAX, in which we hardly slept at all.  We are awaiting our next flight to Binghamton, New York so that we can go to my cousin Kasey's wedding!

We are so excited to see these two get married on Sunday!

We can't wait to hang out with so many people from our family who we haven't seen in forever...

and to hang out on the farm...

and to see all the fall leaves...

(which apparently are gone).

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