WE MADE IT!!! and now we are driving PAST our hotel to go see the sergeant floyd monument on top of the cool big hill. :) that ryan went to in like 6th grade. here's a shot i found online... (not that we'll be able to see the monument as it's super dark out... however there is a castle to my left!) lol. have a great night!!
haha... so we can't find it and ryan says "maybe they tore it down!! i feel like it was on top of this big hill!" and then tells me "seriously you shouldn't blog when you're slap happy." who's slap happy i ask? ;)

jonathan & kate!! :)

still not in sioux city... maybe we should go to iowa more often... i think there would be more on our blog!! :) it really hasn't been a bad trip... we drove around davenport for a while looking for a chick-fil-a for dinner and thinking about keith & allison davenport... but the chick-fil-a was m.i.a. and we had to move onward... so we ate at the biggest truck stop in the world. talk about creepy!! :S i was not the biggest fan of that place. and then we drove, and drove, and drove some more... honestly, i think iowa is BEAUTIFUL!!! ryan said it would be boring, flat, and ugly. i think it's interesting, hilly, and gorgeous. don't know what he was talking about... other than that it's hours and hours away from anything and everything, it may be a nice place to live!!

anyway... we're 2.4 miles away now... so here's some hot shots of jonathan and kate from this weekend. we're so proud of them and excited for them!! jonathan and kate flew out this afternoon for romania & hungary for a 16 day mission trip where they'll be traveling around and doing music for different people at different venues with 8 other people attempting to spread the love of Jesus. pray for jonathan, kate, tim, chris, tyler, jesse, becky, rebekah, kaycee, and rose this week if you think of it!! may God use them and bless people through their music these next two weeks!! love you guys!! :)

we love grilling!! :)

so... we've been in the car since around 3:44pm today. it is currently 11:31pm and we still have 25 miles to go to sioux city, iowa. ryan's great grandma passed away on saturday and we'll be joining the family for the funeral tomorrow. however... it takes a looooooong time to get to sioux city!! i discovered, however, that our wireless card works as you travel!! i should have known this... but didn't. so sweet!! and i thought i'd post some more pictures for your enjoyment!!

we've had SO much fun using our new grill... a wedding gift from the bradshaws. wes & darlene bradshaw along with denny & bev box brought us the grill several weekends ago (it wouldn't fit in the moving truck last november), and we've used it so much since then!! it's so much fun!! here's a few of our favorites... ryan's learning to make ribs... and i love shish-ka-bobs with tomatoes, onions and green peppers!! :)

enjoy our pictures... i hope we're almost there!!!
:) love kara (and ryan!!) :)

meet our rockin' grill


first attempt at grilling...

they were SO delicious!! :)

nice work, husband! :)

and then ryan made ribs... even made the sauce from scratch.

talk about amazingly delicious!!

and i make the weirdest faces ever. :)

but the ribs were good!

Puppy Tales

It's been so long since we've updated our blog.

And, of course, when one doesn't post in such a long time... it's hard to figure out where to start and what to write about. When we started looking through pictures we took we noted a theme: Claxton - our puppy dog. He's in almost every picture! So we thought we'd catch you up on our lives in Canton through pictures with our puppy... hope you enjoy! We miss you!

Love,
Ryan, Kara, and of course Claxy! :)

Claxton is the sweetest puppy... and he LOVES people!
He's had so many visitors over the past few months... some that aren't pictured are: Grandpa & Grandma Kaufman; Chris & Sam Cook, and Jordan Burks; Bob Wells; Vickie Brown; Wes & Darlene Bradshaw; Denny & Bev Box; Mike & Sheila Moore; Mark & Linda Buchanan; Mike, Jolie, Ethan & April Shaw; Rosie Green, Barb Nelson, Connie Hermon, Annie Stevens, John & Rhonda Lemon; Joan Reed; Alexis Moore; Kara's friends from work: Scott, Cindy, Karla, Ashlee, Apryl, & Cherri; and probably several others... Claxton fits in so niclely because he loves people and visitors and tries pretty hard to make people feel welcome.


Claxton's friends Chris Ponsler, Evan Bannister, and Levi Vermillion came to visit him...

And he even got to spend the night with Levi!

Ryan's Uncle Roger and Aunt Cortney came to visit us with two of their three kids, Kate and Drake... Claxy LOVED playing with Kate and Drake... but of course when he gets excited and barks, or smiles and shows his teeth, he can be rather scary!

On Easter, Kara's family came to visit... and Caleb went right for the laundry room, jumped in, and snuggled up next to Claxton. He spent quite some time in the laundry room with the dog!

Claxton even got in on the sibling Easter shoe picture!

Claxton's all time favorite buddy is definitely Caleb...

and Claxy misses him all the time! (We think the feeling is mutual!)

Here are some other highlights from the past three months with our puppy dog...

Claxton is ALWAYS ready for popcorn. It's the only people food he is allowed to enjoy. Whenever popcorn starts popping, his ears perk up and he sits right there in the doorway to the kitchen... waiting, watching, and then JUMPS for a kernal! :)
Kara LOVES mexican, so one night Ryan surprised her with a fiesta in the kitchen!! It was so much fun! He ordered chimichangas, set up a pin-the-tail on the donkey game... and even got sweet hats for him and Claxton!!

We caught Claxton reading the Bible one day...

And then Ryan used him as a sermon illustration.

During lent we were looking at the book of Jonah, and when Ninevah repents, the King issued a decree that everyone in the city was to put on sack cloth and ashes... even the animals! So for Lent... Ryan gave up facebook, Kara gave up chocolate... and Claxton wore sack cloth!

Claxton got a new little friend in the backyard... Buddy the RedBud tree! (Kara named the tree.)

Claxton likes to curl up at Kara's feet while she works.

And Claxton even gives good hugs!

You could have a Claxton hug too!!! Just head down to Canton... we'd love for you to visit us! :)