I wish I could spend more time here. It makes me feel connected to so many of you and brings my heart home. A lot has happened since 10 days ago! Yikes! Sorry to all of my avid readers (mom, wendy, bff, julie). If there are more of you--comment, gosh darn it! I want to know you're out there! :)

So...what's the Caruana gang been up to these days??? Well, of course my mind immediately jumps to our recent visit w/ Kirk and Julie, but that would be unfair to the other stuff that happened last week. Very notable stuff like...

Caleb's first haircut. Could this boy BE any cuter???

Riding ponies at Hillfest (carnival put on each year by our church)

Caleb seriously LOVES animals. Wouldn't stop kicking till I put him on the dern thing. After a few rings around the corral, he finally started complaining about having to straddle his little legs around the pony.

I have some other notable footage to post, but blogger is having some technical difficulties with the movie functionality. Sorry. On to our visit with the Snells!

For those of you who didn't know it, Kirk and Julie came to visit for Kirk's bday, so he could go to the speedway and watch the motorcycle races. We couldn't be MORE excited to have visitors. We thoroughly enjoyed their company and were sad to see them go. Hannah even wrote a sweet note to Julie for their departure--all her own idea, which made it extra special. Hurricane Ike made a debut here in Indiana making their visit a little different than they probably imagined...so we spent a lot more time indoors than originally planned. They arrived around midnight on Thursday, and I didn't see them until Friday morning. The kids were SO excited to see them and Jonny was ecstatic when Kirk and Julie FINALLY made their way down the stairs on Friday morning (I wouldn't let him go up and wake them up since they were still on Cali time). Josh took off early from work and we all went on our first bowling adventure. Jonny was over it after the first two rounds. Poor guy just wasn't a fan. Maybe next year... Kirk took the big victory and I brought in the rear. I think I should stick to the Wii. Kirk, I want a rematch game of WiiBowl at Christmas and then we'll see who's the big winner.

Speaking of winners, I won two out of the three games of Settler's. Kirk crushed us on the third game, so I guess I can't take too much pride in beating him on his first two games. Seriously, can you believe we've been friends for over three years, and he's just now played his first game of Settler's?! I know! What kind of friends are we?! Anyway, Kirk, I want a rematch in Settler's as well!

Saturday was humid and Kirk, Jonny, and Josh went off to the races. Us girls were going to have a "girl's" day, but Julie and I spent a great deal of it just hanging out on the couch catching up. It was great. After we finally got out of our pj's around noon, Hannah's friends came over for a little while because they wanted to meet Hannah's "aunt Julie". Pictured below are Hannah and Julie with our neighbors Malory and Sophie. No, Julie is not wearing a plastic dress. I didn't have a lint roller for her, so we used some leftover plastic floor-protector from the move. Worked like a charm!

Then we went to a color-your-own-pottery place (like color me mine). I'd never done that before, but man, there were TOO many decisions to make (not my strength), so I opted to hold Caleb and help Hannah.

Turns out my decision was a good one, cuz Caleb decided he was NOT interested in watching Hannah paint dots on a pot for 2 hours. After many laps around the perimeter of the store, he finally conked out for a little while. After our respective adventures (I'll have to post the pictures of the boys' outing once I get them from Julie's camera) we put the kids to bed (or so I thought), the adults went Mitchell's Fish Market for a very yummy dinner! Our first date in Indiana!

Our sweet neighbor, Morgan babysat while we went to dinner with Kirk and Julie. Caleb wasn't exactly the easiest kid that night. She held him until he fell asleep and didn't move until we got home...Poor Morgan! We love her and hope Caleb didn't scare her off!!!

I'm getting sleepy...so I've got to wrap up--here's the reader's digest version of the rest of the weekend. Sunday K and J went to the races. 50-60mph winds. Rain. Crazy people still raced in the storm. No injuries, thank God. We went to church. Reading "Life on Loan" w/ our small group. Met them for the first time. Met up w/ K and J around dinnertime. Enjoyed good conversation. Kirk took the victory for the nightly Settler's ritual. Monday we met Josh for lunch in a cute village called Broad Ripple.

Hannah's turning into quite the gamer.

Jonny loves his parmesan. Maybe a little too much...

Licking the cheese out of his hands. In case you didn't know, he's a blue dog, Spyro.

Well, I'm pooped. Sorry to cut this off so abruptly, but my bed is calling my name...G'nite!