newest jones family member

well, as many of you know, my parents have a bit of an empty nest now. i got married and moved out in june and lanny is in kazakhstan for six months, so that abruptly left just dad, mom, and ali at home. in the two weeks that lanny and i both moved out, our chihuahua, brutus, that we've had for 8 years was also killed by stray dogs! so that also just left the pet count to ali's cat, nala, which no one really likes that much anyways.

all that to say, my dad really wanted a new pet and couldn't decide between a dog or a pig. my mom was saying absolutely no more animals. (she's not an animal lover). so they've kinda been going back and forth.

this morning my dad woke my mom up and said that he had found their new pet and was taking it to the vet to get checked out. he took my mom out on the back porch and had this animal in the kennel


yes, it is a skunk. my dad had heard somewhere that skunks make great pets, so when he found it by the pool this morning, he decided to make it his pet. (after he realized it was probably his mother that he shot just a couple of days ago). the vet said that in 2 weeks, he will take out his "stink bag" because they don't want to traumatize him right off, and he's too young to spray right now anyways. he needs a bath, but the doc said to wait a couple days, and to use baby shampoo. so now my dad wants to keep this thing in the house. my mom's argument was that the dog we had for 8 years didn't get to live in the house so why should a skunk!? haha, i kinda wish i would have been at home for all this.

so what do you name a skunk? my dad went back and forth between "old spice" and "ralph lauren", both which he thought were hilarious. he has decided on "ralph". and if the vet tells him its a girl, it will then be "ralphie". he's obviously put a lot of thought into it.

dad and ralph. so sweet.

some people would be surprised to hear this story, but oh no, not if you know my dad! oh yeah, and for the record, my mom just told me on the phone that it is actually pretty cute. who knows..this one may last!

galveston!

we got to spend this past weekend in galveston with the all the nelsons. we had so much fun, although it was "eventful". while the nelsons were on their way to galveston (before we met up with them), they stopped to eat lunch in houston, and the tahoe was broken into. they lost literally thousands of dollars of electronics including several cameras, ipods, dvd players, xbox 360, even medication and make up! so that put a damper on the trip. on saturday, the tahoe had a flat tire so we spent several hours in sams, a mall, and office depot, replenishing stolen goods, and waiting for the tire to get fixed. it made for fun family bonding time =) besides those minor things, we had a lot of fun and it was great to hang out with the family! here are some pictures from the weekend..

all the family!

this is way blurry, but i had to post it. this is us sitting in the office chairs in office depot, waiting on our tire to get fixed next door. good times =)

at the beach!

we went to a 3-D imax on sharks, i thought was good, but a little "tree-huggerish". the guys all thought there wasn't quite enough killing.

the guys having some brotherly bonding time over cigars.

this is a bungee type ride, that got stuck up at the top. they had to call a fire truck to get it down. needless to say, it was closed the next day.

on the way home, kyle and i stopped at kemah boardwalk.


kyle feeding stingrays at kemah. they would come up out of the water and take little fish right out of your hands. they were way slimey.

this is what their mouths looked like open, i thought it was a little freaky!


here we are on the boardwalk.

so now we're back in the big town of college station, and back to work, again. fun fun!

lets go fly a kite!

let me say that people do not play outside enough anymore! when i was little, we would go outside on "adventures" and not come back until it was dark! so..we decided to be little again and go play outside all day. friends were in for alison and zeb's wedding last weekend, and hannah, shannon, steven, and josh all spent the night at our apartment. the day after the wedding we decided to have a full day of outdoor adventures!!
we started by going to walmart and buying kites, frisbees and subway for our picnic lunch and headed out to brison park here in college station. i had never been to this park, but i loved it! its just an outdoorsy park with huge trees and open fields to fly kites, and we were the only ones there!
we got to the park and had our picnic under the biggest live oak tree i have ever seen! then we flew kites, played frisbee, and climbed trees! couldn't have spent a summer day any better!

here's kyle with quite possibly the smallest kite ever made! it surprisingly enough flew pretty well!

hannah and kyle flying kites and playing frisbee

us looking pretty nappy after running around in the sun!

probably my favorite picture from the afternoon! shannon, steven, josh, and kyle climbing the huge live oak.

climbing trees continued..

kyle up high in the tree

some kite flying action

so everyone should go outside and play today! well, its actually raining here, so maybe another day =) but for real, go fly a kite and climb some trees! we had so much fun!

yay!

happy 1 month anniversary, jeffrey!! its official, we have been married for 30 days and i have loved every minute of being your wife!!

this weekend we got to be part of alison and zeb pike's wedding. they are good friends of ours, and my roomate from college, so long ago! =) it was our first wedding to go to since we've been married, so it was nice to be able to relax a little!

there was a stained glass window that made cool colors
in the church so we decided to take pictures.

hannah and shannon thought they looked a little psychadelic
and thought the poses should coordinate! (we know we're cool)

here we are at alison and zeb's reception.

their beautiful wedding cake.

the bride and groom's first dance.

yay marriage!

happy 4th of july!!

we were so excited to be able to go to greenville for the 4th, but it made for a busy couple of days! we started the day with the park street parade. andrew rode his bike in the parade (he graduated from riding in the wagon) and adelle rode in the wagon behind the lawnmower. this is a big time parade we're talking about =). after the parade we went for a cook out at heidi and brent's with several families who were at the parade. the night of the 4th we had a party at the nelsons. that night we had to drive back to college station because poor kyle had to work on the 5th at 8 am. stinks being in the real world!

here we are at the parade!

adelle and the little kids in the wagon.

a very hot and tired andrew on his festive bike after the parade!

ms. 4th of july, herself, showing her love of cheetos!


andrew was taking pictures of us. he was telling us where to sit, and lean our heads. it was so funny! after he finished one picture, he said "oh, that's real nice!" and the funny thing is, the pictures were actually good! he's a character!


andrew and kyle swimming at the nelsons, at the 2nd party of the day!

dellie said she was ready to go to bed, so we made her a bed out of a raft and towel. she then told me she wanted me to lay down with her for goodnight hugs and kisses. so sweet.


she loved the fireworks but thought they were a little loud. she would not pull those little chubby fingers out of her ears for the life of her!!

happy 4th of july!!!