4th of July weekend

Jon and I went up to Plano for the 4th of July weekend. We had a really nice time. My parents have been getting together with two other families for over 25 years! Every 4th of July since before I was born they have gotten together with these families. I have a lifetime of wonderful memories hanging out and enjoying the holiday with these wonderful people. Here is our yearly picture from this year (minus the one taking the picture). It's hard to imagine that it started with just six people, now there is even a grandchild :) The three ladies in the front (the one is the red is my mom) all meet in grad school years ago. I missed the last two years since it was during the week and I was here in Austin. It was great to be able to go this year!On Saturday Jon and I went with my parents to a meet-and-greet at a local Petco. They are looking to adopt a lab from a lab rescue in Dallas. We saw a bunch of really cute dogs. My parents are looking at getting a girl named Ruby. Her picture is not up of there website yet, but I will post pictures as soon as they do. I'm excited for my parents. It has been a year since they had to put Credence down and I think they are ready for a new dog. I know Hiro will be excited to have a dog to play with when we visit.

After the meet and greet, my sister and I finally did something we had been taking about for years. We got matching tattoos! It is an Ichthus from a James Avery ring. This is not a great picture, I will have to get Jon to take a better one for me. It is on the outside of my right foot. My sister went first and I could tell it hurt. I was super nervous. It was pretty painful, but it didn't take very long so it wasn't too bad. We got them done in a medium brown color (it looks dark now because it has not fully healed yet). I can't believe I have a tattoo!! I like it a lot. I will post some better pictures after it heals in a week or two.

Today Jon and I got up and drove back. It was nice to get home. We did some grocer shopping and Jon got the stuff he needed to plant the HUGE trees (one of which is still in our driveway). Once we got home, Jon dug for about 2 hours. The hole is a lot bigger (I will post a picture tomorrow) , but it is still not big enough. We were talking with our neighbor and apparently the land that our neighborhood is built on used to be a hay field. When they decided to build the houses they had to level out and raise the land in order to prevent rain water from pooling. Jon has found out (the hard way) that they leveled the land with a mixture of large rocks and clay. The ground is so packed it is hard to start digging and then every few inches the shovel hits a huge rock. I am trying to get Jon to seek out some help with this whole backyard remodel.