Week at Mimi and Papa's

After our week at the beach, Brian headed to General Assembly and the rest of us stayed with my mom and dad.  Now there is plenty to love about my parents but one thing is how much they enjoy all their grandkids.

Daddy always gets  himself into trouble with some form of water.

Making smores after dinner

Just a little messy.

In Williamsburg.  Not sure who got who here.

A little craziness keeps things interesting.

Lucy's first tea party with Mimi.  There haven't been very many visits that haven't included tea parties and hats.

I think she liked it.

Church Picnic

I'm getting ahead of myself here but I'll go ahead and post a few pictures from our church picnic.  It was really a wonderful time of fellowship.  The kids had a ball.  Our hosts live way out in gorgeous country.  The pictures will tell more than I can.

Getting ready for a tractor ride

Lucy is with one of her favorite friends.

Part of the view

Jack spent most of the evening right here.

Notice the watermelons in the creek...

...and Lucy in the creek.  She loved it.  I love this picture of her and Geneva.

Kayla swinging over the creek.

Fishing with Daddy.  Sammy caught a pretty big one- I think Brian is working on getting it in.

One last ride.

Just Being a Big Brother

Memory Lane

What started as a 35 minute trip down to my hometown ended up as a close to two and a half hour ride in traffic.  Serious bumper to bumper, accident on the interstate, I-64, peninsula traffic.  Ugh.
Or maybe not.
One of my favorite "friends-who-moved-away-from-Blacksburg" was waiting for me at the end of the ride.
And along the way I did a lot of reminiscing with the help of 2W-D radio, the best of yesterday and today.
I don't know why it amused me so much to listen to the same stations I did as a kid.  But music does that to me, takes me back, makes me remember funny things.  It's a little easier when you are all by yourself in the car.
No one screaming the same things you're thinking about being stuck on the road.
No one to listen to your not so great singing voice as for just a moment, you are 15 again and listening to your favorite songs.
Sometimes there wasn't even a specific memory, just the feeling of a time long passed, places long left.
When all was said and done, I spent a lot of time in the car and not enough time with Jenny but I was glad for both.

Flat Hair

I stepped outside and the air was heavy and thick.
It felt like I took a step back into the summers of my teen years.
The coastal Virginia weather was (and is) always hazy, hot, and humid.
It took no more than the next thought to remind me of all the times Crystal (my cousin) and I ran in and out of the house to fix our flat hair.  We'd wash and curl and spray only to go outside and say, "My hair's gone flat.  Again."  I loved having her there with us all summer.  Or for at least part of it.  And as much as we complained about our flat hair, we had fun fixing it back up again.  I don't know why thinking about that makes me smile but it does.  We were a mess!  How did my brother put up with the two of us??

Some Beach Pictures

We figured out the camera dilemma so here are some of my favorite pictures from the beach.  Too hard to narrow them down, though, so there's a bunch.  I figure this is more of a post for grandparents and aunts and uncles than anything else!

One of the few times he wasn't laying in the sand or building sand castles.

Buried in the sand.

I'm a little partial but I think she's such a beauty.

My beach baby.  She spent most of the time under the umbrella digging in the sand or putting her toes in the water.

Everyone's busy.

Just sweet.

The guys at Jockey's Ridge

The stairs at the lighthouse.  Even the picture makes me a little dizzy.

The crew

and the crew again.

Beach Week in Duck

Her big brother brought her to me after her nap.  Jack loves to get her when she wakes up.  She sat with me outside, her head on my shoulder, trying to wake up.  The wind was warm and salty, mixed with the Johnson's & Johnson's I'd used to rinse the sand out of her hair.  I was reading The Help, again.   I'm not sure what everyone else was up to at that point but it was vacation so I think they were enjoying themselves.
This year we went to Duck on the Outer Banks.  The OBX- one of our favorite places.  We honeymooned there.  I have to say though, as much as we enjoyed it, our week wasn't quite the same as past year when we've gone to Emerald Isle with my family.  Maybe next year?  I have many pictures to post but no camera chord to upload with so that will have to wait.  Some highlights for us:  the beach in the mornings, Jockey's Ridge (sand dunes) in the evenings, hermit crabs- four of them- first pets as I am not an animal person at all mostly due to allergies, Duck Donuts, ice cream every night, climbing the Currituck Lighthouse at Corolla, flying kites, beautiful weather, and probably other things I'm forgetting.
Vacation is always nice but getting back to regular life is good, too.
It's a good thing, huh?