Vacation!

Hello friends! I am very excited because after much work, I think I may have figured out how to get pictures onto my blog. I know that mom will surely have issues, but hopefully she'll get it! We have spent the last two weeks at Outer Banks, NC. It was beautiful weather for all but 3 days! We drove down Saturday the 17th. We had Ben, me and the kids in the van and Pops (Ben's dad), Nathan and Jonathan (our nephews) in Pop's car. Ben and I rented a beach condo unit right next the Pop's and Nana. However, this year the timeshare weeks were off and Pops and Nana were not going to be there at the same time. It's complicated for those who don't' know the full story. I'll spare you the details. At any rate, We did have somewhat of a revolving door for the 2 weeks. Pops and the boys stayed until Wednesday of the first week. We had a great time. Pretty much went on the beach every day. We also had our dear previous neighbor's daughter and babysitter, Anna Grace Friedrichs with us. She was a tremendous help to us with the kids. She left us on the first Saturday of our 2 weeks.


Our dear friends Derrick, Aimee and Belle Mestler were supposed to come in on Wednesday night (the first week) and stay for a few days, but they were unable to come. Aimee has been suffering with Hyperthyroidism and had to take a radioactive pill (I think?) and try to regulate the tyhroid. I think this will completely kill the tyhroid and then she'll be on meds forever. So, they were unable to come this year.

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Well, that left me and Ben with the kids ALL ALONE....well, needless to say, we got quite restless and I'm glad school has started :). We went dolphin watching, putt-putting, shopping, swimming and best of all - NAPPING! Oh, naps were a wonderful thing. All-in-all we had a great time. The beach was wonderful. Ashlynn loved splashing in the water and catching sand craps and finding "treasures". Katelyn played in the ocean all day most of the days and Andrew was quite content to go back to the house and play with his "guys". We also had wi-fi and at one time had 2 laptops going with both kids on them!

On our second week, Nana and Pops came back (by themselves this time) for 2 days and Matt (Ben's brother) and Cheryl (Matt's fiance) came in for a couple of extra days themselves. Their week started on Saturday, but we had to come home for school starting. They are down there right now watching the waves.....

Hope you all enjoy this. I'll post more later this week! Love to you all!

Donna

My First Blog!!!

Okay, so this is all new to me. I thought I'd start with a simple blog of Ashlynn with her friends from playgroup.

This past week we went to the Children's Museum (we have a membership and it's been a lifesaver!) with our friends Aimee & Belle Mestler and Paige and Katie Scheumaker. Belle is in the blue shirt on the left and Katie is middle. The museum had a musical going on called "Suessical". It was fantastic. Unfortunately, Ashlynn cannot sit still for very long and after 25 minutes was crawling all over me. She was pushing every button I have - hitting the lady sitting on the floor in front of us and looking at me to see what I would do. Ugh!!! Andrew - meanwhile was asking me how much longer? He, however, was a good boy and sat through to the end. Thank goodness for Missy Aimee! I ended up leaving with Ashlynn and waiting it out. She then continued to do everything she could to push all my buttons. By the end of the day I was exhausted.

Katelyn was not with us this week because she was in Eagle Eyre at Music Camp with church. She had a great time until Friday morning. I was jolted awake by the phone ringing and Katelyn on the other end crying and such saying she wanted to come home now. She was due to come home Friday afternoon. I think she was having stomach issues and was just ready to come home. There may have also been a little sadness because she had to leave her little boyfriend. He was called Cheese (don't ask me why) and he's from Lynchburg. She has since emailed and he has responded. Happy days are here again!!

Well, this week Katelyn has an afternoon camp at the Math Science Center. She will be learning about taking videos. I'm sure we'll have something fun to upload soon - once I figure it out!

Write more soon. Let me know how this turned out. I kindof like this!

Donna