Visiting Courtenay and Everett

On my way to Green River to spend the week with Matt, I stopped to visit Courtenay and to meet Everett! 

I found mom and baby doing great and loving life! Courtenay has much better photos of the two of them on her blog, but I wanted to capture my visit as well! 

Courtenay was such a blast to teach with - her students were lucky to have her, and Everett is blessed to have her as a mom. Double blessings with John for a dad as well! 

Crook Family Swimming Party

Matt cooled off in the Crook's pool while Laura visited with relatives! 

Michael and Aislinn had fun with new-found cousins! 

Aislinn loved swimming with Grandpa! 

Daring Aislinn!

Aislinn watched all the big kids jumping and diving off the board, and decided she was a big kid too! At first we didn't think she would actually do it - we thought she'd chicken out. Boy were we wrong!

Aquarium with the Kelleys

Checking out the string rays (from left to right):

Melia, Aislinn, Michael, Shawn, and Bowen!

Ride 'em Frog-boy!! 

Giddy- up!

Bowen is feeling sorry for the frog as Shawn climbs on! 

Here's all three Kelley boys hanging on to Mr. Frog!

Pettit Family Breakfast

We had a big family breakfast on Saturday before Logan and Anne headed back to Monterey. I am sad to say that I didn't get any photos of them while they were here! We had a blast seeing them as they stopped in between busy activities, but somehow I didn't get any photos! Anyway, these are from our family breakfast. Everyone was there except Lance who was jumping in feet first to his DLI experience in Monterey!

Aislinn and "Auntie Well"!

This is so precious! One of the first phrases that Noelle spoke when she was a toddler was "Happy morning!". She would say that every time she woke up as she held out her index finger - I had to touch her index finger and say "Happy morning" back to her before she would get up. It was a ritual she did for a VERY long time - and she made it up! Anyway, she taught it to Aislinn - and this is a photo of Aislinn holding out her finger for me to touch and say " Happy Morning"! It made me cry when Noelle showed it to me!
While Aislinn was getting some "Auntie Well" time, Melia was getting some daddy time and everyone else was chatting, laughing, eating, and playing. It was a memorable morning - but over too soon!

Hummingbird Hobby!

One of the things I love about summer is feeding the huge hoards of hummingbirds that come to my feeders.
We have a loyal following!

We literally have dozens taking turns feeding in the late evening!

Summer Project

One project I really wanted to do this summer was to make a quilt for Logan and Anne. I was determined to get the top made before they left so Anne could help decide what pattern she wanted for the quilting. I wanted her to see the top pieced together before we figured that part out. I made it - in the nick of time! Here is a photo of the top all pieced together.
The photo doesn't do the colors justice, but you get the idea.

Here is a close-up of a couple of the fabrics. As a nod to my hummingbird hobby, I put in a block of fabric with hummingbirds as my "signature" on the quilt.
Check it out!

Visiting Charleston, SC

While Lance was in transit to Monterey, we had a day's layover before our flight home, so we took advantage of the chance to visit Charleston.
It was a memorable day!

Fort Sumpter - the site of the first shots fired in the Civil War!

Matt was impressed by the old cannons still in place.
I was surprised at how many there were!

This is the view of Charleston from Fort Sumpter. It is easy to imagine the battles of the Civil War when you see the actual sites.

A view of Charleston from a carriage.

One thing I have a hard time comprehending is that much of Charleston is built on rocks that were used as ballast in ships coming from Britain. Hundreds of ships a year for over a hundred years brought enough rocks to build up land mass for Charleston neighborhoods to be built on. This cobblestone street is build from such stones.

Lance's Graduation from Basic

Graduation day was extra touching with it being so near the 4th of July. There was a deep feeling of patriotism! We were proud of Lance and grateful we were able to be a part of the ceremony!

Family Day at Fort Jackson

Matt and I took a red-eye flight to Charlotte, NC so we could drive to Columbia, SC to participate in the activities surrounding Lance's graduation from Basic Training.

We had a great time at family day. In this photo, his company is all lined up and was not allowed to move a muscle until a family member walked up and hugged them! The only bad thing was, all the soldiers looked so much alike that it was hard to find them! Lance had lost 38 pounds, so we didn't even recognize him for a while. He was a bit amused that it took so long to figure out which soldier he was! Can you see him?

He made a lot of good friends at basic. These were some of his best buddies - and they are all headed to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey with him. They are all learning Korean together.

They tried to look tough.........

but couldn't keep it up for long!

Here is Lance in front of his barracks.

Proud mom and dad!