A Visit To Cousins

Another fun family weekend—We had a temple trip on May 24th. Eliza got to go to the temple with the youth and do baptisms for the dead. She was excited to be able to go in with David. They did some family names of a lady in our ward—one of the boys was baptized for Daniel Boone. Eliza thought that was pretty neat. After that, we drove another 2+ hours to Savannah, GA to visit Tina and Stuart (David’s sister). They are so much fun. It always amazes me how the kids just instantly start playing together without any stage of awkwardness and getting reacquainted—even though we haven’t seen them since last summer. The Heimdal’s are great hosts (We slept great in Stephanie and Monica’s bed—thanks!) and we enjoyed our time at the beach, walking around Savannah and being together. One thing I love about visiting people is that you get some “real” insider tips on what things work in families. They have a great tradition of a Sunday “closed eye rest”. We’ve talked and laughed about needing more of those around here. The Heimdals are super fun—it will be fun to get together more often. I know that Laura will miss them—in fact, our kids got called “Adaline” and “Bridie” more than once!

The pictures are of our Sunday trip to the beach where we were just going to "get our feet wet".

Also, is a picture of David, Eliza and Mandi Veech at the Columbia South Carolina Temple.

A Visit From Cousins

Here goes another attempt at this blog. I tried to do it on-line, but it didn’t work, so I am going to try and copy and paste from this word document. The slower connection really is a valid reason for not doing this more often!

We’ve had a great couple of weeks and thanks to all m y family and friends who still check to see if I have posted anything. We had a wonderful month of May—unusually cool for the south, but perfect summer weather in my book! It was cool in the mornings and evenings and warmed up during the day, but not too hot! I like to be able to work and do things outside without melting.
In May the Hale’s came for a visit. Chad, Camille and their five super fun, cute kids were here for a weekend. (Camille is my cousin—we are a year apart and grew up together with loads of fun memories). They live in Ohio so we are able to get together once in a while. They came down for the BMS Drag Races and the Lions Club Turtle Derby—talk about a contrast. We went from 300 mph to about 300 inches per hour. One of the kids even asked if they’d need earplugs for the turtle races! Those turtle races are one of the “secrets” of Kingsport. It is FREE to go, everyone gets a ticket and if your turtle wins, you get 50 cents. With all the tickets we had, we had a winner at every race. They have all kinds of prizes—Camille had the winning ticket—she won a pizza and a girl’s bike. She gave the bike to Grace—who was thrilled! We ended the day at Carter Fold. The kids danced ‘til they were sweating. It was fun and the kids have a blast together. Thanks for the visit and come back soon!

Summer Time

Hey, everyone. We are still alive and kicking. To all those who still check my blog, thanks for your faithfulness. This is a lot like my journal--I start every entry with.. "I haven't written in so long and am going to do better!" Well, I won't make any promises, but here is what we have been up to.

We had a great weekend with the Hale's (Chad and Camille and their five super fun, cute kids). Camille is my cousin--we are just a year apart and grew up together and have loads of fun memories throughout the years. Anyway, they live in Ohio and it's close enough to get together once in a while. They came down for the drag races at BMS and the Turtle Derby!! One of her kids asked if they'd need the earplugs at the Turtle Races--we went from 300 mph, down to 30o inches per hour. It was really fun. Camille had a lucky ticket and won a pizza and a girl's bike that she gave to Grace. Grace is the proud owner of a new bike. The races were great. Our odds were greatly increased, we had a winning ticket every race, since there were so many of us! We also went to Carter Fold--the kids danced 'til they were sweating. We love getting together with them. Thanks for the visit. Hope to see you again soon.