Family Tour: Part One

BOOM and then we were in NC. 
For the record, we dropped the kids off with Aunt Rachel for the weekend while Jake and I headed to Winston-Salem for my Governor’s School reunion.  In case you care (I do), after a hard-fought battle and the most impressive fundraising effort I’ve ever seen or heard of, the NC Governor’s School will live on to encourage and inspire more eager young minds!  If you want to hear more, ask me and I’ll be happy to tell you, but the gist of the weekend is this: it was good.  It was good to return to that place that was and is so important to me and it was good to get some adult time with Jake in the middle of the craziness of the move.  But we didn’t take any pictures there, so moving right along . . .
 
Family time!  In Jacksonville, Uncle Jonathan splashes around with Logan, Naomi and cousin Noah.
                        
Actually, since about half of you reading this were actually there that week, I probably don’t need to offer much commentary.  The relevant people, in case you don’t already know, are Grammy & Grampy, Aunt Holly, Uncle Drew & Noah, Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Rachel, and Uncle Sam.  Unfortunately, Drew, Rach and Sam weren’t able to join us for the full week of rousing festivities and uproarious laughter, and are therefore featured in fewer pictures, but we love them just the same :)


 
Exploring a neighborhood construction project.

                  


   
    Would anyone like to make a guess about where this is going to go?







                   







 
                         
Yep, they did.  Did you really have any doubts?


              
This is my nephew.  He’s the third-coolest kid on the planet.


        
Lots of random fun and relaxation.


                                       
Also for the record, the pool belongs to my parents’ neighbor.  Mom and Dad have made many recent upgrades to their house (new flooring, new countertops, renovated bathroom) but adding a pool was not one of them.


            
                    
I wasn’t entirely convinced the aquarium was a good idea; after all, you’ve seen the pictures of the aquarium in Okinawa, so you know the kind of wow-factor my kids have become accustomed to.  But this turned out to be a lot of fun.  The penguins were cool, but the river otter seems to have been the special favorite.
We did make it to the beach as well, but somehow I don’t have any pictures of that.  Another non-photo-represented event was the “Middle Kids” outing, which was assisted by the “Big Kids” (Grammy and Grampy) watching the “Little Kids” (Logan, Naomi and Noah, of course).  Thanks, Mom and Dad, for doing that!
The best part of the week was just having everybody together, especially over the weekend when the WHOLE gang was there, even the adoptees.  We did get a photo shoot of everybody but, again, I don’t happen to have a copy of that yet.  Don’t worry though, all those pictures that I said I don’t have, Mom/Grammy has abundantly provided for—she has over 700 pictures of that week which she is passing out, in CD format, to everyone involved.



For now, you’ll just have to settle for a parting shot of all the cousins.  Little blondies!