I am currently sitting in a waiting room at the hospital while Chris is in surgery for his knee.  I still don't know what they found or if his ACL does need to be replaced or not.  A second MRI showed it probably was not torn or torn completely but was still "abnormal".  No more details other than "abnormal".  So the surgeon was prepared to replace it, but we are still praying he might go in and find it is healthy or good enough to still function properly.

So, no news there but while I am waiting I will keep updating from our travels.  After our fun day at Thomas the Train we had a couple more days in the mountains with Chris' family and had a good time. We stayed in an amazing little condo/cabin the mountains near Boone, NC and had fun exploring the area.  We had one rainy, cold day.  To everyone's great disappointment, we showed up at the indoor pool with everyone in their swimsuits to find it was closed for repairs.  But then a nice man directed us to a YMCA down the road with a nice indoor pool with fountains and a slide, so the day was saved.

Fun family shot

Our view from the cabin porch.

Lucy loves swings!  She laughed and smiled the whole time.

We went to a beautiful park in Valle Crucis with a playground, play cabins, a big field and beautiful creek.

We are loving being out in nature and seeing beauty...even Bennett, normally our most indoorsy child, enjoyed exploring.

My cute little men.

The next 3 pictures are the inevitable progression of what Bennett would do in a creek...starting with taking his pants off...

Ooh, this is fun getting wet in my underwear.

Until he fell in the water and got completely wet, which he did not like.  Waah.

Soon followed by Austin falling in and getting soaked, though he was trying to smile through it. 

Our last morning we woke up to fog and clouds on the mountain but the peaks peeking through...it was so beautiful and restorative to the soul after big city smog and grime.

Thomas the Train, take 2

We spent several days in the North Carolina mountains this past week with Chris' parents and brother.  We had a great time and a definite highlight was our second trip to meet Thomas the Train at Tweetsie Railroad...a little boys' paradise.  Not only do you get a 30 minute ride on Thomas, but the park is filled with fun rides, events, animals and more.  Here is a pretty large photo documentary of the fun filled day.

Visiting Addie (and her parents)

 On the way back from visiting my grandmother, we got to stop in Baltimore to visit with Chris' cousin Justin, wife Libbie and their four year old daughter, Addie.  Addie is the closest thing to a cousin (technically not sure what she is...second cousin? or once removed?  not sure...my grandaddy would know these things) the kids have and they had a great time meeting.  We had dinner and then headed back to their apartment.  They are moving in a few short weeks to Alabama, so we are glad we got to see them while they were close by.  We wish we could see them more often, but were really thankful for a fun evening together.

Addie loved Lucy and did a great job helping to entertain her with bubbles and toys.

The kids had a great time hanging out on the rooftop porch of their apartment building...riding bikes, drawing chalk, blowing bubbles.

Getting silly right before we had to leave.

Addie had the best poses...something that seems innate to girls, but I have not experienced this yet with Lucy.

New, old pictures

 While I was visiting Grandma this week, I found some pictures taken the last trip we were there.  There are a few really neat pictures with my Grandaddy...the last I have taken with him.  I was so glad to find these pictures because I think our camera was broken during that visit and I really wanted these pictures of the last time I saw him.

Here I am with Grandaddy at my last visit.  I wish it had not been so long ago but will cherish it.

Love this picture of Grandaddy and Bennett.  Bennett is named Bennett Price after Grandaddy (Glen Price Haney).

The four of them...Grandaddy has 6 granddaughters and one grandson.  It was fun to see him with his two great-grandsons. 

Visit with Great Grandma

We just returned from a wonderful visit with Grandma in State College, PA.  I had looked forward to this visit for a long time, since I had not been able to be here for Grandaddy's Memorial Service.  We had a great time visiting, seeing where she lives, continuing fun traditions like ice cream runs at Meyer Dairy and getting to catch up.  We also really enjoyed seeing my Aunt Deannine and our cousins...Abby, Joshua and Brittany, who are so big and grown up now.  Abby and Joshua were flower girl and ring bearer in our wedding and now are finishing high school!  Here are the highlights!

It was so fun to introduce Lucy to Grandma and Lucy was all smiles!

Here we are at Meyer Dairy...a must-see every time we are in State College.  The boys ate hot dogs and loved the ice cream of course.

After ice cream, the boys enjoyed running down this hill of beautiful green grass, right next to the dairy farm that makes the ice cream.

Eating with Aunt Deannine at Foxdale, Grandma's new (to me anyway) home.

We also had a wonderful time eating lunch at the Yoder's Farm, a local Amish family that has opened their home to Grandma and Grandaddy many times.  The food was DELICIOUS and the boys enjoyed seeing the horses, cows, chickens, pigs and pigeons on their farm.  No pictures allowed, but a very memorable experience.

We got to visit Grandaddy's grave.  The temporary marker is still up (the permanent one is not ready yet), still flying many Memorial Day flags there.  It was good to visit and see the spot, a beautiful cemetery that claims to be the birthplace of Memorial Day.  Grandaddy was so patriotic, I think it is fitting for him to be laid to rest there.

On a not-so-serious note, as we were visiting the grave site, Chris suddenly looked over to find Bennett with his pants down, about to pee on someone else's gravestone.  Yikes...boys!  All that beautiful green grass was just too tempting I guess.  Chris did avert that disaster just in time, though he did pee in the grass elsewhere.  We had a great visit though and loved being there.

Getaway

 Somehow, landing on U.S. soil tends to do something to my blogging ability.  So I will be making up for lost time today with these posts. These three weeks are pretty travel-intensive for us, but lots of fun.  Two weeks ago, Chris and I were able to get away for 5 (yes, five whole days.whoa) days to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary (about 7 months late).  I am so thankful to my parents for watching all 3 kids, who did great and had a fun time while we were gone too.  Even Lucy took the bottle and did well. We had a great time, enjoying lots of sleep, quiet, time together and delicious seafood. Five days was perfect for getting to actually relax, but long enough that we were definitely ready to see our sweet kiddos when we got back.

We went to Virginia's Eastern Shore and stayed in a cute B and B in a little town called Cape Charles.  It was quaint and beautiful, right near the beach and the whole town was walkable.

We spent one day up at Chincoteague and Assateague Islands (famous for wild horses and Pony Penning Day).  We biked around a nature preserve on Assateague and even spotted some horses.

We also enjoyed the almost-empty beach on Assateague.

Horseshoe crab...watch out!

We read aloud to each other from Misty of Chincoteague...a favorite childhood book that takes place right where we were.