Summer Fun-My Favorites Part I

This is our final weekend of the summer.  We are about to say goodbye to sleeping in each morning, staying up every night, playing in the pool for hours, and eating dessert every day.

Except for the eating dessert every day.  How else do you expect me to make it through the school year?!

In light of these last days of summer I thought it would be fun to take a few days and recap some of our adventures while we were visiting the East Coast.  I took about 3000 pictures this summer, soooo...you can expect to see a few.  I know you are about to wet your pants you're so excited.

We headed to Virginia at the beginning of June, the main reason being to celebrate with my parents as my dad settled into his retirement.  The first big event was a gathering in his honor, an afternoon set aside to look back at the years he spent at Oakwood Memorial Baptist Church, and to share and visit with many, many folks who had been a part of his history there.  There was a reception, followed by a program, and then a bit more time for visiting.  It was pretty amazing to sit in the sanctuary and see it so full of people who had both been touched by my parents and who had had a deep impact on Mom and Dad's lives as well. 

I was going to show a couple of pictures of the program, but I just realized that those pictures are on my parents' computer, and I forgot to get them on a disc before I left.  So...you'll have to make up mental images of the full church, sweet faces, tears, laughter, the young man dressed up as Dad, and the spoof of his antics.  It was fun, precious, bittersweet. 

We also got to hang out with family that we don't see very often, since we live so far away.  My dad's brother and his wife

and my dad's sister

and her husband (my dad is on the left - you probably know that - and my step-uncle is on the right)

were able to come for the party.  I think it's been a while since the three of them were together like that (the siblings), and it was great fun.  I'm pretty sure that none of them had ever met Eliana.  She warmed up pretty quickly, though.

Now let's talk about Funcle Matt.  He is, as his nickname indeed indicates, a fun uncle.  All of the kids are agreed upon this.  And Eliana?  Well, she is supremely taken with him.  And I think it's fair to say the feeling is mutual.

These two have quite a relationship.  She moons at him.

She says things like,"You're Grandma!", confusing Matt and cracking her own self up.

She could hardly be pried away from him whenever he was around.

Well, that could be said for all of them, really.

Like I said, it was a fun family time.  But Dad wasn't into all this hanging around at home with us.  He got his retirement pants on and decided that now was the time to party.  Live it up!  Fiesta!  He told us,"See ya' later!  I'm goin' on a vacay!"

 

Aw, you know him better than that, right?  The kids helped him open some of his presents from different groups of people.  The Children's Department gave him a basket of goodies for a beach getaway.

And later, and this might have been one of my top three moments in Virginia this trip, my mom read out loud one of the funniest and sweetest letters I have ever heard in my life.  It was from one of the men that had been in the youth group when my parents first came to Oakwood.  It was full of really great memories and stories.  The kind that when told well (and he can do such a thing) they make you laugh until you wet yourself.

In hindsight, my mom probably should not have been the one actually reading the letter out loud.  But then again, that was part of the fun.

We also came across this little treasure...

While retirement is surely a time of transition and sometimes difficult changes, it is also a time to remember a lifetime of work, relationships, sharing, and love.  It was so good to be there with them, to see him enjoying all that was going on, and to look forward to the rest of our time together.

We stayed in Virginia for almost three weeks, and we filled up our days with a visit to Washington D.C., trips to museums, racing around on four-wheelers, and happy reunions.  Tomorrow you'll get more witty narrative and amazing pictures of our madcap antics.  You're on the edge of your seat, aren't you?

Comments

[Mindee@ourfrontdoor]

Dang it. Now I'm sitting here in wet pants.