VA Bch

 I spent the last 5 days in Virginia Beach.  I love it there.  It feels so beautifully familiar.  We spent 3+ years there very early on in our marriage.  Elijah and Autumn were both born in Portsmouth.  Such great memories and painfully hard ones, as well.  My brother died while we were there.  I struggled as a single mom for months there.  I grew tremendously there.
This trip was spent with my sister/friend, Caroline and her new baby, Easton.  It meant restless nights snuggling this beautiful baby.  I loved every second of it and would go back if I could.  Watching this young girl, who happens to be about the same age I was when we first met her family, was amazing.  She is maternal and calm and courageous.  She's a single mom determined to make a life for this baby boy.  It is beyond encouraging to see her mothering and her family rally around her with support and love. The youngest sister, Morgan, is a huge help to her and her other 2 sisters support her unconditionally.  Her mother would be busting with pride at her girls right now.
We had dinner every night at Katy and Adam's house.  It was so fun for me to spend time with them and their little girl, Kyrie.  These two were just young and in love when we first met.  Elijah was their ring bearer.  Adam was Autumn's favorite person as a tiny baby.  They are wonderful parents and as usual, completely fun and enjoyable to be around! 
Between Starbucks runs, delicious foods, a quick beach visit, newborn snuggles, and laughs with the sisters and Adam, it was a great trip.  


 

Let's get ready to RAMBLE!!!!!

Thoughts are going a mile a minute...
Could be the large latte I had a bit ago...
Or....
It could be that I bought a ticket to Haiti today!!(Well, I didn't, but my friend Heather did it for me and for her and her husband who will be going too!) YIPPEE!
It's just going to be me this time.  Chad will stay home with work and kids.  Slightly bummed about that, but it's the way it is this time.  So grateful that our first trip was together and he'll know what I mean when I cry and wail and laugh and rejoice about what I'll see and do.
Oh happy day!!

AND!!!  We've made major progress towards securing a building for our CrossFit gym!  Haven't blogged about all that business yet, but it's in the works!  Big things, people, big things.

And!! My sweet friend/sister from another mister, Caroline, is in labor RIGHT NOW!  Baby Easton will be making his arrival soon.

And!! I've been following some superstar bloggers this past week as they visited Haiti with Help One Now, an awesome organization bent on serving Haiti from the ground.  Check them out at www.helponenow.org Amazing group of people!

And! That's all. 

Photo dump

I could write a whole post about each of these pics, but I want to catch up a bit!

Summertime at my parent often involves bonfires..

Hot guy working out...

Relaxing on the front yard swing...

and snuggles with Uncle Sethy.

Lots of trips back and forth across the park to the Y.


















School days!  Elijah at his new "big" middle school and Cory working hard at home!  No picture of Autumn at Lincoln yet.



The ocean flying home from Haiti...makes me a little teary.


Football in full force for Elijah.  He won this MASSIVE trophy for blocking...makes me giggle :)

Our coffee shop friend, Mr. Groves.
 Dillon Nature Center in Hutch. SUPER AWESOME for the boys!


















State Fair for the day!

What our cart looks like after going through Aldi.










 

Dirt

An excessively dry summer plus not enough dirt around the house anyway meant a whole dump truck of dirt was needed to go around the house!

 

Caleb, of course, LOVES IT!  I will be hard pressed to find something for the boys to do after it's all spread out.