WayfaringStrangers

Another great trip that happened this summer was when Graham, Samuel, my Grandma, and myself flew to Oklahoma to visit my brother's family and celebrate his graduation from flight school. We are SO proud of Isaac and Elizabeth and I am very grateful to have been able to make this trip. It was Graham's first time flying! And Samuel's, too, of course. We were a funny little group but everyone did great. Southwest Airlines are awesome. The next day was the graduation. It was a little difficult with a baby and a 5 year old but we managed to see most of the ceremony. Afterwards, we took pictures. Absolutely love this picture! Pinning his wings! Elizabeth is such a wonderful support to Isaac. Proud to have her as my sister. After lunch, we went to see airplanes. Such fun! Fun until Graham's ping pong ball got away from him and blew across the Air Force tarmac. Kid in tears chasing a ping pong ball for 200 yards across a legit dangerous space while I'm...

In an attempt to catch up somewhat on all that happened this summer, here's the first recap. Williamsburg, 2016. Behn and I booked this little 4 day trip to the Williamsburg area in the spring, in anticipation that we would need some sort of kid-friendly getaway in the summer. Took a while to arrive, but it was finally late July and we got to go to Williamsburg. We stayed at King's Creek Plantation, which was great except for their hassling us to go to their presentation about buying a timeshare (we are so not in the place to do that, nor would we if we could). The great thing about a resort is they have a bunch of pools, which worked out because it was 100 degrees the whole time. We did a lot of swimming. We also braved the heat one evening for a round of mini- hockey  golf, also at the resort. Of course, we also went to Colonial Williamsburg and Yorktown. Behn's a big history guy and we all enjoyed it, when the kids weren't melting in the heat. ...

Hello! Happy Summertime! Another cliche "life is going by and I don't have free time to blog." Ok, now that's out of the way. We are just back from the beach, where we visited with family for 3 days. It was so wonderful. We are supposed to have Victoria right now...but the Ukraine group were not able to get their visas on time, due to circumstances completely out of their control. She will be coming, Lord willing, later this week. It was disappointing, but it also gave us an extra day at the beach and fun memories made. The delay also gives me a few more days to prepare for her, so I will take and post pictures of her adorable  room soon, as well as get ahead on some freezer meals this week. FYI when she does arrive and stay with us, I will not be allowed to post pictures of her on the blog. So, the beach. The whole thing was arranged by my sisters-in-law and all 5 of the T siblings, their spouses, kids, and Mom and Dad T were there. A few of the group had to ...

A couple of years ago, whenever something happened in our lives, I feel like I would race to blog about it asap. I'm more relaxed these days. It didn't even occur to me to blog about our retreat until today. So, here you have it. My Dad and I organized a Young Adult Getaway for our church at the Machen Retreat Center in Virginia. As a child, we went there for many summers, helping clear the land and build the cabins. Now, it's a full-functioning camp in a rustic setting. High up in the mountains, in Highland County VA, an hour from a real town. I couldn't wait to bring my boys there! Man, Graham was in little boy heaven! Open space, sticks, rocks, room to run, campfires, a river. He had a blast! He had a few other buddies to play with as well. Patrick also enjoyed the freedom to get dirty and play. I think the boys would be happy living there. Behn and I enjoyed it too. The beauty of the area, friends and family, playing games, a million (truly!) fi...

Whew! We have had such a busy past few weeks! Last Friday night there was a huge storm (if you live in the mid-Atlantic...you know about it) that knocked out our- and everyone else's- power. The nice thing was, we were already planning to visit my family in Maryland, so the next morning we surveyed the damage in the yard (several big trees down- so glad we rent!) and then packed up and headed to a wonderful place where there was electricity and plumbing. We had a nice time in MD. The great thing was, we were there to visit; to just spend a few days with the people we love. No agenda. No commitments. Just lots of time watching tv in the air conditioning, eating together, catching up with Grandma and Grandpa, and celebrating. Graham already had a bond with my mom because of the Ohio trip, and also got to enjoy getting to know my Dad better. He also had fun with his uncles and Aunt Hannah. On Tuesday, Behn and I enjoyed tapping into some free babysitting and went out for a nice dinn...

It's been awhile since I've written...in Ohio I didn't have wifi, so I didn't spend much time on the computer. Which was really, very refreshing!  But I do want to document the trip a bit. Going to Ohio to see Grandma and other relatives was just right. I'm so glad I had to opportunity to do that! I loved all the time with my mom, too; and Graham got to bond with his "Nana." The driving there (and back) was a little tricky with a toddler, but thanks to a bag of toys, DVD player, books, crayons, and dum-dums, he did pretty well. Once we got to Ohio, he was very clingy all week; I've never heard the word 'mama' more in my life. Eventually he warmed up to everyone else, especially my mom. Graham also struggled with sleeping while we were there. He got a bad cold which affected things, but also just being in a new room and new bed made it hard for him to adjust. He and I took a lot of naps together. We had a lot of fun eating really good food, ...

Okay, so I need to catch up a bit! 2 weekends ago we headed on down to Greensboro again to celebrate Emily's birthday and meet up with Luke, Jess, and Lily. On Saturday we surprised Emmy by getting there early and enjoyed pizza at Mellow Mushroom. That place was trippy. The pizza was really good, but you really do feel like you're at a hippie joint, complete with background music sung by someone who was clearly very high  on weed  life. It was a fun little outing though. Then we did pool and, later, baseball game! Greensboro Grasshoppers, baby! The next day we worshiped at Emily and Seth's new church and met up with Luke, Jess and Lilybug. During the afternoon, the guys cooked out for the girls and then we all had a picnic lunch. That night, after the babies were down, we had a little ice cream cake in honor of the Birthday Lady. We stayed up late chatting and laughing. I think that was my favorite part; just being  with the people I love. ...

Hello to anyone checking me out from Amanda @ wanderingonpurpose . It was so sweet of her to nominate me for a Liebster Award, and soon I'll do my official Liebster post. When I saw she'd nominated me, I thought about quickly writing up some sort of witty, interesting post to captivate ya'll...but then decided that I'll just be myself and do what I normally do: update the world (read: a few friends and family) about our goings-on. Last weekend was bliss. A sweet friend of mine, Nancy, from church invited me and a couple of other church friends to spend a night at her parents' lake home at Smith Mountain Lake. I haven't been away from Graham for a night since he was born, so I was very excited about this! Behn was really sweet and encouraging of the trip, even though it meant he was on daddy-duty for a full 24 hours. He's really great with G, so I wasn't worried one bit. The lake was amazing! The house was so comfortable! Nancy's parents were in...