Our Time Machine

For anyone that may not know, Andy is a big history buff. If it is older than he is, then he loves it!! (BTW, he did make an exception for me!) He started reenacting while he was in college and when we started dating in '96 I joined in too. Oh those were the days...no kids, packing a very few things, camping...well, not so much anymore :) Andy still goes and does that stuff, but I'm really over the whole sleeping outdoors thing. Plus, we almost have to rent a U-haul now to go anywhere with all the baby paraphernalia we travel with. However, I do make an exception 3 times a year when we travel to Ft. Macon State Park in Atlantic Beach. We do a living history program there every April, July, and September, and it is really fun. Both of the kids went this time and did great, even in the heat! (And YES, WE ARE HOT IN THOSE CLOTHES!) We have really great friends that do this with us--no, we are not the only crazies out there--and it is great to visit with them during these times. Plus, we stay in a hotel (i.don't.camp.anymore) and we can get out on the beach in the afternoons since we are only about 200 yards from it! Please enjoy the slide show of our weekend there.

P.S. I have to brag on Andy a little. Another thing some do not know is just how crafty he is. He sews almost all of our clothes for this hobby. His mom made Michaels outfits this time, but Andy did a great job making his shoes from scratch and he made Katie's dress. He also completely built the gun that Michael is carrying. No, it will not shoot :)

A Most Awesome Day!!

Tom, Jaime, Sheryl, Jared, Beth, Katie, and Andy

The Trost family from Ohio is on a road trip to see family in Florida, and on their way south they stopped for a visit with us in NC. What a great time we had! Their son Jaime was born one week after Katie in Cinncinati and he also had a right-sided Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. We have followed their journey over this last year and were so excited to finally get to meet them in person.

Two Miracles on Wheels!

We had quite an eventful and fun-filled day. First we met for a while in the hotel and let the kids play around a little. Then, we went and spent a couple of hours at Marbles Kids Museum. We all had fun, but I think Jared LOVED it! When they finally kicked us out :) we then piled into the Trost's van and drove over to Parker's House. I had told Sheryl how much this house had meant to us--and so many more families--while we were at Duke with Katie. We were so proud to be able to show them this wonderful place. We even introduced them to Mr. Paul!! The evening was capped off with a trip to Red Robin for dinner. All of the kids did really well throughout the day, especially since there was very little napping and lots of activity. I only wish that Michael had been able to be there with us(he was not feeling well and I didn't want to risk "sharing" anything with the Trosts on their road trip). We really hope to be able to get together again with this wonderful family!!!

Our new Playground

We have been planning to get Michael a playground for quite a long time, but I wanted him to be old enough to really get to play on it and enjoy. I also wanted him to be safe and I was afraid that if he was too young he would fall off and get hurt. Of course this still may happen, but hopefully he will be careful! Well, we finally got one this week. Andy and Bennie decided that they would start very early Thursday morning and hopefully have time to complete it in one day......NOT! It took 2 full days of steady work by both of them to get it done. The slide I wanted was backordered so we still don't have that and one of our swings, but that hasn't stopped Michael! He is soooooo excited!