It has been a while. So long that I almost forgot my blog sign-in. Not that surprising really, since last year I forgot my home address while placing an order to have something re-framed at Hobby Lobby. As my brilliant sister-in-law pointed out, I could have just looked at my license, but that would have ruined my excuse that we "just moved". Too many numbers and addresses floating around in my head. Yeah, that's it.
It has been so long that I have some updating to do. We have now moved 7 times in 12 years. As my husband pointed out just a couple of nights ago, we have lived here longer than any other place as a married couple (although not the same house or consecutively). Can we be officially Michiganders? I don't feel like one. Every time we answered the question about where we were from when asked on my girls' trip to Florida I answered, "I live in Michigan, but I'm from Texas". How long does it take? I will always be a girl from small town west Texas. It is too much a part of me to forget. This third weekend in July will always be Water Carnival Weekend. Sweet childhood memories.
This morning I woke up to the summer Bible study I'm loving and my favorite coffee. And silence.
A hot summer night meant sleeping in the basement. A late night led to a late morning. No place to go. No rush. And for once, no extra kids here or none of ours away with friends.
I also woke up to rain. Something I never thought I'd miss again after leaving Belgium, but HOT weather and crunchy grass have me missing it.
We spent our twelfth anniversary at the pool and then at dinner with the three people we spend most days. There was whining and complaining from time to time, but still a good day.
He finished Little League. A hot one and a loss. Not a game where any of them looked like they were having fun, but ice cream for the team afterward made up for it.
We've seen Big Miracle and The Lorax at the summer dollar movies. We've had a lot of sleep overs and lots of play dates. My phone is full of coordinating play date/sleep over texts.
These two were used to seeing each other at least three times a week and now are lucky to see each other once. Their friendship inspires. Separate kindergartens will be hard in the fall.
We are blessed with great friends everywhere. This amazing one was willing to take a week out of her and her family's lives to host our family for an entire week in Baltimore. She just got a random text from me about Joe's work trip and would she mind if we came along. She didn't. We did. It was awesome!
Loved, loved, loved their house!
I loved finally experiencing the front porch I had seen pictures of and heard about in Belgium--lemonade and Arnold Palmers? Yes, please!
Well, let's be real. It wasn't all awesome. We drove about 10 hours over (a 45 minute detour for Chick-Fil-A included----TOTALLY worth it!). There was whining. There was complaining. There was "I HAVE TO USE THE BATHROOM NOW!"
But we got to see friends we hadn't seen in 10 years. We met their kids. They met ours. We caught up as much as you can in a giant air and space museum outside of Dulles with 7 kids and three families to keep up with at the same time.
It was brutally hot outside so we toured the air conditioned museum and then took at driving tour of DC. Fairly certain the driving tour was appreciated by none of the short people in this picture. Only the ones related to us were involved anyway.
We saw Baltimore Harbor. We became Orioles fans--at least the t-shirt wearing kind.
We had some happy moments--especially when candy was involved.
A date night in Baltimore. Our sweet friends gave us an entire night together alone while they "enjoyed our kids". I'm not putting that in quotes as sarcasm, but because that is how they worded it. Great friends.
We enjoyed an afternoon at their swim club while Daddy worked. And really, really enjoyed it. These kids were so busy and had so much more freedom at this pool than the one we go to here. I hardly saw them. Nathan and Hannah went off the high dive too many times to count. We kept the littlest one from following suit. She was not happy about it, but she still had a great time. Yes, my friend's 14 year old daughter is taller than I am.
A little perspective--the last time we saw Morgan when they stopped by to say goodbye to us exactly three years ago.
I can see why the girl in Hairspray loved Baltimore so much. Beautiful city. Full of history. The original Star Spangled Banner was sewn here.
Random dragon paddle boats, not included. Kids begged to do this. Then preceded to whine and complain.
Charming, I know.
We were blessed by friends of our friends as well. This woman owns an antique store and she was kind enough to give gifts to each of our kids. Sarah refused the gift because she was having a "moment", but this woman was kind enough to even explain away her behavior.
Hannah chose the pillow sham under her doll. I took this picture for Sheri because this is how Hannah slept her first night home--wearing the matching AGD nightgowns Morgan was kind enough to give her and next to her prized pillow sham.
My fantasy of taking the kids and Joe to experience this little town's main street of shops and history was a little different than the reality. I find it hard to travel with others because sometimes when traveling, my crazy (which I try to keep at home) comes out. I'm thankful for friends who take the crazy right along with the rest.
Day two in DC was less hot and we even managed to find Stephanie (of the famous Heffalump gifting) who we had not seen since a random Thanksgiving in Belgium while she was living in Denmark.
Kids were happiest while eating lunch or having ice cream.
We got to help fold a replica of the original Star Spangled Banner. Pretty cool. We picked and chose what we saw carefully. Sarah was a little young for museums this trip.
It wasn't all awesome. Sheri and Evan had to get back for a baseball game so we moved on to visiting the monuments. They are farther apart than they look.
Here we watched kind of a Cliff's Notes movie with Ben Stiller. Helpful.
One would get over her funk, and the other would find it.
Taking some time to think about it helped.
Mom's sunglasses did too.
Climbing a tree and enjoying some shade made it even better.
Even Better.
The illusion of alone time.
Two of our favorite states.
They were enthralled with more than the monuments.
Taking in the Vietnam Memorial.
Overwhelming.
Our last stop on foot. My personal favorite.
Construction was a little disappointing...
But Abe delivered.
Sarah & I were counting stairs to distract her from her mood at this point. Like I said, she was just a little too young for DC this time.
Here is a little glimpse into how she was feeling at this point in the day. We took a cab back to our car in the parking garage, had some dinner and an excursion to a nearby mall, toured the remainder of the city by car and after dark--then back to Baltimore.
Love moments like these!
A full week later, we left the Comisac family home with tons of new memories for everyone. Pretty awesome considering it was basically a spur of the moment, minimally planned vacay. We've been reminding the kids how blessed we are to be able to see so much of the country in one summer. Some day they'll all appreciate it.
We've been back almost a week. Helped some friends move. Went swimming and swimming again. Saw the dentist times three and the orthodontist times one. Doctor times one as well. Sarah has her first ear infection since her tube surgery last fall. Hopefully we can get it all cleared up before we head out again next week for the BIG road trip of the summer. Summer flies!
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