Notes from Twoville

It's hard to even know where to start...this past six weeks have flown by. And LOTS has happened. First, we enjoyed a beautiful week in Kentucky. Pete was sick for the better part of the week, but we were in the perfect place for resting up. We checked into our little house after a long day in the car, complete with a couple of wrong turns along the way. We didn't see another soul in the resort until the weekend, and it seemed we were completely alone. Which was fine with us. We thoroughly enjoyed the peaceful surroundings, which felt as one might imagine an enchanted forest. We had everything we needed, and more, including a hot tub on the screened-in back porch. We enjoyed it every day! We took several hikes at nearby state parks, took a train ride to a deserted mining town, and checked out Lincoln's birthplace and early boyhood home.

On our way home from Kentucky, we stopped off at Heidi & Scott's to pick up the boys. H & S were to close on their house the next day and needed to finish packing and cleaning. After closing, they headed our way, dropping off some of their furniture to be used by Heather while they are overseas. Then, Heidi settled in with us, and Scott left for Nebraska, where he took the rest of their belongings to be stored on his parents' farm before heading back to Indiana. Heidi and the boys were here for four weeks, enjoying periodic visits from Scott and taking in some of the local sights. Overall, the boys did great, all things considered. They are starting to string words together to form partial sentences. One of our favorite things to do together was taking walks to the "yake" (the lake) here in our subdivision where they LOVE to throw rocks into the water. We saw baby ducks with their mommy and daddy, and had lots of adventures. Carter would tell Mommy all about it when we got back - "orange" (we saw an orange ball floating in the water), "golf ball" (and a golf ball on the edge), "baby ducks", "horsies", "pinecones", "water".

Scott got in on Thursday, and they headed out this morning to Nebraska (where they'll stay until they leave for England), with more stuff crammed into their minivan than one would ever believe possible. They had to take the long way through Iowa, detouring here and there to avoid flooded roads, which turned a moderately long day into a very long day. Hopefully the final leg tomorrow will be less eventful.

And finally, drum roll please...we're having a wedding! Eric and Emily announced their engagement and will be getting married on Sept. 28th! They came over last night and we celebrated with them, along with celebrating Heather's upcoming birthday and Father's Day. Outside of the upcoming wedding, it was not missed on any of us that this would be our last full-family gathering for a long time. I have always told the kids that I never take one opportunity to be all together for granted.




I'm having trouble uploading photos tonight, but obviously, these two were among the most important ones. I'll try again later.