Great visit to NC

In July we spent two wonderful weeks in North Carolina at my parents' house. We had a great time visiting and playing and relaxing. I learned some things, though.

One, I can't go off for two weeks in the middle of the growing season and expect my garden to be okay when I return...even if I leave my husband home.

Two, it's really, really nice to have my Mom and Dad with me in times of crisis.

Three, North Carolina is HOT in the summer. (For that matter, so is Maryland.) The only escape from the heat is indoors or in the water.

And even though there are a lot of fun things to do in the summer, it's not my favorite season. And since we homeschool, the only real meaning that "summer vacation" has is that everything is crowded with school kids on their vacation.

Four, I miss my family and I wish we could live closer. Okay, I didn't learn that just now. But every time I make the trip to NC I am reminded of that.

Pennsylvania

Last week we drove up to Ray's mother's house in Pennsylvania. It was the last time we will ever do that. They are moving to Colorado tomorrow. I'm sad to see them move so far away. Where they lived in Pennsylvania is really a beautiful part of the country. I'm sure it will be fun to visit them in Colorado, too. It will just take us a lot longer to get there and our visits will be much less frequent.

We had a good time on our last visit to Pennsylvania. We went into Philadelphia one day and soaked up some history. We saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, the first "pentagon" and Penn's Landing.

We also went to a local 4th of July celebration in my in-laws' town. Actually, J, C, and I went to it. T was napping and M didn't want to go, so Ray stayed home with them.

Every night the kids ran around in their pj's catching fireflies. Like most kids, they planned on keeping the glowing little bugs in a jar next to their bed for a night light. And, like most kids, they found out that that doesn't really work as well as it seems like it should. They had a blast anyway.


We had fun. And we are really going to miss visiting Pennsylvania several times each year. It was a very bitter sweet trip for us. As Ray put it, it's the end of an era.