It's time for a new state!- July 31-August 2nd.

Our time in Maryland had come to an end, so we came back from our trip to the beach and packed up the apartment in two days.  Which is the best way to do it, in my opinion.  If you have two weeks, it will take two weeks.  If you have two days, you'll still get it done.  

 Papa drove our haul back home, but we did splurge to have a team pack the truck.  Best $200 we ever spent.

 We sent papa off and said one last goodbye to our apartment.

 We'll miss you Rockville!

 We pulled off the highway because we saw a sign for the the house Stonewall Jackson died in!  We stopped for lunch, but June spent most of the time throwing a major fit because I had the nerve to ask her to wash her hands after using the potty.  Meanest mom ever.

"I hate history!"

Luckily, the entire trip home wasn't a bust.  We stopped in North Carolina at our best friends' house!  

We were happy to have the Turner-Payton team back together again.  

 I made the kids stop at our old house in Winston.  June didn't remember it and Henry only remembers little things- like the pool down the street and the soccer field across the road.

Next up, we saw some friends from way back from our Madison days!The Pisapias now live in North Carolina and we're thrilled to have them within driving distance!

Finally, we made it back into Clemson.  We stopped the van and I told the kids to go see our old house.  But Henry yelled "We've been there before!  Let's go see John!"  And so everyone took off immediately to the Penna house.  It sure is good to be back!

Annapolis and the beach- July 25th-29th.

So we've been gone for almost a month and have to move out of our apartment in less than a week?  What's the smart thing to do?  Take a trip!  (We were filled with lots of regrets over places we hadn't visited during our year in Maryland, even though it felt like we kept pretty busy.)

 This trip was a little closer.  First we visited Annapolis, the first Capitol of the United States.

 If you're looking for quaint and old timey, historic Annapolis is the place to be.  

 Can you spot Brandon and the kids on the steps of the State House?

 Maryland's State House is the oldest State House still in legislative use and was home to the Continental Congress in 1783 and 1784.

 Which is cool, but not as cool as this old phone booth!  Take that, Disney World.

 What's this?  A good picture of all three kids together?

 After our history lesson, we headed down to the Chesapeake Bay to check out the boats and the drawbridge!

June looks right at home here on the water.  

The rest of our weekend was spent at the beach with Miss Sara.  we really didn't do much beside play on the beach and sleep.  Here's all of the photo evidence we have.

June zonked.

And Georgie zonked.  That's what I call a good weekend.

Headed home- July 20

We finally headed back to Maryland, seeing as how we only had 10 days before we had to move back to South Carolina!

 We did stop in Cleveland to visit GG Girl and Uncle Cole.  And Uncle Cole and I found an Indian restaurant within walking distance of GG's house!  

On the drive back through Pennsylvania we decided to take a detour to Somerset County, where United Flight 93 crashed on 9/11.  It was an interesting endeavor, as Henry LOVES history and knows all about the events of 9/11.  But he also considers all history ANCIENT history.  He was very surprised to find out that Brandon and I were alive in 2001 and remembered the events of that day.  

 The monument is also over a half mile long, so I also had job of keeping the kids, mostly the girls, relatively quiet and respectful during the whole walk.   Not to mention that we were there on a Saturday and arrived at the same time as 5 tour buses.  

The walk is flanked by a long, stone wall that runs along the field where the plane crashed.  If you look close, you can see the large stone marking the final resting spot of the plane.  June was very taken by the spots in the wall where you could leave mementos.  Soon, she'd filled each with flowers.

Visit to Great Grandma's House-

We visited Grandma Wagner's one afternoon.  We started out with a lunch out and some grocery shopping, then back to Grandma's.

June got to play with Grandma's special doll.

 And the kids loved the laser top Grandma had.  

 And Grandma taught Henry how to play Chinese checkers.  June played for a while before she abandoned the game for dolls.  It's worth noting that Grandma's huge house doesn't have air conditioning.  They solve this problem by closing off the upstairs and placing one small room unit in the front room.  Grandma displayed extreme patience with all the kids, playing the game with Henry and reading books to Georgie between turns.  I fell asleep on the floor.  I wish Grandma would come live with us.

 After my afternoon nap, we decided to brave the upstairs to find Grandma's Czech costume.  When I was little, I had my turn trying on the costume, and now it was June's turn.  

 Poor kid was a good sport trying on all of those layers in that heat.

 Georgie really wanted in on the fun, so we cobbled together an outfit for her too.

 Next, we decided to go outside for a walk.

 The girls had fun swinging on the porch swing and running around on the porch.  It was like reliving my childhood.

 Then we all jumped off the porch!

 Out in the back yard was the hand pump from the well.  The kids loved that.  And it helped with the heat.

Thanks for having us, Great Grandma!

Aunt Becky Camp Part 2- July 6 to July 19.

Did we mention is was really hot when we were back in Ohio?  I know we live in South Carolina, but I don't think I'll ever get used to the heat.

At least Georgie thought to use eye protection before going outside in the glaring sun.

 But by noon (or before), we retreated into the cool house.  Generally to make salami beards for lunch.

One evening, we sent the big kids off to see Shrek the Musical.  The rest of us walked down the street to visit Dairy Queen!  I don't know who had more fun.

Somewhere during the week, the kids decided they wanted to do a lemonade stand.  Before we knew it, it turned into a community event!  People came out from all over town and we also got to see a bunch of relatives!  In the end, the kids raised over $400 for the Ronald McDonald House in Ann Arbor.

At this point of the week, I was getting pretty exhausted by all these kids.  Thank goodness, Aunt Mary came in and helped keep everyone happy.

 On Friday, we had to take Uncle Brandon up to Detroit to fly out for a conference.  Henry, Oliver and I took him to the airport and swung by Ann Arbor to love on Hudson for a bit.

 He was still waiting on his first surgery at this point.

The nurses had decorated Hudson's room, including hanging his name on the window, so Uncle Kevin and Aunt Elizabeth could see his room from the Ronald McDonald House, which you can see right across the road.

Uncle Kevin came home for a few days with the kids, so we moved over to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  June got tired of the hair in her eyes, so Grandma cut her some bangs.

 June also decided to change her name to Ringbly.  I think it's a hybrid of My Little Ponies and her good friend, Blakely.

 I was trying to get the kids settled in their trundle bed, but then Grandpa came in and got everyone wound up again.  Being a Grandpa is the best!

 During week 2 of the Aunt Becky Camp, we really settled into a nice groove.  We found a project on pinterest where you take rocks and warm them up to 200 degrees in the oven.  (We weren't that far off out in the sun.)  Then you color them with crayons.  The crayons melt as you color and it was really a lot of fun.  You can see that we used plenty of the landscaping rocks for this project.

 We also made stencils from freezer paper and painted t-shirts.  June and Tessa got pegasus unicorns.  Cecelia got a puppy.  And Natalie drew her own bunny.

 Henry designed two trains for him and Oliver.

Thanks for letting us come stay with you, Seibert kids!