A Couple of Days w Friends and Family

Yesterday we spent the day driving around the area meeting with friends and family that we have not seen in awhile. Because of busy schedules on everyones part, and some "I'll get around to it..." on our parts, much of these meetings are last minute set ups and we have gone from not being sure whether we would be doing anything these last couple of days in Ohio to having 3 or 4 different visits a day.

Yesterday we started off the morning with the girls getting ready for school with Rachel and Julia, watching Rachel walk down the street for the bus and then walking down the street with Julia when she went to catch the bus. Rebekah and Sarah thought it was so cool that Julia was riding the bus to school and they got to go be there when she got on.

We then headed out to have lunch with some friends that daddy used to work with, Steve and Linda Hennis. Steve and Linda were the ones who were instrumental in getting us our first "parenting jobs" with kittens back when we lived here. When they all worked together none of us had kiddos and now there are 6 between us. LOTS of updating and stuff to talk about. It was really REALLY awesome to see them and we are hoping to see them one more time at the office where daddy used to work just after lunch today. Steve and Linda with Rebekah:



After leaving the restaurant we made one more last minute phone call to some other friends on that side of town that we have not seen in a while. Luckily we caught them and were able to go spend a bit of time with them between their errands and games and all of the busy things in life that we have to look forward to once our little ones get older. They have a little girl just a bit older than Rebekah who was a wonderful host, sharing all of her toys and playing with the girls so the big people could talk:

We then left their house and headed over to see daddy's Uncle Bobby (Rebekah's Grandma's Brother) who is the last living relative on that side of the family (except for Grandma obviously). He showed us some upgrades (actual complete rebuilding and additions as nice as they are) to daddy's Grandma's house where daddy grew up playing. The house has changed a lot and is now modern and classy rather than the older grandparent house that many of us played in. It was emotionally difficult for daddy to be in that area, in the house, etc. as daddy was close to his grandpa and grandma and misses them a lot. While we were there Rebekah fell (tripping on the perfectly level floor) and beating herself up, bloody nose, mouth and all. Obviously that took awhile to calm down. Here's the family with Uncle Bobby:

Today its 4 more "meetings," trying to get to a UPS Store to send home some boxes so we don't have to carry as much stuff on the plane tomorrow, packing, etc. Then tomorrow is a drive across the state back to Columbus and airline ride home that will get us there just after midnight Thursday night/Friday morning bringing this whole adventure to an end. Where do we go from there? It's all in God's hands.