Family Home Evening -- Southern-like!

After seven and a half years of being in North Carolina, it finally dawned on us one day that it is silly to live in the middle of racing country and within a 2 minute drive of the "Beast of the South East" (Lowe's Motor Speedway) and have not ever been to a race. We packed up the family and got our tickets for the Tuesday Night Shootout. Drivers of ages 8 and up compete in races with their own age groups. Only a portion of the track was used so the races were a lot shorter and perfect for the younger crowd. It was really fun to cheer for the little cars, but the highlight of the night was the School Bus Slobberknocker!!! The buses all had silly names like Sloshy Joshy, Stock Car Steele, Hillbilly Deluxe and Lugnut (driven by the Lowe's Motor Speedway mascot, "Lugnut") The raced buses around and around and around if they were race cars. They would bump up against each other on the turns trying to get ahead. At one point, one of the buses tipped over and the crowd when wild. We are definitely going to do that again!!!

Visitors from the Far East

On the way home from China Rick and Ella-Rene stopped by for a visit. It was great to see them again. We spent a few days with them just listening to the fun things they did while in China and letting them play with the kids.

We took them to a local Asian market and let them tell us all about what it was like to shop in China. It sounded like a completely unique experience shopping in a foreign country. I am grateful for the conveniences of living in the USA.

The visit was way too short, but they had been on the road for some time and were ready to go home. Thanks for stopping by!!

Vacation

On the way to Myrtle Beach nothing interesting really happened except when we stopped at a peach farm.

Do you like the flowers we saw? (Jeremy started this blog and when his computer time was up he delegated the job of finishing to me :)!)

It was just a short trip to the beach because we were all feeling land-locked and wanted to feel the wind on our faces and taste the salt water when we got smashed in the face by a wave. We hit the beach the first thing in the morning and stayed until almost dinner time. It was a great day of playing the waves and digging in the sand. We were completely exhausted and slept amazingly well despite the fact that we were all sunburned and in pain. The day at the beach was worth it though. The next morning we decided to not go to the beach and risk further sunburn, so we headed off to the Ripley's Aquarium. We all loved it and spent most of the day there just watching the different displays and shows. A dip in the pool back at the hotel really helped with the sunburns and we crashed again that night out of sheer exhaustion.

On the way home we stopped and got some peaches at the McBee farm. Our family LOVES peaches and so we got 6 cases to take home and bottle or freeze. That ought to last us a couple of weeks!!!