Going Home Again: Friends and Family

I took this picture of my dad on one of the last nights I was home. It was just after a thunderstorm, and we were taking in the view.

It's always difficult to summarize a visit to North Carolina. In some ways, nothing "blogworthy" happens...we visit family and friends. We eat a lot. There is a whole lot of catching up and just soaking up the presence of loved ones. Kind of like I'm a big sponge...just eatin' and soakin' like sponges do.

And in other ways, it's difficult to blog about because so many thoughts are racing through my mind. A visit home always spurs a lot of deep thinking about the nature of family and home and friendship and faith and happiness and love and life. You know, just your basic life-defining questions. :-)

This is my usual conundrum when I go home and I miss a lot of blogging time. How to catch up on all of it? Do I just stick to the facts..."went here, saw this person, ate this, went here, saw this person, ate this"? Or do I ignore the facts and go straight for the thoughts, which are probably more worthy of recording than my menus? Maybe try for a mixture that will inevitably leave someone out? Ignore all of it and start with life now?

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here, it's really just about what feels most comfortable to me. So I'm going to use my pictures as a guide and go from there. We'll see what emerges.

I always like to take walks around my parents' neighborhood. The air just smells so good in North Carolina. If I could bottle it, I'd make a mint! I think it's because there are so many flowers and good growing things. It's one of those details that you don't miss until you're away from it.

Here we are, taking a walk with "Heavy" aka my dad

Addie likes to run up to people's houses, and I don't just mean casually stepping into their yard. I mean that she'll go all the way up the front door, if given the chance. This causes some confusion, as you can imagine. And while she occasionally listens when told to come back, about 50% of the time she has to be re-directed.

She's not often that happy about it.


Caught in the act! These boundary flag thingamajigs are irresistible to little ones.

An important life milestone. The first "peg game" at Cracker Barrel.

One of the best parts of the visit was getting to see my friend Leslie and her brand new baby, Tanner. I never got to see her previous two little ones as newborns, so it was really nice to see just-a-few-days-old Tanner. And it just happened to be Leslie's birthday, which was the icing on the cake. Pun intended. I took a lot of pictures, but I thought this one was the funniest. Sam, her two year old, just blew out the candles on her cookie cake.

That's motherhood.

Addie loved seeing Shelby and Sam (the older two kids) and kept asking for more playdates. She was especially taken with Sam, which is kind of funny, because she normally gravitates to the older girls. Sam is quite a character, and I guess Addie appreciated that.


This little cutie is my friend Ashley's baby, Ben. Addie was quite taken with this little charmer also.
She looks so big next to Ben!

"Come here, little baby."

"Let me love you."

You have to wonder what they're thinking here.

Nothing too hostile, because the love fest continued. I've never seen her hug another little one quite so much. It touched my heart! Ashley and I met when we were roughly the same age as Addie is, so it was really sweet to see our little ones together.

I hope they'll be friends for life too!

And finally, a few shots that I was able to grab of my brother.

These are my "brothers". The one on the right is actually my brother, Dillon. Patrick, on the left, is basically a family member. He and Dillon are best friends and my parents are best friends with his parents. Our lake houses were right beside each other, so Dillon and Patrick grew up together.

Addie's only uncle! She's being her usual cooperative self here. :-)

I haven't even touched my "beach pictures" yet, but Addie is up. These "catch up" posts always drag on and on. Sorry, I'm doing my best to power through!