As I reviewed
my calendar for the last month since I wrote, it looks like there’s only one
newsworthy event, but I think it will still take up about the usual amount of
space. Plus there are pictures!
Every couple of
years, my whole family tries to get together for a big vacation. Last
time we did an Outer Banks vacation that got canceled by a hurricane and turned
into a Hamlin vacation. Last week, we had a large house rented in Outer
Banks again for a wonderful week together with our whole family: 20
adults and 12 children. The weather wasn’t very good—in fact our weather
at home was better than what we got in OBX—but we know how to have fun even in
lousy weather!
Ella and Amelia
had come up with a plan for who would drive what so someone could pick up
Kortney’s family at the Norfolk, VA, airport. Krista and I drove Ella’s
minivan, Ella and Cody drove Amelia’s SUV, and Amelia, Zach, Jem, and Levi
drove Ella and Cody’s Tesla, so it became known as the “party car.” 😁
Krista and I
left Friday morning, May 6, and drove to a hotel near Washington, DC. We
had a nice little mini-vacation alone time as a couple, even with the difficult
traffic in places. I guess that’s to be expected traveling on a work day
and being near big cities during rush hour. I don’t know why people are
so inconsiderate as to be on the roads I want to drive on.
Saturday, May
7, we had plenty of time to get from our hotel to Norfolk to pick up Kortney’s
family, so we found an outlet mall right near that airport, and did a little
shopping but mostly just looked around. We found a candy shop that we of
course had to try, and it was really good. Then we picked up the Rhodes, and
all of us went to another hotel near the airport for that night because we
couldn’t get in to the OBX house until Sunday.
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| Happy couple at the Outlet Mall |
Sunday, May 8,
was (I hope you all remembered!) Mothers’ Day, and when we stopped at a Wendy’s
for lunch on our way to OBX, they had pink tablecloths on all of their
tables. We thought it was a nice touch.
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| With the Rhodes at Wendy's on Mothers' Day (Daisy is hiding behind Krista) |
Finally
everyone got to the big house in OBX, and the fun began! Each family took
turns making a big supper for everyone, Krista made pancakes for breakfast two
of the days, and she and I made a hot dog picnic for one of the lunches with
Rochester’s finest, Zweigles hot dogs. Needless to say, we ate well all
week, and not just at the regular meals, because our four youngest kids got
together and provided snacks and special drinks for everyone for the
week. I don’t know about the rest of the family, but I have about 10
pounds to work off.
The big
announcement of the week was Cai and Amy telling everyone about their first
child being due in September! And, if you know them you know that they
wouldn’t just tell us. Cai had run a Survivor game for our family a while
ago, and he said he had one more challenge left over from that for us to
do. It was a word search, and once you’d found all the words, the
remaining unused letters would spell a special message that announced their
baby. Then they had us all guess the gender before telling us it would be
a girl. So we have Ella due in late July, Abigail due in late August, and
Amy due in late September. That will make 15 grandchildren for us, 11
girls and 4 boys! 😮
As I said, we
didn’t have the best weather while we were there. I ran into a fellow
Bills fan who worked at a convenience store (I was wearing a Bills hoodie), and
he asked me if I lived in OBX now. I told him, no, we just came for your
great weather, and he apologized. 😂 However, it did get better as the week
went on, and we were able to spend some time once or twice at the beach
enjoying the ocean.
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| The view from our bedroom on a rainy day with a stormy ocean |
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| Playing at the beach! |
Levi and I took
the Rhodes back to the airport on Saturday, May 11, then we all left the big
house on Sunday. Krista and I went to the ocean one last time before
heading out. The Sommers and we traded cars so they had their own van for
the ride home, and we drove Amelia’s SUV. We again ran into some bad
traffic on the way home. We had planned to drive all the way home on
Sunday since I had to work on Monday, and the rest of the families made it, but
Krista and I decided to stop in northern Pennsylvania. The mountains
north of Williamsport were very foggy, rainy, and dark, and it was just too
stressful driving. We don’t need more stress in our lives, but if any of
you do, I recommend driving on Route 15 in northern PA at night in the
fog. We just missed a deer by a few feet. She was just standing on
the side of the road looking like she wanted to cross, but God gracefully kept
her where she was as we drove by. I didn’t see her until we were right
next to her, and it really got my heart going.
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| Saying goodbye to the ocean |
We woke up
early Monday morning and got home by about 7:30AM. My nice boss had
agreed to let me work from home on Monday, so that made that day a little
easier.
Now we’re back
into the regular routine. Krista mowed our long lawn on Monday and
Tuesday, so that’s looking normal again, although it was a bigger job than
usual.
I am very
thankful to God for allowing us all to be together again and for giving all of
us safe travels to and from OBX.
Talk to you in
June!
