Thursday the 7th, Grandma and Ansley came up for a fun visit, including Ansley and Anna (plus some friends) taking the Safe Sitter class at WakeMed on Friday! Thursday afternoon was a shopping expedition followed by dinner out after Erin's ballet class. While they were in class all day, the other 3 girls played some games at home and then did a fun tour of Raleigh - we visited the cathedral, Reynolds Coliseum, and the Hunt Library on Centennial Campus before picking up the babysitters and watching their graduation ceremony! That was a lot of fun. We had a taco dinner at home and then hit the pool that evening. Saturday, we all packed up and headed to Greensboro for Elliott's birthday lunch at Jason's Deli! That was a lot of fun too!
Sunday was the final move-out of the downstairs (everything on hardwood had to be removed), and Monday morning, after a stressful stain color decision, we were off to Virginia! We had rented a cabin at Leesville Lake near Smith Mountain Lake. Due to arrival time and Bob's work schedule, we had to kill some time in Danville, so we had a leisurely Jersey Mike's lunch and then a stroll around the mall there. We got to our cabin around 2:30pm and settled in, and I made a trip to the closest grocery store, which was 20 minutes away. It was a very nice cabin, though it was quite rural, down a long gravel road! It had 3 bedrooms, a nice patio/fire pit area, and a good bit of land. We could walk down a trail to a creek and also down another set of steps to Leesville Lake. The weather was good, though hot, all week, and Finley had a great time checking out the new area and being with us. That evening, we had burgers and hot dogs on the grill. Tuesday morning, the girls and I packed a lunch and headed over to Smith Mountain Lake State Park, about 45 minutes away (but not very far as the crow flies). We enjoyed visiting the Visitors' Center, hiked a 1.5 mile trail to an island, and then had our lunch and swam at a very nice swimming area. It was slightly less humid than where we live, so it felt great...and the water was a lot cooler than lakes are here! The swimming area had a snack bar so we got some ice cream later in the afternoon, too. That was a really fun day! We got back, showered, and made homemade pizzas for dinner and had s'mores.
Wednesday, we headed to the marina at Leesville Lake, about 20 minutes away. It has a small pool which we enjoyed (though the water was cold!), and a nice view of the lake. We also brought our lunch and supplemented it with some snacks from the snack bar there and got ice cream later. Hey, it was vacation! We drove back and then had some spaghetti for dinner.
Thursday, we hung around and packed up until we had to be out of the cabin by 11am. We drove straight back with a Chick Fila stop at our favorite Danville Mall, and were back to the Holly Springs area by 2pm. We had booked a night at the Hampton Inn in Holly Springs that night since the cabin was not available, which was fine EXCEPT that Finley could not handle the noises from the other people nearby. Whoops! The girls and I had fun swimming, Erin went to her ballet class, and we got Moes takeout for dinner. Then, around 11pm, Finley and I snuck back to our house and went in through the window to the bedroom. We went back in the morning and all took turns having breakfast, and the girls utilized the workout room while Bob took some work calls. We then left just before the 12pm checkout time, got Subway for lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon in our house off the hardwoods while they finished working. We put a ladder up to Erin's bedroom window so they could get upstairs, and Bob, Finley, and I stayed in our bedroom and the porch. The crew finished up around 7pm and said we could start walking on the floors in socks later that evening and could move furniture back in 2 days. Yay! I also enjoyed attending an Eagle Scout ceremony that evening for a guy who built a gaga ball pit for us at StMM.
Saturday, we mostly hung out at home and did laundry, and put stuff back on walls/shelves/etc. that wasn't touching the floors. We had heard horror stories of piles of dust everywhere from the sanding process, so we had removed everything from the pantry, framed pictures, etc. prior to the start. However, we did not see hardly any dust at all! This company, Sanitzo's, was absolutely fabulous for the whole process - timely, reasonably priced, and great quality work. We love how the floors turned out! Sunday was church and then we took the Tierneys out on the boat in the afternoon and had a wonderful time. That evening, we moved most of the furniture back in from the garage. That was a workout!
The next week was more back to normal - kids went to the dentist, Bob went to Colorado for work for a few days, I had book club, Anna watched the neighbor cats, and Erin had 4 afternoons of piano camp!
She enjoyed the camp quite a bit - it was just her and a high school girl and the teacher. Erin had teen group on Monday where they smashed stuff to relieve stress. Both kids had colds for a couple of weeks this month, but they got over them without incident. We had a fun afternoon on the boat with the Waltons on Saturday, despite a pop-up storm that the kids and moms did not appreciate!
Sunday the 24th, Bob went to California for the week for a conference, and we ladies held down the fort at home. The highlight of my week was purchasing our new digital piano! I decided that with Bob working from home and having so many calls in the evenings with his west coast people, that we needed something that we could play silently with headphones and not try to juggle practice his calls in addition to Erin's homework and dance schedule during the week. So we had a fun trip to Raleigh for that, brought it home, and assembled it!
Erin had a checkup at the dermatologist on Wednesday and got a new ointment to try for her eczema.
Thursday the 28th, we girls had a really fun adventure at Go Ape in Raleigh. Erin had been there with her teen group last month and Anna was begging to go. So, we all went and faced some fears and had a blast! It was a really fun place with lots of cool ladders, bridges/obstacles, and zip lines! I guess it's called a "high ropes course", but I am not sure. Adventuring really isn't our area of expertise! Ha!
Bob returned on Friday, and we had a busy day on Saturday moving Anna from her bedroom to the former guest room. The guest room is bigger, has its own bathroom, and has better air flow in the summer. So, that was a big job, but she is mostly settled in, and I always enjoy a chance to purge (6+ trash bags' worth!). Sunday, the 4 of us and Finley went out on a boat and had fun until another storm popped up at the end. We are feeling jinxed by summer weather lately! I was hoping the morning time slot wouldn't be as stormy, but I was wrong. We had a nice visit with Liz and David here that evening where we grilled some food and caught up on life.
Anyway, that was July. Throw in some workouts (the girls have been doing a great job of working out at the Y with me this summer, trying different classes and working out on their own!), trips to the pool, and friend time, and we stayed busy. We got some things done around the house that we had been wanting to do, and we survived the hottest month of the year! We also did some prep for school. We are hoping for a good year ahead!
No comments:
Post a Comment