Greetings and happy summer!

Good morning everyone! Here are a few pictures from our trip out west. We were gone for 10 days and arrived back home last Monday. It's taken us at least since then to recover. During our trip we were able to stay a night with some friends in Tulsa, stay with my parents in Tecumseh and visit Salina for a couple of nights to see my sister Catherine and some friends of mine from high school. This involved some long plane rides and more than a few extended car trips. Needless to say, the boys were sleep deprived and cranky by the time we landed back in North Carolina. Schedules were thrown out the window and we just went with the flow, but that can only last so long before 3 year olds start to act out maniacally, babies start to cry at the least provocation and parents finally snap. Ahhhh....vacation. However, I can honestly say we DID have fun (all of us) and it was nice to see family and friends. The picture above was snapped from the car window while we were just a little lost making our way from Tecumseh to Salina. Taking our "detour" ended up being a positive experience since I was able to relive just a piece of my childhood, plus show Ben some combines. It had been a LOOOOONG time since I last drove down a dirt road in Kansas. That area of the country was in the middle of harvest, so the roads were full of wheat trucks. It had also been a LOOOONG time since I had been nearly forced off a dirt road in Kansas by a huge wheat truck barreling along at 50 MPH. Good times.

Ben and Abe at mom and dad's house. Abe is getting some long locks but it will be a while before we have the first haircut. Some parts are down to his shoulders which is quite a follicular achievement for a 7 month old. People ask me nearly every day if he is a boy or a girl. Such a difference from Ben, who was the recipient of the exclamation, "look at that little old man!" at the same age. I think they're both pretty darn cute!

Ben and I (and Abe) at the River Festival in Salina. Ben had never had a corn dog, so we had to remedy that situation right away. And I had to have my Kansas special, a home brewed root beer and a bierock. They were both a little disappointing. I think I might try to make homemade bierocks sometime soon.

Another midwestern treat...snow cones! We don't have snow cone stands here in NC. Why is this? I have no idea. Someone is really missing out on a great business opportunity.

We saw a lot of tractors in Oklahoma and Kansas. I never noticed them when I lived there, but now when I visit I feel like it's all I see. Not that people don't drive tractors here in the South, but there's just not as much farmland, at least not in our part of the state. Seeing all of the tractors, combines and trucks was pretty exciting for Mr. B.

Now that we're home summer is in full swing. It's so hot. Like, miserably hot. I know it's hot everywhere, but here the high is supposed to be 97 with 65% humidity. See what I mean? Absolutely miserable. Add in a few hundred mosquitos and various other bugs, and basically I don't want to go outside until September. Plus, every time I venture out in the middle of the day I almost step on a lizard, or have a lizard run in front of me, or I reach out to open a door and don't see a lizard resting right next to the door handle. Now, lizards aren't dangerous at all, but they sure do scare me when they're jumping out at me all day. Normally we would try to get away to the beach a little more but beach trips are a lot more difficult for me with a 3 year old and a baby. So we just try to spend our time doing air conditioned activities between the hours of 10 and 5!

Ben is in vacation bible school this week, which is a nice break for both of us. I do wonder what they talk about though. I asked him if they talked about Jesus, God, if they prayed and if they sang songs, and he answered "no" on all counts. Is this what Presbyterian VBS is all about? Maybe I should have put him in a good evangelical Baptist bible school:) However, since he's only 3 and notoriously reluctant to answer questions, I don't think I should trust his version of events.

Well, Abe is up from morning nap and I still haven't brushed my teeth! I have more pics to upload but they'll just have to wait.