August

August brought a celebration of 19 years of marriage (and cancer remission!) with a special vacation.  Mark and I stayed at the luxurious Inn at the Biltmore for one night in Asheville, where we visited a brewery, dined al fresco at a restaurant in Antler Hill Village, and walked through the Biltmore gardens.  We had s'mores outside, lounged in the Adirondack chairs overlooking the property, and enjoyed a fancy buffet breakfast.  It was just lovely.

The next day, we continued on to one of our favorite places in the world: The Old Edwards Inn, in Highlands, NC.  We first visited the Old Edwards Inn on our 10th anniversary, and have been talking about going back ever since.  

Mark has been dreaming about this pool/grotto for almost 10 years, and our return visit did not disappoint!

We had the cutest little cottage, complete with a porch and wooded patio area, and we had the most restorative, wonderful time.  We went hiking the next day to see some of the many, nearby waterfalls, and it was beautiful.  I kept exclaiming to Mark how grateful I was to feel GOOD (I was a little over 3 weeks out from my mastectomy), and there were whole chunks of time that I didn't think about cancer at all.  What a gift!

Bridal Veil Falls

Dry Falls (Mark in the white shirt on the left side)

We also had a fun family adventure in August when we visited the National Whitewater Center in Charlotte.  This was such a cool place, with over 1300 acres of outdoor activities, including rock climbing, zip lines, water sports, and ropes courses.  This facility is the training course for the U.S. Olympic team, and my crew had a blast whitewater rafting for the first time.  They chose the course with the Level 3 rapids, which was a little more intense than the family starter course:

The kids loved the rock climbing features and were strong climbers, making their way to the tops of the walls:

Another favorite was Deep Water Solo, which is a form of rock climbing that utilizes falling into a deep pool of water vs. using traditional climbing equipment.  The walls are 20-45 feet high, and once you reach the top, you jump/fall into the pool below.  It was so much fun to watch Mark, Leah, and Luke do this:

Back on land, the kids tried a variety of ropes course and ziplined.  There was SO much to do at the White Water Center, and it was a full day of physical activity and outdoor recreation:

Leah Ziplining.

Our friends at church surprised us by painting this parking spot with a pink ribbon on the day of my surgery.  A couple weeks later, we had an outdoor picnic after worship and I posed with my victorious sign!

There were also Open Houses for both kids at their new schools.  One high schooler who shall not be named refused to let me take his photo, but our middle school child is thankfully still agreeable:

Luke spent 3 of his last weeks of summer at band camp, returning to the incredible Northwest Guilford Viking Marching Band that he loved so much last fall:

As we gear up for the start of the new school year, we are thankful for so many of these fun August adventures!

June/July Fun

June and July were filled with special summer memories.  We had a great time at Topsail Beach with Mimi, Gawa, and our extended family.  Our beach house has such beautiful views of the ocean, and it was a restful week of swimming, fishing, food, games, and jet skis.  Millie loves Topsail, too, and was so happy to be a beach puppy again this year:

Playing Pounce, our family favorite!

Yummy Low Country Boil!

We traveled to Williamsburg in June for Maya's surprise graduation party.  It was SO much fun to be with cousins again and to celebrate Maya, who will be playing volleyball at Appalachian State this fall on a full scholarship!

Leah and her friend attended an Aviation Camp in June, and this ended up being one of the surprise highlights of the summer.  We signed Leah up for this camp on a whim, as it was nearby and convenient, and we weren't sure what to expect.  It was AMAZING, and culminated in the kids flying planes at the end of the week.  Leah loved this so much that she convinced the instructors to let her fly again the next day.  What a cool experience for her!

We spent a lazy 4th of July river tubing on the Dirty Dan.  The river gets its nickname from the brown color of the water, but it really is clean and quite lovely.  It was a pretty day to float down the river, and we have fun doing this activity every summer:

July 1 was a day to celebrate as Mommy completed her last chemo session!  It has been a hard few months, but we have been supported and loved beyond words and are thankful that treatments stayed on track.  Surgery was successful on July 20, and we look forward to a new season of healing and remission:

Ringing the bell!

 The next part doesn't fall under the "fun" category, but bears mentioning.  The last day of July, Leah tested positive for COVID.  Luckily it was a mild case and she just had a slight sore throat and headache.  Peanut chose to spend her quarantine days on the screened porch instead of up in her room, and she made the best of 9 very long days alone (she continued to test positive for 4 days after Day 5!).  We pulled out science kits for her, she watched movies on our porch tv, built forts, had dozens of popsicles, and played countless games over FaceTime with us.  Poppy called and played Battleship with her over the phone each day.  Our best guess is that despite wearing a mask, Leah contracted COVID at an Academically Gifted camp that she attended.  The ironic part is that she was learning about epidemiology at camp and her week was titled, "Disease Detective".  (We have since renamed it "COVID Camp").  I write about this to share that our family stayed safe from COVID during my chemotherapy (when I was immunocompromised and a COVID case in our family would mean that my treatment would be delayed).  We prayed for God to protect us during that time, and He did.  Leah's case occurred 10 days after my surgery (which is remarkable in timing after 2.5 years of living in a pandemic), and we are immensely grateful for answered prayers. 

"Isolation" is not in Millie's vocabulary.  

Tinker Crates for the win!

Playing a game with Daddy.

We celebrated Mark's birthday at the end of the month with a night out at the Greensboro Grasshoppers game.  This is a fun summer tradition for us to attend a local baseball game, and it was a wonderful evening:

Our sweet Millie turned 3 the day after Daddy's birthday, and we continued the weekend celebrations with presents and a Frosty Paws treat for our fluffy girl.  

Happy birthday, Mark and Millie!  We love you!