My brother Stephen and I took Aurelie to see the Atlantic Ocean! We traveled to Emerald Isle 2 weeks ago for her to swim in the ocean for the first time. It was the hottest week of the summer, with 95% humidity, but it was still fun!

Aurelie took this cool picture. We don't know how accurate Stephen's car thermometer was, but it was still fun to see the numbers go up this high.

She also took this one of Bow getting some fresh air on the 6-hour drive down to Emerald Isle.

One night while we were there, we played putt-putt. Aurelie and Stephen tied for 1st place. My mind just wasn't in the game, I guess.
Aurelie often made the same comment..."it's like in the films". This is what she said when she took this picture of the man looking for treasure.
Her first time swimming in the ocean!

We went to Beaufort to eat one night at Clawson's. She was amazed that she had so many drinks and the waitress kept coming to bring her more. Free refills were a new concept to her.

Bow survived the heat. I rigged up this fan outside so that he was constantly cool (I hope).

What a treat to have lunch with Emily in Raleigh! This is just another reason to love having summers off. After leaving the beach, Stephen dropped us off in Raleigh to spend the night with Grandma. On Friday, taking a break from our Cameron Village shopping, we met Emily for lunch. It was great to see her and hear about her marriage, her job, and all the other discussions to catch each other up on life. She is a great encouragement to me.

I have a sister! My brother Joey got married three weekends ago (on August 3rd) to his beautiful bride, Sierra. I don't have more pictures because they actually got married in a chapel in Las Vegas. We didn't know about the marriage until later on in the weekend. They are very happy in their honeymoon weeks.

It was mom's birthday on Saturday. We drove straight from DC to the restaurant to celebrate with her. It was the first time our whole family had been together in a while (even though we all live in the same city!).

Aaron and I wrote a song for mom and I sang it to her at the restaurant (yes, people stared and yes, it's very corny). To the tune of Frank Sinatra's L-O-V-E:

It's 8.18 and I will sing for you.

It's your birthday and you're fifty-two.

Listen closely as I sing a story about your life, your joy, and all the really good things you employ like:

M is for the marriage that we see

A is for always leading me

M is for the mistakes you never, never, never make and

A is for another year with you so let's all give a cheer and

MAMA, this is the end of my little song

Please know that I tried so hard for so long

This is just my way to say happy, happy, happy birthday, so

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you,...

After that, we headed to their house for an after party of making s'mores and watching the guys fight over a greased watermelon in the pool.

We had told Aurelie at the beginning of her stay that we could possibly go to Washington DC the last weekend she was here. Well, as last week unfolded and I started work and was exhausted and we started planning my mom's birthday, it looked like there was no way we could do it. She was so disappointed when we told her! She tried to tell us that it was okay and she understood, but the look on her face broke our hearts. So we decided to make it work! After work on Friday, we drove 4 hours to get there and just crashed. On Saturday morning, we had only about 4 hours of sightseeing time before we had to head back to Salem for my mom's birthday party. So, 8 hours of driving for 4 hours of touring. Aaron said, "It's so crazy, it'll be fun." He was right....we had a great time and we're so glad we went!
We were fortunate to be a part of a bike tour..."Bike the Sights". We highly recommend it if you visit DC! We were able to see all the major monuments in 3 hours, plus we had a great guide who gave us the history behind what we saw. And who doesn't love to ride a bike through a beautiful city on a cool(er) summer day?!

Everyone's favorite spot...Internal Revenue Service Building.

Can you see Aaron in front of the Capitol? What an amazing structure it is!

We must pray for the Supreme Court judges in this building!

Aurelie took notes like the studious person she is. (she's in green).

even though we are back from vacation, life has been such that blogging hasn't been possible (among other things, I started back to work on monday). hopefully things we be sane by friday or saturday and we can get some good pictures on here!

Sorry about the blog delay. We are on vacation! We'll post pictures at the beginning of next week. Have a great weekend!

Lauren was part of the team that planned the shower. She is such a servant.

Her husband Brett was there to encourage.

I can't explain why our guests are sitting on the kitchen floor, but don't think the worst.

Aaron showed Aurelie all about the jet ski.

After lunch today. We were sad to see them go...wish we lived closer!

Today Aurelie came with me to work to see what the American public school is like. Afterwards, we had lunch with the Escalante children, and then took Maria to Target to register for her baby boy! He will be here around September 18, so we are having a shower for her at the end of August. We had a great time registering. 8-year-old Luis got to hold the gun.

Yesterday Aurelie went with me to the grocery store so that we could stock the kitchen with things that she likes. Since she was hesitant to put things in the cart, when we were ready to check out I told her she had to go find at least 3 things she wanted to try and to not come back until she had them. She found two easily...carrots and nectarines, but she couldn't find a 3rd. After several minutes, she came back with some oreos and said, "it's just like in the films!" :) Americans and our oreos! So last night we gave her the ultimate oreo experience:

Aaron and I are enjoying the opportunity of hosting a foreign exchange student! Her name is Aurelie, and she's from France. She arrived on Saturday and we went to Greensboro to pick her up. She will be with us for only 4 weeks, but we have lots of fun things in mind for her to do to make the most of her experience :)

We've been taking on a few more projects around the house this summer. On Friday I decided I was fed up with this porch off the side of our house...it was very dirty and unsightly. It was an all-day project, and when Aaron came home he tore off the screen, which added an extra day to it because we found out some of the wood was rotten. It was worth the trouble, though...we love the new look!

Before

After

Since I've been going to Vinton everyday for work, I've been able to have lunch with my ESL families. Today I ate Chinese with the Montuori family (from Italy)...Antoinetta, Antonio, and Franco. I love these days.

Yesterday mom and I drove to Pinehurst, NC to attend a luncheon benefitting the Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina. Grandma Carolyn invited us and we had a great time! There were 100+ women there, including some girls from the Boys and Girls Home. We participated in a silent auction, where I won both items for which I made a bid. Thank you for the experience, Grandma!

Grandma, Marie, and Aunt Nancy (not pictured) were there from Raleigh. I won this sconce in my hands, and a spa gift certificate at the hotel in Pinehurst.

Nathan and Erin went out to eat with us tonight! We had a great dinner with encouraging conversation. We've been missing each other in Sunday School this summer because of our vacations and their vacations. Erin and I just decided on a book to read together for the rest of the summer: Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney. I read it last year but gave my copy away so I haven't been able to reread it until now. It's based on Titus Ch. 2 about the older women teaching the younger women what is good. Get it if you can!

I am helping out with West Salem's Vacation Bible School this week. We're having a great time and it's been good for me to get to know members of the church better. I am not with a specific age group...just running around for the director with whatever she needs me to do.

I am also working at summer school at a high school in Vinton this week and the next two weeks. They emailed me while we were on our cruise, and when I called them back last week, they were desperate for someone to help tutor the ELL students. It's only 4 hours a day, and Fridays are off. It's a great way for me to not "eat the bread of idleness" at home in the summer mornings. I've only been there for 3 days, but the kids have encouraged me so much. I am very thankful!

For the past two weeks, the Salem Fair was in town. It wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't live right across the street from it! We are glad that it's over...we had so much traffic outside our house! Parking would have been difficult if we didn't have a driveway in the back, and there were voices outside our home of people walking by in the late evening. We did visit one night, and it was interesting. We ate but didn't participate in any games or rides. It's just fun to watch how excited people get!