Well, I'm finally getting over a cold. I thought the girls were going to get it with me. In fact, I think they started it. But they were fine the next day and I was the only one left suffering. As usual, the cold brought on a bout with asthma, but it's staring to clear up now.

We're gearing up for the trip to England now. We've ordered dresses for the girls for Amer's wedding. Pretty expensive but suitable for little princesses. The overskirts are a gauzy material with flower petals loose inside. Hard to describe, but I'll be putting pictures up after we get back, of course.

So much shopping and packing to do now, but I found the time to use up the last of those peaches from our trip to the orchard. I was so proud that we used all 21 pounds of peaches and not one went bad! This last cobbler I made was an iron skillet recipe and was by far my favorite. I'm considering putting up a favorite recipes page. Any thoughts on that?

I had to send Justin back to Texas today. This is always a hard time for both of us.

Justin made pizza for us tonight. It turned out great! K kept the girls while Justin and I went to see Jurassic Park III after dinner. It was surprisingly short. When everything seemed to be going too well, I was waiting to see what tragedy would befall them next, and then there were credits! So, a happy ending, and though intense at times, not nearly as scary as the first. I barely remember the second, so can't really compare it to that one. We finished the evening off with a couple of rousing games of racquetball, in both of which I was beaten soundly by a twelve year old. In my defense, I did allow him two bounces while I was only allowed one ...

Game night tonight ... we finally got K to play Cranium. I won, and K discovered that it was a fun game after all.

We took Justin's friend Jordan with us to Chuck E. Cheese tonight. It went great except for the freeway being shut down on the way there. That's the third time I've been faced with a closed freeway this summer. What does that mean?? Anyway, everyone had a great time tonight, until we got home and Mina had a major screaming tantrum outside, drawing all the neighbors to their windows.

Dad's birthday today, though of course I forgot to call him. Sorry Dad!! I love you! We went peach picking today. What fun! We picked two pecks and ate our fill in the orchard, then headed home with 21 pounds of peaches and visions of pies and cobblers dancing through our heads. We also went to play Putt-Putt golf today. I won this time, and the girls lost a couple of balls.

We picked K up from the airport today upon his return from Birmingham. The girls were delighted to see him after a week's separation.

The kids and I made the long drive back to Michigan today. We had a bit of rain in Pennsylvania, my calling card thingie wouldn't work from there, and every 15 minute stop we made turned into an hour. Layla developed a bad habit of unbuckling Mina's seatbelt and provoking lots of screaming. Other than that, the drive went well. Justin and I finished listening to the Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone CDs. Why is the drive home always so much easier than the drive out?

Charlottesville, Virginia

August 3-9

We had a rough start on our journey to Charlottesville. I was up until the wee hours packing, as I usually am, but I was determined to get enough sleep before we headed out, so we didn't leave until sometime between 10-11am. Then only an hour on the road, we ran into a closed freeway in Toledo. We were stuck there for two hours. Heavy fog and rain in Pennsylvania around 8pm nearly caused us to stop for the night, but we pressed on and got to Charlottesville around 12:30am. It was so good to finally get there! Nana and Granddaddy looked great, as did Mom and Robbie, and the girls were smitten with Mom's and Robbie's new dog, Willie (named after Willie Nelson.) We got to stay in a guest room downstairs (their fifth floor condo was a bit crowded with my parents there) and it was so nice to be able to keep the air conditioning as low as we liked and to have two nice soft beds to sleep in. It was a big room, and very comfortable.

We took the DVD player and some of our DVDs with us, and I think Granddaddy is hooked. They saw "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and we watched "Anna and the King" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou" together. I guess no one really liked "O Brother" as well as I do, but it was nice of them to humor me and keep watching it with me. Mom and Nana and I got to leave the kids behind and go to Red Lobster for dinner one evening, which was really nice. It was great to be able to be together, just us girls, and talk, without worrying about who was being mean to whom, and who was biting and who was screaming. My kids aren't really that bad, but they can be a handful and it's nice to have a break once in a while.

I think maybe the best part of the trip was when we all (even Robbie!!) went downstairs one evening and played Bocce. This is an Italian game similar to lawn bowling like they do in England, only it's done on a long gravel-covered court. Nana kept the girls amused with bubbles while we played two games. It was great fun! There was even a little hare that took a keen interest in watching us. He must have stuck around for 20 minutes, at least!

We went swimming, too, but only once, since my two year old kept finding alarm buttons and pressing them, alerting 911 and getting us kicked out of the pool. Very embarrassing. We played lots of Go Fish (Mina has mastered this game) and Cranium, and ate lots of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. (We don't have a local Krispy Kreme in Ann Arbor, so this was a great treat.) We took the kids to Planet Fun one day. This was like a miniature Chuck E. Cheese with a bumper boat pond and a miniature golf course outside. It was so swelteringly hot while we were there though, that going outside for any reason in the middle of the day was masochism.

A side note that not everyone will be interested in, but here it is anyway: Layla used the potty twice in Virginia! Maybe this is the beginning of her long awaited potty training.

All in all, it was wonderful to see everyone, but I was reminded that a retirement village is really not prepared to handle the loud rambunctiousness of small children. Maybe next time everyone can come to us.