Mary & Carroll

Have I mentioned that I hate summer?  (I hate the oppressive heat that seems to stretch on forever with no end in sight.)    But summer has one thing going for it... we stay busy.  Swimming, parties, grill-outs, traveling, gardening + many other activites help the summer fly by. 

And with traveling comes family.  We generally visit Bobby's maternal family about once a year.   Most of his Mom's family lives in Indiana so we normally go there.  Rarely do we visit his Dad's family.  Before Bobby & I married, we drove to Houston, TX to visit his Uncle Thom (Bob's brother).  And in 2009 we stopped in Maryland to visit Bobby's Grandmother, his Aunt Nota and his Aunt Janet (Bob's mother and two of his four sisters.)  

So it was a pleasant (and most welcome) surprise when Bobby's Aunt Mary called a few weeks ago and informed us that she & her husband were planning to come visit us.  Bobby and I have been married for 9 years and dated 4 years before that.  In all the time we've been together Mary and Carroll haven't been here for a visit and Bob certainly hasn't gone to visit her.  I can't imagine not seeing my sister for 10+ years!   Needless to say, I was very excited to meet another member of Bob's family.

 (listening to Bob talk...)

They arrived late Sunday morning.  We sat and talked for about an hour before anyone remembered that we all needed to eat some lunch.  We planned to treat them to lunch at the Steak House but they wouldn't hear of it.  They insisted on taking us to lunch (at the Steak House!)  After lunch we ran by Ingles b/c I needed to pick up my newspapers and we thought it would be fun to surprise Bob with an early visit from Mary.  It was so sweet to watch him walk through the doors of the dairy department and hug Mary.  I felt like crying.

We spent the afternoon looking through our photo albums and catching up.  Bob, Tommy and Emily (our neighbor) came over and we enjoyed a delicious supper with plenty of loud conversation.  We spent the remainder of the evening on our (newly cleaned) porch, drinking coffee, and continuing an endless stream of talk.  It was so relaxing and fun. At one point in the afternoon, Sam begged Carroll to come outside and watch him jump on the trampoline.  As they were walking back to the house, I noticed Carroll & Sammy holding hands.  Oh how I wish I had taking a picture of that!!  So sweet.

 Mary & Carroll spent the night at Emily's since we lack a guest room.  It worked out well since Mary & Emily are close to the same age and have similar interests.  I'm so glad they opted to stay next door instead of a hotel.   

I loved every minute that Mary & Carroll were here and I was so sad to see them go.  But we are planning on going to visit them for Thanksgiving.  Hannah is ready.