weeks of vacations

So, we have had several fun weeks of vacations. Hence, the reason there have been no posts for quite a while. We started the traveling spree with a trip to Chicago for Josh to attend a medical conference. I went with Josh for the week and the kids had a "kid vacation" at Nina and Papa's house. It was great for all of us. The kids LOVE being at my parents' house and Josh and I enjoyed the week just the two of us in Chicago. He was busy during the days, but we did some fun things in the evenings and I was able to get some work done during the day with some alone time. =)

Willis (Sears) Tower over Chicago skyline

We came home and packed for Virginia Beach and left one day after we got back from Chicago. That was hectic! We went to Virginia Beach for one week to visit my brother, Dan, and his wife, Lauren. My parents and grandpa Bob went too as did Josh's mom. We rented a big beach house and had an awesome time. The kids spent most of their time fishing off the canal in the backyard and caught enough huge catfish to have a good fish fry at the end of the week. Seth has become quite the fisherman over the last year. He seriously catches huge fish, consistently. They also caught an eel and some bass. We obviously loved our time at the beach as well. We ate fantastic seafood all week and enjoyed the sun. We also made a trip to Jamestown, VA to see the first permanent settlement. That was pretty cool and very interesting to stand on the foundation of the first church, where the first leaders in this country developed the basis for the first government. It was particularly interesting for us because we had been working on our family's genealogy over the past couple months, and had tracked my family line to one of the first families in Jamestown. I am a direct descendent of Captain James Davis, who settled in Jamestown and whose family line is considered by some to be the oldest surviving family in America. So that was cool to walk on the land and sit in the church where my ancestors walked and sat.

                                                              Church in Jamestown

                                                                              Josh loves Pocahontas

We cam home from VA Beach a week ago and stopped overnight to stay with Josh's best friend in Pittsburgh. They graciously opened up their home to our family and saved us a ton of money in hotel expenses. And it was great getting to visit with them. We got home on Mothers Day and have just been getting back to normal life since then. I think I'm pretty much caught up now.

We had a big cookout at our house on Saturday for the Detroit Side By Side chapter. All the families hung out and grilled and we had a great time. We're enjoying getting to know some other families in the Detroit area. That's all for us. Josh's call schedule has been INSANE and will continue to be until July. So we won't be out doing much exciting stuff for the next couple months I don't think.