What's A Sister For?

 Minnie and I spent the morning on the porch swing.

It rained all night, and this morning we woke up to humidity

and sun.   

The house feels quiet and sad.

I miss our visitors.

I think Minnie does too.

Lottie and I began sorting through her clothes in preparation 

for our back-to-school shopping next week. However, 

Lottie has a short attention span of only 60 seconds for activities like this.

So she did this with Minnie instead:

What's a sister for?

Goodbye

 This morning we attended church together, and I cried 

during the opening song, thinking about all my kids sitting

with me on the same bench.

Oh, how I will miss filling the pew up!

We came home and packed everyone up, and then, just like that,

everyone was gone.

Minnie took a long nap, and I cleaned up.

I think cleaning up was therapeutic for me.

Until it wasn't.

Because Minnie woke up, and I changed her pants and 

broke down because Claire was the last to change her before

her nap.  That made me really sad.

Whyyyy do we have to live so far away?

(Mom, I know how you feel!) 

FOMO

Today, on our last full day together, we:

 Had lunch at Merritt's- a Chapel Hill favorite.

Minnie got climbing lessons from Ollie.

Ate Jenni's ice cream.

Enjoyed trampoline snuggles.

Had backyard pizza for dinner with a thunderstorm outside.

One of my favorite parts of our family time together is our evening 

devotionals.  We each had an opportunity to share a spiritual thought

about Jesus Christ and His gospel.

We used scriptures, talks, and the Come, Follow Me 

manual in our personal studies to share.

Tonight, Christian led our last family devotional.

I was feeling super emotional thinking about the family breaking up

and going back to our daily lives.  

These last few days have been some of the happiest I've known.

Minnie has the worst FOMO of her life, getting a total

of two minutes of daily naps, and going to bed at 11:00.

Once everyone leaves tomorrow (NOOOOO), we are sleep training.

Hitting Up The Beach

 The Nielsons hit up the Outer Banks today.

The day began with Mama Kwans for fish tacos, then of course

we hit up one of the million candy stores for licorice and whatnot.

Then we hit up one of the million mega beach stores 

to get Nate a t-shirt and try on hats and stuff.

Minnie was a little sweetie pie and just did everything with us

without any complaints.

I did stay in the car to feed her and let her nap while the

rest of the gang hiked up the hill to see the 

Wilbur and Orville Wright monument.

Then we camped out on the beach for the rest of the day.

Events to note:

A beautiful rainbow

2 F15's flew by

A pack of dolphins

Nursing Minnie on the beach with sandy toes

My beautiful children

Dying of happiness

Missing Gigs

ENJOY: