Chapel Hill, NC

We added Chapel Hill on as the last stop on the CCRT. Mackenzie and Aaron, Joellen and Nick and Will all live there so we had to make a stop. It was a fun weekend of hanging out and catching up. By this point we were exhausted so apologies for the lack of pictures.

Cleveland, OH

After visiting Laura's extended family in Louisville, we hopped in the CRaVe to drive a "short" (at least by our standards) 5 hours to visit my extended family in Cleveland. Like Laura, I have many great memories going to Nana and Papa's house every summer in Cleveland growing up.

For this trip, only five of the eight families were in town for a total of 25 people (out of the 45+). Also different was the relative ages of everyone. Instead of a gaggle of toddlers, groups of teens roamed the "big house" on Hilliard. Laura did a fantastic job memorizing everyone's names and getting to know everyone, which is a big challenge given the large number of people.

The highlight of the stop in Cleveland was a surprise shower planned by Nana for Laura on the back-porch. After coming back from a quick errand, we were happily greeted by a torch-lit patio, delicious food, and a table of presents. The shower entertainment included a fashion show led by Ashley and Stephanie of past Louth family bridesmaid dresses, and a special "guide to the family" book given by Alex. The book had a page on each member of the family with key information. Really good idea and very funny!

Besides the shower, we had a great time hanging out in the pool, jumping through hula-hoops (literally), going to a baseball game with my dad, and spending a day with Grandma Martin.

Special thanks to everyone who made our Cleveland trip so special, especially Nana and Papa!

Grandma Martin

Getting it out of our systems early--Don't expect to see this at the wedding!

Thanks Alex!

The whole gang!

The lovely fashion show ladies :)

Louisville, KY

We're back!!! For our faithful followers that have been wondering where we have been for the past month we hope that these next few posts catch you up and give you a little peek at what has been going on recently. We apologize for the delay in posts but with two moves, lots of packing and unpacking, a week of wedding planing in Florida, nannying for Trent and Eli, trying to replace Jeremy's stolen computer, and a grueling 25 hour drive to Massachusetts, we have been busy. All in all it has been an exciting month filled with exciting changes, challenges and fun new adventures.

Let's start with where we left off---Kentucky! Growing up I (Laura) spent a few weeks every summer in Kentucky staying with my cousins and grandparents. As everyone knows, I have tons of great memories from Kentucky and a lot of my childhood stories contain my two cousins, Brandon and Davis. As we headed back I was so excited for Jeremy to see the place he had heard so much about in all my stories. We pulled in to Gangi and Pa's house and were greeted by a home cooked dinner and Gangi's famous caramel cake. My mom had also flown in for the weekend to share in the festivities. The few days we spent in KY were fun and relaxing. We went to Uncle Don and Aunt Helen's for a bbq and pool party. While we were there we were entertained by my super talented cousin, Donald, as he played the piano while we all sang along. He works at Howl at the Moon, a dueling piano bar, as one of the piano players. He is amazing and it was so great to hear him play. We also got to take a tour of Helen's art studio. She works out of her home creating beautiful pieces. Check out her work here!

The rest of our time was spent hanging out with Gangi and Paw and visiting with the rest of the family. We had a great time and were sad to see it end! Thanks to everyone for such a fun week, but most importantly to Gangi and Paw for letting us stay with them! We had SO much fun!

Three generations!

Hanging out poolside!

So talented! Thanks for playing for us Donald, we LOVED it!

Dinner at Captain's Quarters :) Great view!

Kramer and I saying hi to Wemmick!