Saying Good Bye and Hello, again!

I really like this picture of Alyssa

Almost the entire summer I was pretty anxious to get back to Delaware. But the last 3 weeks I changed my mind and I was so sad to say good bye! We had such a great summer and met such great people.

Here is a snapshot of our gang! I am so grateful the Roisums let us rent their apartment and all of the furniture and stuff! It made the summer so much better/affordable/comfortable than it would have been otherwise. (Roisums not pictured.) I am also grateful we were able to live so close to so many amazing members of the Church. It definitely helped in our short time there.

Packing up was fun. We made it back with everything shoved into the Prius, including the stroller I didn't want to part with that we did not originally take with us.

Check out the guy in the background LAUGHING at us! Come on! Hasn't he ever seen someone carry all their earthly possessions in a mid-size vehicle before...including 2 mountain bikes, a baby bike seat, and a baby push car?! I'm sure he was just jealous and couldn't contain the green envious monster inside him any longer so he decided to cover his mouth before it came out.

Coming home was like waking up from a dream. When we got to Joy's house and saw Sarah and Josh it was like we had just been with them the week before having dinner...but in reality SO much had happened to both of us in the in-between time. 

We are grateful to be back. Life is a lot more busy now.  Erik is back in school. 

Second day of school picture...Such a handsome engineer!

And Alyssa can now climb into chairs.

We're having a great time! Hardly ever a dull moment anymore, especially when you have to fill out 1,000,000 pages of paper work for a new apartment. But so life goes!

Feeding the Ducks and Sensory

While we were in NC we often to feed the ducks. Usually Alyssa would just feed herself, which was fine because the last time we went I saw a sign that said we weren't supposed to be feeding the ducks! Wooops!

{My artistic picture...I got some tips from lds.org}

We went to a lake that was near our house. We would usually ride our bike there and spend a few minutes. It was fun! I miss being so close to the lovely trail.

I've been trying to be "the cool mom" and let Alyssa play around with different things. We had a shaving cream day, which she didn't really get in to and we had a rice day, which she loved. Me, did I love it, you ask?...mmmm...it's kind of hard when there is rice strewn over the entire house because she doesn't confine it to her buckets and bowls, but it was ok. It kept her pretty entertained for awhile.

The last day or so Alyssa discovered she fit nicely in a cabinet in the kitchen.

 Where's Alyssa?

Peek-a-boo!

Mitt Romney and the Beach

Way back in August we attempted to go to a Mitt Romney convention. I guess we actually made it there, but Mitt did not! {How Rude!} We were his 3rd stop for the day and he decided to fly to Wisconsin to make pretty faces with Paul Ryan's home state. Oh well. It was an adventure and we had to get Alyssa started early in her Republican career.

We also went to the beach before we left North Carolina (sniff sniff). We went to Kill Devil Hill (maybe I made up the Kill part or the Hill part) which is where the Wright brother's REALLY flew their first airplane. {So basically we were in Kitty Hawk, NC.} We the beach. We ate "sand"wiches and "sand"cheeses and "sand"crackers.

Alyssa really liked this wagon we borrowed for the beach from some friends 

   

We saw the markers of the where the first 4 flights took place.

4 flight markers that looked like tomb stones

Erik was trying really hard to keep his eyes open for the pic. There is a little reenactment statue in the background.

They had a museum (that was sporting the retro theme...not intentionally) with a replica of the plane the finally flew! It was really cold when they did their successful test runs...maybe 8 F or something?

We saw the giant monument that is on top of the sand dune that has actually moved 20 feet since they first flew their first plane. The Army Corp of Engineers has prevented it from moving every again by planting grasses and shubbery.

Love Wilbur! Who doesn't?

We also saw a lighthouse that was under construction.

We stopped at BoJangles on the way home...NC's Kentucky Fried Chicken. Sadly I was not all that impressed...except for their deep fried biscuits! So good, but so overpriced.