Aunt Alison and Rosemary

Bert's sister, Alison, and her daughter Rosemary came down for a visit a few weeks ago.  They live in Wake Forest, NC.  It was sooo much fun to get to spend time with them!  We did lots of fun things and just enjoyed chatting and spending time together.  Alison and I stayed up talking until midnight both nights they were here (Bert tried to stay up with us, but ended up falling asleep both nights...can't hang. :) )

The first night they were here we headed to downtown Greenville to walk around and then went to Falls Park (also in downtown) to have a Chick-fil-A picnic.  It was a beautiful night...we so loved just walking around and enjoying this beautiful place that we call home!  

As we were eating I looked over and Emily was minding her own business, eating her apples, with her ankles crossed....she just looked so BIG that I had to snap a picture when she wasn't looking.  My baby's growing up!  

Cousin's picture!

The next morning we decided to let Emily skip her swimming lesson class (1 of 8 sessions) so that we could all go to the zoo together! 

Here are the girls (minus Claire) standing in front of the elephant, Joy!  One of the elephants in the Greenville Zoo died just before we came and they were planning to move Joy to Colorado just a couple days after this picture was taken.  The Greenville zoo isn't going to be getting any more elephants because they don't have the room to make their habitat big enough to meet the new standards.  So sad!  We love seeing the elephants.  Oh well, maybe they'll get another exciting animal!  

Joy was playing with a tire...

I just found out that she actually died when she was in transit to Colorado....just days after we saw her!  Thankful we got to see her one last time!  Also thankful for the many smiles she's brought to people's faces over the many years she's been at the Greenville Zoo!  

Group photo...

This trip was Alison and Rosemary's first time to get to meet our Claire Bear!  

Big girls taking a snack break!  Rosemary turned 7 just days before they visited us.  She is so so sweet to Emily, Hannah and Claire!  

Family picture!  The last time we took a family trip to the zoo Claire was in my tummy!!  So glad she's here! 

After naps (they were tired), we ended Tuesday with a Car Wash.  The youth were having a fundraiser to raise money for their mission trip to Kentucky.  I couldn't begin to tell you how excited Emily was about this carwash.  It was actually scheduled for about a week and a half earlier, but it had to be rescheduled to this night due to weather.  She had talked about helping at that carwash for weeks.  Many, many times a day we would talk about it.  She was excited that Rosemary was there to help too!  

Emily worked SO hard.  I really was so proud of her!  

We had a great visit with Alison and Rosemary!  Stephen had to work and we missed him!  They're planning to go back to Uganda hopefully in September to bring home their son, Solomon (he turns 4 in September)!  We're so excited and can't wait to meet our sweet nephew!  Please pray for them and let us know if you'd like to give financially to help them get sweet Solomon home!