Visting Family and Friends as We Return

Saturday, October 13, 2007
Today was a day for visiting my Aunt and Uncle. My Uncle Dan (my Dad’s brother) played football in college so we took the opportunity to play football with kids. Seth and my Uncle played against me and Levi. Brandon was on whichever team had the ball. Unfortunately Levi and I lost. But we did have a ton of fun playing. All three kids made plays, but Brandon surprised me as he caught and threw the ball several times. We also made a visit to my Aunt’s father (no direct relation to me) who lives four houses away. He tells a great story of escaping Hungary during the 1950s when the Russians were invading the country. The day before they were going to cross the bridge into Austria, it was blown up. In order to cross the river he gathered some wood and made a makeshift raft, which allowed he, his wife, and his 2-year old daughter to pass into Austria. Eventually, they made it to the US, where my aunt was born. As any surrogate grandparent would do, he gave the kids plenty of candy. Seth also enjoyed a chess match with "PaPa". Tonight is our last night in the RV as we will be back home tomorrow…….until we take off for Florida to see the space shuttle launch in one week!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Day 104. Today was the longest driving day so far on our trip at 7 hours. We drove from Prattville to Charlotte. We are so close to home that we decided to push a little more to get there by Sunday. However, we reserved Saturday for meeting with my Aunt and Uncle and tonight we met up with Sheri’s best friend from Elementary school, both of whom live in the Charlotte area.
Thursday, October 11
We made our way from the beaches of Florida to Prattville, Alabama today. My first two years of employment after college were for International Paper in Selma, Alabama. We lived in Prattville and I commuted each day. Levi spent the first two years of his life down here and Seth was born in a hospital in Montgomery, which is only 15 minutes from Prattville. We drove by our old house and church and then spent the evening with some friends that we have stayed in touch with. They have two boys that are the same age as our kids, so much fun was had.
Wednesday, October 10
Today was nice because it was a shark-free day. We spent about 2 hours at the beach this morning and despite yesterday’s scare, Levi wasn’t afraid to go in the water. I, on the other hand, did nothing but scan the water the entire time. It really takes the fun out of the ocean.
After playing at the beach we spent the afternoon/evening with a family that had lived in Winchester, Virginia in 2000-2002. They moved down to Fort Walton Beach because the husband re-joined the Air Force. Unfortunately, he went to Iraq and died in a plane crash. We had a great visit with fhe family (wife, 2 boys and a girl). The kids played well together. I think it was best summed up by their 10 year old son who stated, "I’m having fun playing with friends I didn’t even know I had".