Last night in Florida...

Hi all,

We just finished packing the car. This is our last night in Florida. Tomorrow we leave for a two day drive home to Tulsa. We're planning on camping in northern Louisiana tomorrow night and finishing up the drive on Tuesday. We're both really excited to get back to Tulsa to see friends and family. I realize we just saw everyone in February, but it's always nice to come back home.

This last week was very eventful for us. Nan's parents, Bob and Sheri, came with us when we took the girls to the beach for a day. We all swam, and rode knee boards in the waves. We even saw a few dolphins jumping and playing off the coast. And Parker had a very near miss with some stingrays (there were about 2 feet from her!). It was a very full day with some mild sun burns and tuckered out little girls.
We also went blueberry picking again, because, let's face it, you can never have enough fresh blueberries. Our blueberry trip last week yielded around nine pounds of blueberries. This week we went all out, and between Nan and myself, Bob, Sheri, and Hayley and Parker, we walked out with a whopping 16 pounds of blueberries. And needless to say, we've been eating them on and in everything from blueberry cobbler and blueberry muffins, to blueberry soda (good recipe find Michelle and PJ!). By the way, all the photos seen on this blog entry are courtesy of Sheri Curry. It turns out, Nan and I have been really bad about remembering to bring our camera with us recently. We completely forgot to bring it with us to Delaney's first birthday this last weekend. Kara took some great pictures though and as soon as we can get some from her we'll post them here. Kara's parents were nice enough to invite everyone over to their house in Jacksonville for Delaney's birthday. It was loads of fun. We swam and ate and did some arts and crafts. Kara had a wonderful idea to have everyone at the party design a birthday card for Delaney for the next 16 years. We each drew a number out of a hat and had to design the card for her when she turns that age. Dustin and Kara will keep track of them for the next 15 years. I drew her 5th birthday and designed a card that looked very much like a 5 year old made it... Nan made a very cute card for her 11th birthday. What a great idea!

I think that's all we have to report for now. We're going to miss the time we've spent in Florida, but are very much looking forward to getting on with our trip. Tulsa is next! Get ready for us!

Oh, and a quick Peace Corps update. Nan got all of her requested blood tests done and sent in. Hopefully we'll have new info later this week. Keep us in your thoughts! We have high hopes for a September leave date!

Chris

Week in Florida

It has been a great first week in Florida. Chris and I have enjoyed every minute with our nieces, Parker and Haley (Nan's side). They have been teaching us some ballet moves (which Chris has quite the knack for), and no day is complete without a dance party in the living room! Tonight they decided to get all dressed up and do an impromptu photo shoot before dinner (pics to right).



We had an opportunity to see Kara, Dustin, and Delaney (Chris's brother and family) this past weekend, which was a blast. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera. We'll have to get pictures next weekend when we return for Delaney's first birthday! Convenient for us, two of our siblings, Chris's brother and Nan's sister, live within an hour of each other. Anytime we come to FL, we always get a healthy dose of family. What's better than that?

Speaking of family... Happy Father's Day to any dad's checking our blog! We had a fantastic Father's Day celebration today complete with 2 dads (Nan's brother-in-law, P.J. and Nan's Dad, Bob), 5 hamburgers, 4 hot dogs, 5 new neckties for Bob, and 10 pints of Blue Bell ice cream (that we barely dented, even with 8 people!). We had an ice cream tasting contest for dessert this evening in which we all attempted to correctly identify 10 Blue Bell flavors.

A quick Peace Corps update. Nan received a FedEx packet from Peace Corps requesting more lab work and more medical information. She'll have a few appointments this week, and hopefully get all requested information back to Peace Corps as soon as possible. We're still crossing our fingers for a September placement, and working on going with the flow.

Thanks for reading our latest blog entry. More updates on our road trip and Peace Corps developments soon!

June 9 is here...

...and we have no new information. Ahhh... the red tape of Peace Corps is becoming very familiar to us. Our files are still making their way through the medical clearance, which may take a few more weeks. So, we wait patiently. In the meantime, we have made our way to Florida. We have been hanging out at the lake, eating camp food, and picking blueberries. Not a bad life. :) Chris left this morning on a trip with Montgomery campers. They'll be hiking and caving for the next few days. Chris is tagging along as the first aid guru with his Wilderness First Responder.

Baltimore Photos

Hey all, we just wanted to put up some photos real quick from our time in Baltimore.

This is Nan driving, somewhere in Virginia I think.

We got to Baltimore a little late and missed the first inning on the Orioles beating the Red Sox. Go Os!This is me, Nan and Charles at the Capital Building in DC.

Me and Nan walking by the reflecting pool in between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.

Charles and Cathy
Thanks so much for letting us stay with you and showing us such a good time!

Baltimore

We left Brevard on Monday, and made it to Baltimore just in time to watch the Orioles beat the Red Sox at Camden Yards (what a game!). Charles was an excellent tour guide in Washington D.C. as we racked up miles and miles on some sore legs yesterday. Per mom's prompting, we picked up Reader Identification Cards for the Library of Congress! More to come and hopefully a few pictures as we add a new post later this week. In the meantime, our fingers are crossed while we wait to hear from our placement officer before June 9! -Nan