A weekend with family

     On Friday, Mark, Marcus, and I drove to Virginia to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday with his friends.  Olivia made him a camo & shotgun shell cake and let me tell ya, it might sound redneck, but she did a GREAT job on it.  Not only was it visually appealing, but it was really yummy, too.  Of course we had to let Marcus have some (without icing) and he ate half of my piece!  We enjoyed the party, but it was especially great for Marcus to get to meet his Uncle Josh for the first time.  He has been away for the past 7 months, protecting our country by serving with the Marine Corps in Afghanistan.  He had a month off before having to report back to base Saturday. 
     On Saturday morning, we got up and headed to Mt. Airy to eat lunch with my mom, John, Olivia, and TJ.  On the way there, we stopped at Grandmother's home to see the renovations that Dad and Sonya have made to it, as well as get any remaining pictures that hadn't yet been taken by other family members.  On one hand, it was sad that I opened the door and didn't see her sitting by the table, smiling, waiting for me to walk in.  On the other hand, it was such a sweet time of reminiscing seeing old pictures and "memorabilia" that she kept in the house.  I'm thankful for the time we had when she was here on Earth, but remain hopeful that we will see her again, when we meet Jesus at The Father's feet.
     After leaving Grandmother's, we met the rest of the family at my cousin's winery in downtown Mt. Airy.  It was Olivia's 26th birthday, so we gave her gifts (cake making stuff, of course) and had a wonderful lunch.  Then we hung out a few hours at Mom and John's house so they could play with Marcus and Mark and I could rest! When we finally got home, later that evening, we were all exhausted, but happy we got to see so many family members in a whirlwind 24-hour period.  The best part is that we'll get to see Olivia again this week since she's in town for a conference related to school. 
     Oh!  And I forgot!  Our church's Vacation Bible School started last night and goes on through this Thursday, so pictures will be coming of that as well. 

Marcus is starting to pull and stand up on his own!

Grandad, Marcus, and Uncle Josh

Marcus loved Molly and would almost say, "woof" every time he saw her.  It sounded close enough.

Marcus and Uncle TJ at the party

Aunt Liv and her amazing camo cake

Marcus and Uncle Josh before he headed back to base

Marcus and Grandma

She bought him a cute new pair of shoes and he wasn't too sure about them.

Crawling on the floor with Papa John

Any time people help him, he LOVES trying to walk.