My dad watches as Ella test out the moon bounce. Uncle Fred was able to borrow it from his fire station. With only five children in attendance, everyone had plenty of bounce time. How great is that?
The weather was perfect for a picnic. The kids always have more fun when you add water to the games. Marley and Zach even broke out the super soakers.
The Zach Attack!
Adam was a little too young for the moon bounce and water games, but he did mow Uncle Ray's lawn. Here he is admiring the Chaquita Banana Girl....Ooohh, is that Marley???
Ray kept the margaritas flowing. How do you like that shirt? His wife went on vacation to Charlotte, NC and all she brought him was this stupid t-shirt. Really, the shirt was the envy of his brother-in-law, Mark and cousin, Nate. They too are Matt Kennseth fans.
Soaking wet, Abby still doesn't weigh 40lbs especially now that her teeth are all falling out! She's mini but mighty. I warn you, don't mess with this tough chick in pink camouflage.
Color: Smart BlueI love the color. Ray finds it a little "too much". He says people will see me coming. If you see someone smiling and waving at you in this vehicle, it's me!
Bored because her sister is at camp all day, Ella has created a lemonade stand. The stand is open NOW! If you have the time won't you please come by.
Since the making of this video 19 minutes ago, the stand has been moved from the driveway to the stop sign at the end of the cal -de- sac. Ella now has a neighbor friend advertising around the block, but still no customers. The stand will remain open until dinner time. It will close temporarily while we drive to camp to pick up Marley from 3:45-4:30. Can you help a sister out?
This week I went to art camp. I had a great time! This is my fabulos fashion. I worked all week designing the entire outfit. I think I did a great gob.
This is all the girls and their fashions. All the items in our outfits are made from found objects. "One person's trash is another persons t-shirt." My dress is made from garbage bags, duct tape. sewing spools and old playing cards. The teacher put me in front because I am beautiful.
This is my good friend Hanna who went with me to camp.
I love Miss R's paper plate dress. She is an awesome art teacher. She teaches at my school. I was glad to see her this summer and learn from her at the Adams County Art Council in Gettysburg. Thank you for a wonderful week Miss R.
We dropped the girls off Sunday evening knowing they were in great hands. This was a mini vacation for them as well. Ray took me to the airport the next morning before he headed into work. My flight was an early one so I landed in NC early enough that we were able to get a full day of sight seeing in Charlotte.
Dottie is an awesome tour guide. Our first stop was lunch at Razoos, a Cajun restaurant with dazzling artwork. She filled me in on our plans for the day which included lots of race related activities including a ride around the track at Lowe's Motor Speedway. We were going on a guided tour in a 15 passenger van all around the complex and this included a lap on the track going 
Here I am at the track. The tour was far more interesting than I could have imagined. I am not a gear head, but I do enjoy watching a race from time to time. Plus, I thought it would be fun to nose around the garages and see which drivers we might bump into. We went to Hendricks, Rousch and DEI
At Hendricks Motorsports I bumped into this guy. He definitely looks different on TV. I think he looks better when he dresses in the color red. 
Here I am in the winners circle.
At Rousch I wanted to get my picture taken with Matt Kenseths car because he is my husbands favorite driver. Matt's car was not to be found. We did find his hauler backed up to the garage area. There is a good chance a car is in there. It's the best I could do. I did get Ray a really cool #17 Shirt.
This picture was taken just inside the door at DEI 
The next day was all about pampering and doing girlfriends stuff.
She couldn't resist the offer to join us. Thanks Angie for a great recommendation!
Don't our feet look incredible? Mine are in the black sandals. My polish is OPI, "I am not really a waitress" A week later I still love the color.
Next we went SHOPPING! I didn't take pictures of us shopping at several adorable boutiques and quaint shops around town. But I did get this one of Lake Norman as we drop by going from one shopping village to the next. It is a beautiful man-made lake. Dottie's family spends time here when they can. It looks like a wonderful spot to enjoy a Summer day. I'll have to check it out more on my next visit.......
These are the "ticky tacky little boxes all in a row" at the Birkshire village. These houses remind me of the Cat in The Hat movie. They are cookie cutter houses that all look the same. They are painted in a rainbow of colors. I don't know how people find their way around in this neighborhood. Every street looks the same. This development also had a fantastic shopping center where we spent most of our day browsing. This was so great because we had no kids or husbands to prevent us from enjoying as much time as we liked in every store and we didn't worry about any one touching or breaking something. No one had to go to the bathroom while I was in the dressing room deciding on my purchases! I loved it.
We had a nice little lunch at the village. The portions where just perfect. Perfect enough that Dottie and I each felt we had room for a dessert. I ordered this Five Layer all chocolate cake. Beautiful! The waiter was impressed with his own plate decorating talents. He did the chocolate swirls himself. 
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Here I am trying to behold the bites I have managed to consume. I love chocolate and I can eat lots of it. For the first time in my life I found a piece of chocolate cake too big and too rich for even me! I could not finish it. I had to digest what I had eaten of this dessert before dinner time because Dottie had arranged a Girls Nite Out with all her best girlfriends. And they are the BEST! I was anxious to meet the people who have befriended my dear friend and thanks to her blog, they were anticipating meeting me. After all, a friend worthy of a countdown must be worth meeting.
We ate at a BBQ place where I tried the pork BBQ platter that made Lancaster's famous. It was OK. Carolina BBQ is different from what we eat up north. Other menu items included hush puppies, curly chips with ranch dressing, fried PICKLES! Oh my. I just kept thinking how do these girls manage to stay so thin???? Well, it must be from all the calories they burn laughing. We laughed so much as we talked about all the fun stuff from child birth and breast feeding to boob jobs and who's sleeping with whose husband! We talked about how over the top was Dottie's countdown for my visit. There was a consensus amongst her circle of friends that it was TOO MUCH! Truthfully, I believe they are just suffering from jealousy. I absolutely adored the countdown and I told them so. Oh we laughed. We laughed until the waitress was scared of us. Or ready to kill us. I am not sure. At 9:45 as she walked us to the door we discovered the place closed at 9:00! I can't believe the staff didn't toss us out at closing time. It is true what they say, southern hospitality is still alive today. Trust me, here at home we would have been warned at 8:45, "The store will be closing in 15 minutes. Please gather your items and make your way to the check out counter. Now!"
Oh, did I mention we talked about pole dancing? Still laughing about this.
The gangs all here. Sorry the pictures are so small. Some are from Dottie's new camera and when I import them they come in this size and get distorted when I make them bigger. Trust me though, these ladies are beautiful inside and out. Thanks for such a great time. "Ya'll" are so blessed to have each other.
On my last day, I went swimming with the younger Liptrap people. Their neighborhood includes a nice pool within walking distance of Dottie's house. The weather was just perfect for an early morning dip. The children were very amusing and I enjoyed spending time with all of them. They were very tolerant of my intrusion on their home, my disruption of their daily routine and my complete monopolizing of their mother's attention. It was so nice to see them all again. 
And more thanks goes out to my wonderful husband who endured time away from his wife and kids. He spent two lonely nights in our empty home while I was away and the kids were with their grandparents. I had a great visit with my friend but deep inside I was counting down the hours until I got back to my fantastic family. While my flight home was delayed several hour due to thunderstorms in Charlotte and Baltimore, I did eventually make it home to a husband who had sat for 2 1/2 hours in a parking lot waiting for my plane to arrive. He did that without complaint! I love him for that.
