Pittsburgh Trip

Our nephew and godson Nate graduated from high school this past weekend, so we held a quick lottery to see which Franks would be selected to go to Pittsburgh for the festivities.  Colsen and Miles, sadly, were not chosen, so they remained at Nonna and Poppa's -- where, happily, a super-fun Cousins Camp was planned!

The rest of us headed north and I spent about 87% of the hours in car reflecting on how much easier car trips are without babies, toddlers, and whiny preschoolers.  This was Jinna Rai's first long trip and she did great!  She understood we would be driving allll day, and she didn't complain once.

Meeting all of the family members once we got there overwhelmed her briefly, but after spending some time playing with little tiny figurines (her favorite kind) with Grace in her bedroom, she was ready to handle the rest of the crowd.  By the end of the weekend she knew who everyone was and was thrilled to spend time with any of them.  (Grace remained her favorite, though, by a long shot!)

 On Saturday the whole family spend some time driving around the Burgh, visiting various spots of importance in Nate's life -- his schools, first home, soccer fields, etc.

Then in the afternoon the guys decided to go to a Pirates game while the girls went to a coffee shop and playground.

It was fun to see and experience aspects of the Boyers' life and community, and we're all so proud of Nate!  Now he heads off to Gordon College this fall... New chapters await!

17!

Strider is all grown up!

His 17th birthday was pretty low-key, but he seemed pretty happy anyway.  Pete was out of town, but he left a little gift ahead of time, so Strider used that money to go play with golf with Wayne.  He graced us with his presence for dinner time, which included ice cream cake, and then off he went to work, to learn how to "clean the grill," which is apparently quite challenging and his final frontier in CFA training.

I spent a lot of the day watching old videos of him as a toddler and a little boy.... such a cute little guy he's been. It's hard to believe we only have 1 more year with him here full-time!


p.s. Since I think I forgot to post this earlier, here is a pic of him heading off to his school's spring formal/prom.  So handsome!  (He's crashed this car since the picture was taken.)

p.p.s. I also forgot to note the "superlative" award he won for his school's yearbook:

We're so proud.

p.p.p.s.  Strider is now officially very old... but my other kids who are not comforted me the night of his birthday.  They asked if they could please sleep over in my room (Pete was gone), and after watching all of those old videos and realizing how fleeting time is, I quickly obliged.  I love still having little ones around!

Memorial Day weekend

Memorial Day weekend was spent with a few different groups of friends -- our favorite kind of weekend -- but the one I got the most pictures with was a family that we met in China.  They live near Cary and came to visit for lunch on their way home from visiting some friends in Gastonia.

Emma was the first friend Jinna Rai met after we adopted her, so they have a special bond.  JR was soooo excited Emma was coming over!

The other kids had never met each other, but it didn't take long for them all to be off playing and enjoying themselves.

It's a cool thing to see the same friends on 2 different continents!