Last Minute Shopping, Goodbyes, and Doctor Visits

I took the kids to do some last minute shopping before they leave for Puerto Rico tomorrow. My babies are going to Puerto Rico and I can't go with them. WAAAH! I called mom to tell her we would be stopping by the bank for them to get their spending money and to say goodbye. She wanted to treat the kids to a special lunch before they left, so she took us to Mountain View Restaurant in our little town. It's locally owned with GREAT food. We were all stuffed when we left. Thanks, mom, it was so good.
Mom has been sick for a couple of weeks, and although she still has a very bad cough and some congestion, she did sound and look so better than when I saw her Sunday.


After dropping mom back off at the bank, we went to see daddy. He's been sick for a few weeks also and I have not seen or heard any improvement in him at all. After noticing that he had two black eyes from busted blood vessels, and that he could not see out of his right eye with the left eye not being able to focus, I called his doctor and got him an appointment for 4:30. I rushed the kids home, helped them do a little more packing, threw some laundry in the wash, and Harrison and I headed back to take daddy to his appointment. Being totally freaked at germs, all of this had to wait until after we all washed our hands and downed vitamin C and zinc....of course!

The doctor said he has a touch of pneumonia, which did not surprise me at all. He has a sinus infection and I believe his ear is infected also, if not both. Bless his heart. Because he has kidney failure, the doctor was a little leery about giving him this particular antibiotic. It's very strong so he just takes it every other day. I dropped his prescriptions off, ran him home, helped him into the house and got him settled back into his chair. Harry and I went back out to pick up the prescriptions, dropped them off at mom and dad's, and made it back home just in time for Justin and Hannah to return with Bruce from having their luggage weighed at church and packing the bus.

*sigh*

They'll be leaving early in the morning so please pray for their safety while traveling. I'm sure the entire group would appreciate those prayers!!

Lake Lure and Hominy Valley

We had several friends and family that asked us to join them for their celebrations and we thank y'all for each invitation, but we decided to spend our Independence Day at Lake Lure and Hominy Valley. We had some wonderful and well needed family time!
Bruce got up to make an early morning run to gas up the car and pick up a few needed picnic items before we left. We obviously left too early for Justin, cause he snored 'bout the whole way up. Come to think of it....he snored the whole way back. lol


Lake Lure


The scenery at our picnic spot...




There's a church steeple there in the trees. It's bells chimed 12 times at noon and played a couple of patriotic songs. That was nice.


There's a very nice picnic area near the marina...


...but we chose a more secluded spot to set up the canopy.


It was right next to a dock on the lake.


This little guy was quite troublesome to his parents. He kept "leaving the pack" and his mother kept quacking him back to his siblings.



Hannah and I loved the way the mallard's tail curled up.


Justin can't go a day without giving me a goofy look.


Enjoying the tranquility.


Bruce and Justin on the dock.

Bruce played catch with the kids.

I played too.

We had a nice time eating our picnic lunch and just enjoying each other. We were glad to see a little rain come to cool things off. While we sat under the canopy away from the rain, Bruce had a time of Independence Day trivia for the kids.

All good things must come to an end. But more fun was on the way. We packed up our belongings and headed to Hominy Valley for the Primitive's annual Fourth of July Bluegrass Festival. It didn't start until 7:00, so we had plenty of time to do whatever we wanted on the grounds.

Bruce took a little nap.

We were three hours early, but we weren't the only ones!

There was a big tent where we set up our chairs. It had rained lightly off and on through the day, so we thought that would be the best place to sit. We were right. Not only was it still very good seats even though it was the back section, we were dry when the BIG rain came. The Lord was good to let the rain come and go before the music began and it really did cool everything down.

My feet.

Time to start!

New Road was the first group up. They were really good. They had a CD sale too. Three of their CDs for $20. By the time Bruce got up there, of course they were wiped out. lol The guy on the banjo was awesome!

The next one up was Mike Upright. He's not really bluegrass to me. I liked it better when he was singing with Standing Tall. I guess he's flying solo these days. He does have a great singing voice.

These guys, The Marksmen, were my favorite, besides the Primitives, of course. The elderly gentleman on the far left was so sweet. He's an original Marksmen.

Enjoying the music.

And last, but certainly not least, the Primitive Quartet. They are so great. Not just to listen to, but every one of them are great to watch. They are so humble. I just love to see them.


Near the end of the night, the Primitives were given a flag that was flown over the nation's capital. They were very honored.

They honored all the veterans on the ground too. First, they presented the colors!

It humbled me to see the elderly veterans being honored, escorted to the platform. I felt very thankful for their service and was reminded of those serving our country, even now.

My veteran airman is under the yellow arrow. lol

This little girl got saved while there at the festival with her grandparents.


And then the fireworks. They were beautiful.

We had a great 4th of July. I hope you did too!