A week with Joe's parents

I think I might remember a bit more about this past week than I did about the one from my last blog. I even have pictures of them-but having placenta brain I couldn't remember to bring them with me of course. The reason for all of this was that Joe's parents came to visit . They arrived Saturday afternoon/evening and left this morning. Saturday night it was too late to go out doing things, so we watched TV. Sunday we went to church and then Grandpa Allen watched Tiger Woods play golf all afternoon. Monday we went downtown. As previously mentioned Joe's ancestors came from this area of the country-actually one county away from here-so we went to the library downtown to see if we could find any more information. The lady who was 'helping' us wasn't very helpful at all, but we did find a few things for one of the lines. Monday afternoon we went to a State Historical site-the first-ever gold mine in the US. Once we got there we found it was closed on Mondays (although the website said it would be open), so we went to the mall instead. For any of you who like shopping, Concord Mills is the place for you-even if you don't have much money. There are tons of outlet stores and all kinds of good things there. You can get Nikes or Reeboks for $20, and the Gap outlet is one of my favorite places-and they even have a maternity section!

Tuesday I went back to the mall with Grandma Allen and Karen while Joe went to work and Grandpa went to Asheboro to see if he could find some more information about his ancestors (and he found tons; all of those lines are back across the pond now). Tuesday afternoon I stayed home with Karen (we both took naps) while Joe and his parents went back to the gold mine. They did some panning for gold, and Joe found enough to buy a hamburger (a couple little specks that you almost need a magnifying glass to see). His dad found some too, but not as much.

Wednesday was Joe's birthday. He's now 'for real' old at the good old age of 26. (Sadly at this point I had to ask Joe what we did on his birthday, but I remembered right as he told me, so it's okay I guess.) This was the day we went to the temple. For us it's about 100 miles, or 2 hours from north Charlotte to south Columbia, SC. It's a really small temple and they had only 2 sessions in the morning and 2 in the evening. The first session all of us but Grandpa (who is Karen's new favorite person-because he's so funny looking?) and Karen stayed out. The session had like 50 people even though the room only holds 40, and it went over so much that I barely got out in time for Grandpa to ge into the next session and Joe (who was farther back in the room) didn't make it to the second like he'd been planning. After we got home we made Lasagna and Dream Cake (like Angel Food Cake, only with the egg yolks too) for dinner and watched a movie.

Yesterday I was so tired I didn't want to do anything. Joe's parents went for a walk/hike at the nature preserve over by the church, but Karen and I stayed home and Joe was at work. In the afternoon Grandma and I went back to the mall (yes, again) while Karen was sleeping; Grandpa had had enough, he didn't want to shop anymore, so he stayed home with the sleeping Karen.

The only things left to talk about are Karen's tooth issues. She cut her first molar on Tuesday, but I didn't notice it until Wednesday. The rest of them are close too; she's been really good about it, I didn't even realize she was working on them until I saw the first one. She's also really close to walking. Until today she's insisted on holding one of our fingers in each hand if she was walking; today she only requires one. Also, she stood up by herself in the middle of the living room this morning (not just once but three times).

Well, it has been an eventful week but I think that's about it for now. I don't know how next week will work with blogging-we're watching the house and kids for some people in our ward starting either thursday or friday, and ending the day before we leave for Utah. (so also if you call and I don't answer immediately, I'll call you back, but it might be a few hours). I'm also planning to call some of you regarding our trip this weekend-saturday or sunday, I'm not sure which. TTFN