Goodbye High School!

Seth and his eyebrow

Kendre

Christopher and I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with his family in Surf City, NC to celebrate his niece and nephew's graduation from high school. It was so nice - we spent two full days with his parents, his sister Terri, brother-in-law Kes (my first time meeting!), his sister Kathy, brother-in-law Matt, and my soon-to-be-nieces and nephews: Kendre, Seth, Alyce, Molly, and Maddie.

Terri and Christopher

We were able to go to the beach for a couple hours each day. Saturday, Chris and I went in the morning before the twins' graduation party and then the whole crew went Sunday morning before the big thunderstorm. (This would be the day Kendre taught me to ride a body board and pulled me into a wave, sending me flying to shore and consequently almost taking out two nice ladies who were simply minding their own business...)

Maddie at graduation

The party was great - Alyce was back on her feet (she had oral surgery on Friday and when we got there she was really out of it, to say the least) and there were a lot of family and friends that came. The food was amazing and there was a ton of it. After loading myself up on hamburgers and taco dip, I took a QUICK nap to sleep off a headache and we headed to graduation. Both Seth and Kendre were loaded with decorations - graduating 3rd and 6th in their class, respectively. Seth will be heading to the Air Force Academy in a couple weeks and Kendre will be attending NC State in the fall. They're both so smart... After a million photos we went to a great little "seafood" joint. I will not eat anything that once lived in water so I knew this would be a challenge. There was ONE item on the menu I would eat.. fillet it was. We took a post-dinner trip to Food Lion to stock up on cereal (yum), milk (necessity), good coffee (necessity) and some type of lemon lime seltzery thing that Matt mixes with orange juice to create his "refreshing drink."

Maddie, "Aunt Kristi," and Molly

Sunday we were all up early again. Ok, everyone else was up early, they let me sleep until 9:30. The Hartwells know me well already, I just cannot do mornings. We hit the beach, played in the sand and waves, and Kendre made a mermaid out of Molly. A huge storm came through afterwards and we had a big dinner and then Christopher and I had to leave to head back to Charlottesville. It was a great weekend -- thanks so much to Terri and Kes and we are so so so so proud of Kendre and Seth!! :-) Here are some more photos from the weekend...