America 4: Newcomb Lake House in the South

Our whirlwind American Holiday was coming to a close. We drove back from Maine, spent one night in Charlottesville to clean/return our rental mini-van, then drove back out to my parents lake house on Lake Anna just outside of Richmond. We fit one more weekend of seeing a few more American faces in before it was time to hop on our plane home.

We will call this post an ode to family and friends who let me love them from way over here.

An ode to the people who let me drop into their lives whenever I feel like it.

I literally drop from the sky, each time bringing more and more people with me (here's a husband! He's Australian! And a toddler! And a baby! Here! I love them! Here they are for you to love too!) (And even, once, my in-laws, love them too, please! Because I do!)

And each time this amazing group of people opens their lives and arms for me to rush right back into. Quite often all other plans are dropped. Nothing else exists. Nothing else happens. We do nothing but watch the days pass and enjoy the American summer with s'mores and cheap beer. And we pick up right exactly where we left off. A few more spouses may have entered the mix, and the number of babies added to the mix is beginning to increase. But the base is the same. The bones and the structure with which we stand on so we can hug and laugh and swap "remember whens." 

Not only my parents and my siblings, who are biologically predetermined to love me and try to keep me in their life - but also all of these other people who surely could find friends a heck of a lot closer to them who are a lot easier to contact/see/spend time with/send presents to, etc etc etc. (Not that I'm suggesting any of you do that. In fact, I recommend against it. Highly.) 

So here is an ode. To people all around the world who let me love them.

Trip with the bed he made in his tent.
We slept inside, but Trip was so happy to help put up a tent, and to play in it and
read books in it and he even take a nap in it. 

Toff & Meg & Mr. & Mrs. Bostian!
Remember that wedding that Toff flew back to the States for last January?
It was for these two gorgeous creatures!
Toff met Sam about 6 1/2 years ago in South America where they were both back packing. Turns out,
he was from North Carolina, just one state over from this American girl that Toff was hooked on…. (wink.)
Now he is married to Elizabeth and…and life is good.
We do so look forward to seeing them whenever we get the chance!

Meg & Elizabeth having a cuddle!

I love this photo of Meggie trundling along on those still-baby-fat chubby little legs. So determined to keep up with big brother!

Me and Meg and Becca!
Becca lives in California now, but we got to spend a precious day and a half with her when she flew over to Virginia.
Becca was one of my very best friends in 6th or 7th grade.  I would literally ride the same bus home from school as she did, walk home, plop myself in my favourite reading chair, and spend hours talking to her on the phone. We wanted to open our own old-fashioned ice cream parlour one day. Becca - if you ever when you come to the bakery I think you'll really like the old-fashioned style glasses we serve our iced coffees in! :)

Megan & Anastasia.
Megan was on my AmeriCorps team (yea Blue 3!!!) almost 10 years ago. (whuuuu???)
She drove up from North Carolina with her husband and 2 little ones, and I greatly enjoyed the couple of days where we got to parent our little ones side by side.
Also: I totally fell in love with Anastasia. Pictures do not do the level of cuteness she has any justice at all.
I asked if she wanted to come back to Aus in my suitcase. Sadly, she said no.

3 cute kids are more worthy of paparazzi than any famous person any day!

Sam & Elizabeth swim with Meg while Taylor and Coro watch on.
Also - LOOK AT THAT GORGEOUS BABY BUMP!!
I am happy to report that that happy baby bump is now a happy baby girl named Everly June.
Fantastic.
Taylor and Coro - CONGRATULATIONS! Now, one day soon I hope to actually mail the gift I have for you and Everly….which is second best to giving you an actual hug.

Primarily I look forward to telling Everly that Meg is sitting on her in this photo…….

My very best friend Anastasia with her dad, Curtis, and little brother Austin.
Big A and Little A :)

Lazy morning crosswords on the porch.

Coro and her bump (hiiiiiii baby Everly!!!!!!) and her SUP. 

Me and Water Baby -
we promptly enrolled Meg in swim lessons after this trip, as he instinct in the water is just to GO!
After a few tears at the first lesson, I am happy to report that now she loves the water again! 

Summer in Lake Anna.

A study on the inverse ratio of floatie to body size…..

The following is a series of photos I like to call "real life with kids." Because sometimes, waiting for everyone to smile happily for a photo is futile. And also, fairly unnecessary! I love the free form style of everyone interacting, take a look - (and also try to pinpoint the exact time when Trip no longer wanted to play the 'take a photo' game…)

The Wests & The Tarvers 

The Wests & The Bostians 

The Wests & The Copes 

…and toddler boy couldn't stay away from the sand/fishing poles/water/food a single second longer!
At least we got a photo of me/mom/meg!

Trip & Anastasia - a life jacket hug while fishing. Love watching these two play together!!!

Meggie giving Taylor a few tips on what to expect when he becomes a father.
"And make sure you give lots of cuddles. And kisses. And don't sing that 'rock a bye baby' stuff. We prefer some real songs that you actually listen to."

Meggie went from mostly-crawling-kinda-walking to walking-walking---running! while we were in the States.
Here Memay gets two sweet treats - ice cream and a baby girl to chase :)

Granpa with his pint-size doppleganger!
I can't wait to see if Trip continues to look like my dad as he grows, I reckon he looks SO much like him now!

Toddler Heaven on a Lake

Perk of owning a business:
Coca-cola gave us a few choices in what kind of 'perk' we would like for signing a contract with them when we opened the second bakery (other suppliers offer perks too, most often in the form of branded tables, umbrellas, uniforms, etc, but coke offered us the best! Also, their drinks sell better.) So we took option B and used the money to get all four of us over to the States! Here is the photo we took to send as a "THANK YOU" to our Coke rep! (Alyssa's American flag bikini was a bonus for the photo! Also: that was her first purchase IN AUSTRALIA, how funny!!!! America is so 'in fashion' in Aus right now - American flags and burger joints and even PBR are all cropping up!)

Memay taught Trip how to water the garden.
And I'm not sure who got "watered" the most -
the garden, the dog, or the Memay! 

Alyssa, Meggie & Granpa at Dulles.
A beautiful goodbye.

Granpa & Meggie & Trip the super hero.

This is where we had to explain to the kids, "no, Alyssa is not coming back to Australia with us. She has to stay here, with Memay & Granpa & Aunt Kiki." I didn't think Trip fully understood, until we were landing in Adelaide (after 2 days of travelling!) and he looked out the window and said "I miss 'Lyssa." He still asks about her sometimes, and we just tell him we'll go visit her again because she is still in America. 

Our view for 14 1/2 hours from LA to Sydney.
I must say….these kids travel fabulously! Sure, they're awake some, but they also sleep some and eat some and play quietly some. We don't let them roam around or make too much noise - hoping that we will be rewarded in the future with well-behaved, ridiculously well-travelled children. 

Trip! Such a shy child!
I went to the toilet, came back, and the rascal had wiggled his way into the seat between these two lovelys!

This time travelling with Trip was a little easier than last time!
He got his own seat, with his own food and own movies to watch. How fun.

And then we spent one night in Sydney - we find this little stop off to be of utmost importance, because while there is only a couple hours on the plane left, it still means transferring flights and going through customs and picking up baggage and checking in again and getting luggage again and then the hour car ride home…. So we stop for one night to recharge. We spend most of the time at a playground (having a playground nearby is now our #1 most sought-after hotel accessory!) and coercing the children into sleeping at appropriate times. And then we were back in Adelaide, to sit and reminisce and look at pictures and plan the next time we get to drop in on our American friend/families lives again!

xox

Cara

ps- well, that only took me about 3 months :)