You know what they say...a face with pizza dough on it is a happy face! This past Saturday, our family had the fun of cousin-sitting Abigail. Maggie decided to make pizzas and Abigail had a blast!

I'm not sure who had more fun...Maggie or Abigail! Poor Maggie's hands hurt her afterwards.

I loved seeing Abigail wearing my patchwork apron :-)

And here's one of their creations...complete with basil from the garden. Delicious! Abigail came over on Monday with Sarah...but all the cousins were in NC. Where are the cousins?! She just couldn't fathom them being gone. How 'bout Allen...where's Allen? Later we called Maggie on her cellphone and talked to Abigail. "Hi cousins!" she said. It was so cute!

On Sunday morning, six of us left to go to NC to drop off the three campers at The Wilds. Of course, we had to pass the amish before leaving our county. It's our dangerous tradition!

We drove from 10 to 6, arriving at Aunt Jackie and Uncle Lou's home in Asheville. What a delightful visit! I had not seen them in 25+ years, so it was a real treat.

I loved Aunt Jackie's cozy living room. It reminded me so much of Mike's home in CT before his parents moved to FL.

The view of the mountains from their porch is beautiful.

We all liked her primitive log table.

Here's another view from the porch.

Aunt Jackie has a real appreciation for all things handcrafted...just like my mother in law, Clare. I enjoy both of their knitted, cross-stitched, embroidered, and quilted items throughout their homes.

Aunt Jackie tried to take us to visit Georgia Bonesteel's quilt shop in Hendersonville...but we were unable to find it. Aunt Jackie drove up to several stores and ran in asking about the shop but we were still unable to find it. Gloria Bonesteel was popular in the 1980s when she was on PBS teaching quilting. I learned to quilt through her series. Thank you, Aunt Jackie for everything...we had a great time. Uncle Lou, thank you for dinner and for cleaning up both meals. What a blessing you two are!

Later on, we decided to visit downtown Ashville. What a wonderful place to walk around and enjoy all the many shops. I enjoyed Mast's General Store.
I liked the real wood floors and the real wood shelves. I also enjoyed looking at all the cast iron for sale. Here's the rug display.

The upstairs had camping supplies and clothes. This store reminds me of the Five and Dime store that I used to visit in Hanover, PA. I miss those kinds of stores.

Beautiful Fiesta ware.

Of course, we liked the signs.

Had to take the Bee sign to show Maggie.

There were bears in several places throughout, all painted differently. Aunt Jackie says she sees bears in the spring. Wow...that's more fun than copperheads!

There was an American Doll store! Ruthie loved this store. She has been studying American Doll clothes...and then sewing her own version. She gives away more than she keeps, but I think she has fun designing the dresses. She got lots of ideas on this trip!

Ruthie especially enjoyed the vintage type dresses.

Later on we drove to Brevard to drop Allen, Lizzie and Anna off at camp. This is Anna and Lizzie's cabin. It was quite a hike to get to! I had not seen this building before. I was a camper here during my high school days in the 70s, so it is exciting to see the camp still building new things.

This is my only other picture from the camp. We were kept busy getting everyone settled in. This stream is where they go tubing. I used to love tubing here. I noticed the water level is much lower now. We saw our friend Denise and her sons who used to go to our church. Anna also saw a friend from Camp BIMI. So it was a fun time.

It was exciting to see the many, many buses from independent Baptist churches all over the Bible belt states. But that excitement quickly turned to heartbreak as we watched the teens getting off the buses. The immodest clothes were a shock to us. From what we could see, the youth from independent Baptist churches have the same love affair with the world that we expect from youths who have never heard the gospel. We talked to our three children and decided to let them stay. They are strong...but I have no desire to return next year.

These two pictures are for Allen. We told Allen about the mountains in CA and how there were many places alongside the road for the trucks to use if their brakes failed while going downhill. Well, after we left camp, we saw several such places.

Oops...my last three pictures are in the left column. Oh well. You can still see the dirthills for the trucks.

I always enjoy seeing trains!

On the way down, we listened to this cd by R.C. Sproul, Jr. What a blessing! We felt this message was given just for us. Lots to meditate on. If you'd like to borrow this cd, let me know and I will get it to you. Mr. Sproul gave some points that I wanted to make note of here...but I forgot them! So I will listen to them again and come back to type them in here. This is definitely a cd to hear.

Ruthie is lonely without her siblings, so Sarah took Maggie and Ruthie to Grandaddy's home for the evening. We got home from NC at 3 am this morning, so I am dragging. I have a feeling Mike is downstairs asleep at his desk :-)

This morning when we went outside to take Maggie to her appts, there was an awful stench in the air. It smelled toxic...like burning plastic. I kept Ruthie in the air-conditioned car. Turns out, the smell (and the smoke) came from a fire that is burning in the Great Dismal Swamp in VA! Both the smoke and the smell were gone by mid-afternoon.

Many blessings ~ Kathie