Weekend 6 - SVU, Merica's

Friday July 5th we drove down to Buena Vista to visit my old stomping grounds. Caleb had never been to SVU before so I was excited to show him around. His comment when we pulled into town was, "What a sleepy little town!" It kind of is. All the students are gone for the summer so there's a lot less happening in BV then I remember. We stayed with Sean and Shauna Dahlin Friday night which was really fun. They met at SVU when I was there and Sean works at SVU now. They have a little girl Maia. 

It was good to be back and neat to see the new dorms, new fields, etc. I'm not very good at telling great stories or creating a good picture of my past life experiences for Caleb and the kids so not sure it was as neat for them. But I did realize as we walked around the campus by ourselves (nobody was there!) that PEOPLE are what made my experience at SVU so great, and they're what make any experience great. The campus is beautiful and all but the great professors, coaches, teammates and friends are what really made it great.

We visited Lee Chapel on Washington and Lee campus in Lexington while we were there which was neat (where Robert E. Lee is buried). I'm ashamed to say I never did take advantage of the historical sites while I was at SVU! Lexington is just a few miles from BV.

SVU Main Hall (where I lived for my first two years)

Ate at Don Taquila's with Coach Harmon (my bball coach at SVU) and Terri! It was great to see them. Got to see their daughters Megan and Sarah for a bit too.

Reliving one of Samuel's favorite books right now, "Shortcut" by Donald Crews.

The barn (gym). Made me miss playing basketball there so much. Man that was a fun time!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday afternoon we had a BBQ and pool party at Chelsea and Joe's. They were great to host us all and it was fun to catch up with everyone after 7 years!! Leslie ("Boo"), Amber (Coach) Clark, Chelsea, me, and Shauna. Played ball with all these girls.

 

With our kiddos

 

We left Saturday evening to drive to Merica's house near Richmond. Saw this beautiful view and had to stop. "A fish can BREATHE out here!" Living in NJ we miss being able to SEE. So it kinda' filled our souls to stop here and take in the view.

Can't believe we didn't take a picture at Merica's house! We didn't stay long but go to sleep there Saturday night, go to church with them Sunday, then enjoy a delicious meal before taking off. It was fun to reconnect with Merica. It'd been a while! Ali Stone was there too helping Merica so it was awesome to be able to see her again. She is such a fast worker. I'm honestly so impressed with her. She's more than 10 years younger than me yet I learn so much just watching her! I watched her make a salad in like 3 minutes flat! She asked Merica what time she wanted to leave for church, and exactly 2 minutes before the appointed time Ali was putting the kids in the car. And she's chipper and fun to talk to all along the way. Caleb and I have created a new verb, "to Ali." It's to go really fast and basically to do something in an awesome Ali like way. :) Love learning from all these family members we're getting to spend time with out here in the East.