Our beautiful drive there!
Bath is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Greensboro, so we left right after work and didn't arrive until after dark, so we couldn't fully appreciate the beauty of the location! 
We woke up Saturday morning, and Katherine had already helped William build a fire, so we had our coffee lounging on the couches while Katherine told us all about the fire.
We've been here about 7 months now, and it continuously amazes me how much Katherine has grown up during those months! It's fun now that she is able to communicate her thoughts and interpretations of things to us. Saturday was a lazy day- but definitely needed! We went on a walk through the property that Williams dad has, and sat out on the dock just enjoying the day!
Jesse with both of her sweet kids!
Katherine thought it was so cool that John could lay on his belly and touch the water!
75 and sunny mid-November was pretty hard for us Michiganders to wrap our minds around!
Saturday afternoon we also got to go on a boat ride!! John loves being out on the water, so being able to go for a boat ride in November was a definite treat for him! To make it even better, it wasn't just a lake boat ride, there were winding rivers like one of his favorite shows, "Swamp People", so he felt like he was on an adventure!! Katherine tagged along with us because she kept telling us about the boat, and as soon as we started going, she started crying because she was scared, so while the boys had their fun, she was my little cuddle buddy!
Saturday night was a lot of fun! One of William's friends from high school recently moved back to the area with his wife and now two kids, so they all came over for dinner. They adopted a little boy named Sam from Ethiopia a year and a half ago- he's now three- and as of two weeks ago yesterday (Wednesday) they brought another sweet little boy, Solomon home from Uganda. There's something about John that little kids love- and he is GREAT with them! Sam (as I could have predicted!) warmed up to John pretty quick, hopped up on his lap and started asking about his favorite kind of soda and if he could try on his shoes :). So they became quick friends, and then Sam wanted to take lots of pictures with John doing silly faces. I could put an album together of all of the pictures they took, but here are just a few!
Their other little boy Solomon had such a sweet spirit!! He is 19 months old and loved being around all of the kids. He lived in an orphanage with 11 or 12 other kids, and Megan (his mom) was able to go be with him in the orphanage for two weeks before bringing him home to the States, so she said that having her as a constant has made the transition process a lot easier for him. John was pretty impressed with how much Solomon could eat at dinner, but it's in response to him being used to not having enough in the orphanage which was sad, and really humbling! It definitely made me stop and think of how much I do take for granted! It was so fun to meet them and hear about their adoption process- it was definitely educational for us!
After they left and the kids had gone down, one of the neighbors popped over to say hello- and he had some crazy stories to tell! He was one of those people who you get to talking with and as he starts telling a few stories you think "there's no way this could be true"- and then he shows you a newspaper article or something that shows in fact it did really happen. He is a pilot, and it was very evident that flying was a passion of his. I could write a whole post on some of the things this guys told us about, but a few of the highlights were that he was first person to hang-glide over the Statue of Liberty, went barefoot- skiing in the Hudson River and his son, who lives 20 minutes from his high school, was legally allowed to fly an airplane before he was allowed to drive a car. So for the four days before his 16th birthday, he FLEW to school!! It was definitely an entertaining night!
Sunday was another beautiful day! Down the road from the cabin there is a barn with horses, sheep, cows, etc. so we went for a walk stopping occasionally to see the animals.
When we returned from our walk, Williams parents were there! They had been on the outer banks all weekend and were gracious enough to let us use their place while they were away. Its always fun to see little kids get really excited about somebody they love arriving, and Katherine was very excited, but she made sure to introduce us- to her John and I are one person so it's always "KellyJohn" or "JohnKelly"- but it was very sweet!
His parents had gotten a little rocking chair for Katherine and his dad decided to see if Jonathan could fit in it. He scooched him up to the table and it looks like the three of them are playing a game of backgammon together!
What a sweet boy!!
We had a long drive ahead of us, so we left shortly after lunch but were so thankful to have a nice relaxing weekend with great friends!!!
