Home Again, With Full Hearts

It was a quick trip down to South Carolina, and back, but it was so worth it.

On Friday, I delivered the wedding flowers at 6:30am, heard from the bride that she loved them, and headed out on our trip.  We arrived at EI in time to change for the graduation banquet.  

During the speaking at the banquet Emma put Isla in the Ergo and had been standing in the back trying to get her to sleep - she was so tired.  But she is a people person and she liked everything that was going on.

Graduation was the next morning.  All the graduates spoke and gave a testimony to what God had done in their lives through the two years of study.  Vinnie is a great speaker and they put him last. I turned to Tim and said, "That'll preach."  We are so proud of these this family.  They'll be working this summer to save money for the next course, which is a year long.  When he completes this, that with his gen ed courses from college will give him his Bachelor's Degree.  They aren't sure of the direction they'll be headed after that, but they likely will be in ministry somewhere.

We loved being with Vinnie's family this weekend, too!  We are so delighted to know them.  We are thankful for their love of Emma, and happy that Isla has such wonderful grandparents and aunties!  We love Vinnie, too, and it is such a blessing to see how happy they are.

After graduation all the family headed back to their apartment on campus and loaded up all their stuff. They'll be in a different apartment next year, so they had to totally clean out their current one.  Some went into storage on campus and the rest was loaded into their car and Vinnie's dad's car.  Emma discovered Space Bags and they worked wonderfully for all their clothes!

When they apartment was empty and the vacuuming had been done, we went out to eat - the whole clan!  We really enjoyed the food and fellowship!

Vinnie's family headed back to Nashville after lunch (which was actually eaten at 3:00pm), and we did a few last minute chores they needed to do, then met up on the Furman University campus.  It is right near EI and the whole community uses it.  In fact, it must have been prom day for local high schools, because there were hundreds of students and their families and photographers getting photos by the lake, the fountains, the rose garden.

We enjoyed a walk down to a picnic spot and the kids and Tim played with the volleyball, and I played with Isla!

 The bell tower is beautiful and chimes every quarter hour.  With the hillside behind it, we thought it looked like it belonged in Italy.

There were many people enjoying the campus and the beautiful lake Saturday afternoon.

Isla liked the ducks and black swans.

She also came to enjoy everyone.  She doesn't see us in person often so we FaceTime but being with her was sweet!

On the way back to the vehicles, I wanted to check out the rose garden, so Tim and Kyle came with me.

They have so many varieties!  So much beauty.

We all stayed at the same hotel Saturday night, hung out, ate some pizza, and laughed together.  Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and we were on our way.  Emma and Vinnie met up with his dad who was hiking in a nearby state park.


I'll get to see them again in July in California, when we meet up with them at my nephew's wedding.

We finished our required school days last week, and are just finishing up some science, but we are officially on summer break now.  When we get back from the wedding in early August, it'll be time to start school again!  The summer is just getting started though, and the weather this week is heating up!  Going to enjoy every minute of it!