A few days before we left Virginia, we stopped by some friends house to drop a few things off. Sister Funk happens to also be Adayla's nursery music teacher. She came out to tell her goodbye. They had quite the conversation. She asked about their birthdays and, of course, remembered them the next day. She then asked her if she had a puppy and she said no. She asked her if she had a kitty and she said yes. She asked her what her Kitty's name was and she told her Prissy. She then asked when Prissy's birthday was. We asked her a few weeks later and she remember the kitty's name and all the birthdays. We are continually amazed at her memory and the kinds of questions she asks.
We checked out of our house just in time to celebrate Tally's first birthday. We had planned a little gathering of pizza and cake outside at the park near our house. Of course, it had to start raining about an hour before we were to start. My wonderful friend and neighbor said we could have it at her house and I took her up on it. Along with her, the Fowlers, Coles, Millers, and the Gillans joined us. It was a nice way to say goodbye to our friends there and celebrate the Tally's special day. She was all about her cake until she had about half of it eaten, where she must of felt extremely sick, and started screaming. We'll post pics later.
It is kind of nice to do all the cleaning on your own house, as by the time the movers come and you get it all clean, you are just ready to be done. It is much less emotional. We loved our house in Virginia and really enjoyed nearly every minute of it. But we were ready to leave and continue into the next step in our lives.
We left Virginia Thursday morning with a new fondness of the place it will hold in our hearts. We loved our year in Virginia and have many great memories of the time we spent there. The drive out was rather uneventful. The girls traveled fairly well. A few hours outside DC in the middle of seemingly nowhere on I-70, traffic comes to a sudden halt. We go about 5 miles over the next hour and all that had happened was a bit of work on an overpass and they had closed one lane. The unexpected traffic delays are something we definitely won't miss about the eastcoast. So a few hours later than planned, we finally arrived at Chelsie and Bryan's to spend a few days with them and Binx.
One afternoon, Bryan took Adayla to a lake close to their home so they could feed the ducks. They parked the car and had about a 5 minute walk on a path through trees. I don't think they saw any ducks, but she was happy to throw the bread in the water. Later, I noticed the bow from the top of her head was missing. I asked her where is your bow? She said, by the tree. I asked her to go with her dad outside to find her bow. They went and stopped by each tree in the yard, only to be unsuccessful. Tim said, "Adayla where is your bow?" She responds with, it is the the green tree by the lake. They came inside and she stuck to her story of the green tree by the lake. So with Adayla and Bryan, we headed to the lake to find the bow. We started the little walk into the trees back to the lake. Every so many yards, I would ask her is your bow here? She kept telling me no, it is by the lake. We reached the lake and the path circles around the edge of the water. Adayla loses interest in finding her bow and back to talking about feeding the ducks. Bryan and I are looking and he tells me that somewhere a little ways back he picked her up and set her on his shoulders. We keep looking and suddenly Bryan points out the bow, in the green tree by the lake, attached to a branch that could only be touched if a certain little girl was sitting on someone's shoulders. We just cracked up laughing! Bryan said she had two hand fulls of bread ready to feed the ducks, she noticed her bow being stolen by the branch, but didn't care as she was about to throw bread into the water.
We enjoyed our weekend with them. We played a few hands of cards with Sharon and Steve, ate a few good meals, shopped, and enjoyed the nice weather. We didn't let the boys repeat the Greatest Comeback in Spade History, but were often reminded about that New Year's game. Then Sunday morning we said our final goodbye to little Binx (of course with a few tears). We know he is well taken care of and truly enjoying his time with his cousin, Maddux! We are so grateful for being his foster parents! And we were off onto the next leg of our journey.
