Before leaving for vacation, we celebrated Dan's birthday on July 4th. It was a lot fun. We had some friends over, the Douangaphaivongs, and also Don, Amy, Grams, and Dad.
In July we went on vacation from July 8 to July 23. We travelled through 13 states and got to visit a lot of family. It was a very productive trip. We began with a visit with Abby in Pennsylvania. As always, my kids loved seeing their cousins and were sad to leave. We stopped on Gettysburg on our wait and walked through the national cemetery there. We then went to Berlin, OH and got to tour Heini's Cheese Chalet. That was a lot of fun, as we got to see who cheese is made and taste over 50 kinds of cheese, including mint choclate cheese! We also got to drive through Ammish Country, which was really beautiful. 
After leaving Holmes County, OH, we went to Michigan to visit my sister Bess and to meet the newest member of our family, Garrett. He was so cute and such a butterball. Noleigh and Hiram enjoyed their time at Bess's and were sad when it was time to move on.
From MI, we went back to Ohio, a small town called Columbus Grove. We visited with Dan's side of the family. We were able to see the majority of family there and I was able to attend Aunt Jalene's baby shower. We also went and saw Wall-e while we were there in an old fashioned theatre (it did NOT have stadium seating) with Dan's aunts and grandmother. It was funny because Aunt Sandy and Grandma were both asleep within the first few minutes of the movie. Dan and I were able to play a lot of cards with his grandparents and Noleigh just had so much fun playing with her cousin Courtney.
After five days in Ohio, it was time to move on with our trip. We drove down through Kentucky and stopped at Cumberland Falls. Here we we spent the day taking pictures of the waterfalls, hiking and doing some boulder climbing. It was beautiful and we plan on making that a permaanent stopping point for our future trips. One of the unigue things we saw on our hike was a tree that looked like it had a huge 4 ft tall brain-like tumor growing out of it. My mother informed me that it is called a burr, a place where the tree was injured and tried to heal itself. In any case, it was unique. The hike was fun and at the bottom of the falls, we were able to cool our feet in the river. 
From Kentucky, we continued on our journey to Alabama. We stayed with Dan's dad and had a wonderful time. We were able to spend time with Dan's brother and mother as well. A funny thing that happened in Alabama was when we attended my father in law's church. It was a small building and the preacher was very enthusiastically speaking into the microphone, so it was louder than Hiram was used to. After the service, he asked the preacher, "Why were you yelling?" It was cetainly something he was unaccustomed to, as our services are very mild. We went to Panama Beach while we were there and also went bowling with Dan's family.
From Kentucky, we continued on our journey to Alabama. We stayed with Dan's dad and had a wonderful time. We were able to spend time with Dan's brother and mother as well. A funny thing that happened in Alabama was when we attended my father in law's church. It was a small building and the preacher was very enthusiastically speaking into the microphone, so it was louder than Hiram was used to. After the service, he asked the preacher, "Why were you yelling?" It was cetainly something he was unaccustomed to, as our services are very mild. We went to Panama Beach while we were there and also went bowling with Dan's family.
We certainly did a lot of driving, but we enjoyed the driving as well. We listened to some books on tape, which helped make the time go by. We listened to Harry Potter (the first one), an American History, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. After being on the road, it was good to be home. It was a happy site to drive up and see our home still in one piece.
