WHEN: April 15-20, 2011
WHERE: Fredericksburg, Virginia
Introducing the newest member of the Brass family...
Henry ('Rhee') James Palmer
Stacie and I spent part of last week in Virginia visiting my sister and her husband and our new nephew, 'Rhee', who was born on March 20. We are aunt and uncle for the third time but for the first time on my side of the family.
It was Stacie's spring break and I was able to take a few days off from work to spend more than just a weekend with them. We wished it could have been longer but we are thankful we could make it up there for 5 days and meet the newest member of our family. Ironically, my parents had been in Virginia with them for 2 weeks and left just 5 days before we got there...bad timing! At least Leta and Jay were able to have a few extra hands around to help out for an extended period of time. And you can bet that there were no shortage of volunteers offering to hold a new baby in the family!
On a lesser note, our trip was also special because it was the first time we were able to travel back to the town we lived in in North Carolina for 2 years. It had been almost 19 months since we had moved from Greenville and while we lived only 2 hours away in Virginia Beach for a year, we never made it back for a visit. Greenville was where Stacie and I spent the first 2 years of our marriage, where our first place as a couple was, and was home to many other firsts in our lives as newlyweds. Greenville will always hold a special place in our hearts for those reasons and we were excited to have the opportunity to go back for a (brief) visit.
Friday night we stayed in nearby Farmville (where Stacie worked those two years), with her former boss and good friend, Tracy. We got in town around 9:00 (driving non-stop from Charleston for 4:30 hours) and drove through to Greenville to make a quick pass by our old apartment and a few other significant landmarks in town. It was the first time we have visited somewhere we used to live and it was somewhat surreal. Although it was 2 homes ago, 2 jobs ago, 2 years ago, it oddly felt like we still lived there - like we could just drive up, walk up the stairs, go in, and get in our bed and watch TV in our own house. Yet it wasn't ours and hadn't been for quite sometime.
It was a one-time experience (the only time we will have visited our first place for the first time after moving away) and one memory I will not soon forget. Our visit to Greenville wasn't planned at all and wasn't full of "fanfare", but nonetheless the sentiment of it all made it special. The stop was very quick but we did happen to see someone walking in to "our" apartment right when we pulled up. I snapped a few pictures of our old apartment building (trying not to appear a stalker) then we drove off, just as soon as we had arrived. After a few other quick stops in town, including my alma mater East Carolina University, we headed back to Farmville to meet up with Tracy and her daughters (her husband was at ECU, competing in an all-night pig roast competition). I sat around as the girls caught up and chatted like only women can. It really was sweet to see Stacie interact with old friends that she obviously made a special impression on (and likewise) while we lived in Greenville.
We hit the road again Saturday morning to finish the drive to Virginia. I had been watching the weather all week and knew of the impending severe weather headed for the Carolinas and Virginia on Saturday. All week the weather was great, including Friday and Sunday, but Saturday - the day we would be driving - was looking more and more ominous as the day got closer. We took one last look at the radar that morning and then raced north with the ensuing storms. Saturday, 60 tornadoes were reported in 7 states, including 32 in North Carolina and one in Farmville, where we had just been that morning! There were 24 reported dead in North Carolina and 5 in Virginia from the storms on Saturday. God's grace kept us safe that day and He held the storms off just in time for us to arrive safely in Fredericksburg before the storms hit there.
Driving north on I-95, a road we have become quite familiar with over the past 4 years.
Visiting our first apartment for the first time since we moved 19 months ago
The (unlit) sign to the apartment complex, still without working bulbs, just as they were all two years we lived there :)
We briefly swung by ECU and the building and hallways where I spent most of my time. I had my 3-hour Monday night classes in this room the first year of grad school. I spent my entire weekends that year preparing for the papers and discussions for those Monday night classes. So glad that's over!
"Stacie and Tracy" (and her girls) before we headed to Virginia. You can tell it was already windy that morning, all of us unaware an EF3 tornado would rip through the small town just a few hours later!
The excitement to see Rhee may not have been mutual? :)
I guess he just likes his Uncle Jesse better ;)
Rhee staring at the ceiling fan and looking around the room, oblivious to us spying on him from the doorway
August 2009
Helping Jay & Leta move in to their new house. For the first time in two years I was able to mow a lawn again. As you can tell it is a hefty yard to mow but I was happy to do it since it had been so long since I had done yard work.
April 2011
It wasn't until this past week that I touched a lawn mower, again almost 2 years later. So in 4 years I have only mowed twice and both times were at Leta and Jay's. That's saying something for a guy who had over a dozen different mowing jobs, spanning almost 10 years growing up. I won't complain that we have always had lawn care/landscaping service where we've lived so far but I do miss having a yard to get dirty in and fix up. Leta and Jay thought I was doing them a big favor by mowing their yard, but minus the allergies, it was my treat!
Rhee is not a fan of being by himself and not held. This was a brief moment where he was content in his bouncer.
Luckily for Stacie and I, we didn't mind his partiality to cuddling :)
The life of an infant!
Just like his Uncle Jesse, he's a big fan of her too!
Rhee's room
Looks like he may be a Texas Longhorns fan already?
Saying goodbye...too soon :(
He was sad about 'goodbye' too
If our car wasn't so packed, we may have just brought Rhee back to South Carolina with us!
Our rental "car" (box?), the Chevy HHR...or as Jay, the Enterprise Rent-A-Car manager extraordinaire calls it, "The Mini Hurse". He has set us (and our families) up with many discount rentals over the years. He recommended the HHR because it has the largest room in the compact-size category and we had a lot of my junk to bring back with us that my parents had brought out from Iowa. We filled her full!
Compare the young, spring foliage in Virginia...
...to the dense, "summer" foliage in South Carolina.
Unfortunately, our trip to Virginia was a travel back in time, in terms of blooming season. Although pretty, it meant all our allergies from the pollen blooms that we had just gotten over in South Carolina, were now beginning again in Virginia. We followed the pollen north and our sinuses made sure we knew that.
Back near our old (but not too old) stomping grounds. We have become very familiar with I-95 and many areas across the Carolinas and Virginia over the past 4 years. In fact, this marked our 12th trip to Fredericksburg since moving out East. It has become an unofficial second home of sorts for us.
And in the name of time and space, a list of our visits to Fredericksburg...
October 2007
March 2008
July 2008
August 2008
October 2008
January 2009
May 2009
August 2009
October 2009
November 2009
January 2010
April 2011
We were long overdue for a visit this time and a new nephew was as good a reason as any to head back! Stacie and I have always been grateful for having Leta and Jay (relatively) close since moving away from our families in the Midwest.
The beautiful wildflowers (California poppies?) adorning the ditches and medians in North Carolina. North Carolina has one of the nicest road system that I can recall and the North Carolina Wildflower Program is one reason for that.
And spring is a great time to enjoy the beauty of the state's highways.
Then only a mile in to South Carolina we encountered this accident in the opposing direction. A tractor trailer had run off the road, struck some trees, spilled an entire load of watermelons, and caught on fire. Smoke from burning watermelons is not as fragrantly appealing as you might think.
I know that's a bad note to end a post with but that was the end of our trip. Maybe I should have posted the video of a sleeping baby at the end instead of the beginning?
Well, go back and watch it again :)
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