I think this post will be mostly pictures of my flowers.
I took this picture today. Despite the Sevin spray and the Sevin dust I have used from time to time this summer, the leaves of even my favorite yellow rose bush are looking like this. I am SO SAD about that.
This Rose of Sharon bush is down the street.
Last week our church had VBS Monday through Thursday. I missed the first two evenings because of my sister trip. On Wednesday and Thursday evenings I took Hunter. I didn't have any responsiblities except that I'm usually the designated photographer. One of my friends took lots of pictures too.
Our theme was "Road Trip." People put SO MUCH PREP into it, and the kids had a fantastic time. Here are just some of the pics. There were so many more taken, and fun vidoes too.
Last weekend Dick brought our pop-up tent home from Anthony's place. It had been parked under a tree, so he needed to power wash it.
Our annual KOA camping weekend is coming up in August. As it turns out, we had three cabins reserved in hopes Jeremy's family would be joining us this year. But they are not able to make the trip East this summer. Destiny and Elizer will be with us, and of course Sammy and Bianca. So because we're getting old and tired, we're going to all stay in cabins. It's expensive, but at least for this year, that's what we're planning to do.
I cracked myself up yesterday when I realized I was all decked in pink to go for groceries. I was thinking I was so pink I should paint my car and start selling Mary Kay!
Let me tell you about that handbag. I got it on Ebay for $5.00!! It's exactly like the black and tan one that I've been using for a long time, which I have loved! I was so tickled to finally find one like it. Turns out, the seller said there were a few faint spots of pink on the white part, and she would reduce the price to $5.00. I decided that for that price I would gladly ignore that light stain.
Yesterday I brought Hunter here after I picked him up from summer camp. Later when we were taking him home, it was raining. Then we caught sight of this!!
Then there's this boy! He video-called me one day while I was cooking, and we talked for a while. I snapped this picture. I think he had just had a blue drink - yikes!
Destiny will be coming to PA in time for our camping weekend. We'll be getting Elizer from his daddy at some point.
I'm sure all of you have seen this picture lots of times, but here it is again. Lisa and George had their 27th anniversary this week.
You would think that things were simpler in 1998, but they really were not for us. The summer of this wedding we also had two boys graduating from high school, four boys going to college, Miki's family visiting from Sweden for several weeks, two car accidents (the boys, not us), my niece's (Doris's daughter) boating accident which paralyzed her from the waist down, a bridal shower for Lisa, my sister Mary Ellen's wedding in Virginia. Somehow in the midst of all that, we had an absolutely fantastic wedding day for Lisa and George.
A very huge highlight of the day was that Marcy (my niece in the boating accident) was able to come to the wedding!! Her accident had been on Memorial Day weekend. She had been in the hospital for weeks, then was moved to a rehab hospital. Lisa's wedding was the first place she was allowed to go since her accident. It was extremely emotional when she was moved into the chapel in a wheel chair.
Hunter will soon be here. He's having a sleepover here tonight. Lori and Anthony are taking Austin out!
This will be REALLY long. I'm doing our entire six-day sister trip all in one post, because when reading this in ten years we will be glad I did it this way, haha!! We referred back to my blog quite often during our time together as we tried to remember where we had had our annual gatherings. This year we were together from Thursday, July 10 to Tuesday, July 15 at our sister Rose's home in Charleston, SC.
THURSDAY
Dick and I left on the two-hour trip to Harrisburg airport around 8:00 am. He dropped me off and then went to work. Yes, I do have a very, very good husband!!
I arrived way too early, just the way I like it. Before too long Doris and Mary Ellen arrived and the fun officially began!
We flew to Atlanta, then to Charleston. Rose met us there and took us to her lovely new home on John's Island!!
Left to right: kitchen/dining room, livingroom, downstairs powder room (please notice the wall paper that Rose hung herself!)
Middle row: Master bedroom, Mike's music room - with a bed added during our visit.
Bottom row: Guest bedroom, Master bathroom, stairway. I forgot to get a picture of the other bathroom on the second floor.
We also got to meet Rose's husband Mike for the first time in person! We had time to relax on her back porch, and Mike ordered Chinese for our dinner.
Later we enjoyed relaxing in the living room listening to Mike sing and play his guitar.
And even later Mike went to the airport to pick up our sister Elizabeth (Betty) who had had a direct, although delayed, flight from Boston. We got to see her before we hit the sack. We were a tired bunch!
FRIDAY
In the morning Rose went to the airport to pick up Barb who had flown overnight from Boise, Idaho. She arrived wearing a denim shirt that had been our brother Dick's shirt!
While Rose had been off to pick up Barb, some of the girls were making "Grandpa's Breakfast." This was our dad's specialty, and I think everyone in the family that knew Grandpa loves it!
Eating our late breakfast was the beginning of many long, wonderful, leisurely conversations.
In the afternoon we gathered in the living room to watch the old pictures I had put together. Rose cast them up onto her TV screen, and we took our good, old time viewing each one, sometimes with long conversations about them - and some good laughs too, of course! We were keeping no track of time, but I really think we were looking at those pictures and talking about the memories they evoked for at least four hours! It was WONDERFUL!!
While we were doing that we got a FaceTime call from Destiny. Lori was on a work trip to Indianapolis and they were having lunch together!! How cute are they?
For our dinner I fried sausages, peppers, and onions for hoagies. Rose made a veggie tray.
I went out to the front porch to take this selfie before we ate our dinner. We were just SO happy to be together!
After we had eaten and cleaned up the kitchen we sat around the dining room table to drink some wine and talk some more and more and more and more. We are truly best friends and can share both laughter and tears. We each have some heavy things that we carry, and it was so beautiful to have a no-judgement sister circle like this.
SATURDAY
Saturday was our "tourist day." I took this picture of the front of Rose's house as we were preparing to leave. So lovely!!
Our first stop was at The Battery. Rose had rented a minivan, and of course two people needed to be in the back seat. I was bad and took a video as Mary Ellen and Betty climbed out.
We were wishing someone could take a picture of us. Betty said, "We could take a 'facie!'" She meant "selfie" and we cracked up! We will probably always take "facies" from now on! Someone did take our picture after that.
From there we drove to Charleston Harbor. Some of the girls walked further out on the pier, and some of us just enjoyed the swings. My plantar fasciitis was giving me issues, of all times, grrrr. They said that I was having trouble with it last summer too. WELL. Why can I go months with no issues and then it acts up for important summer events??
Then we did the BEST thing of the whole trip! We paid for a carriage ride through the historic district of Charleston. It was so relaxing, complete with a bit of a breeze. Our carriage driver/guide was an absolute HOOT!! His name was Ricky, and we loved him! Not only was he funny, he was a history major who knew everything about Charleston's history. I have no idea how long the tour was, but we loved every minute of it!
When the tour was finished we were hungry and tired and HOT - some of us more than others. To our dismay we discovered that the restaurants were closing for a few hours and would reopen in the evening. So we walked back to the parking garage and Rose drove us to a wonderful Mexican restaurant. We were there for a long time, talking of course. And the food was scrumptious!
How do you spell love??
Back at Rose's house again, Mike went on a shopping trip to buy us some Turkey Hill ice cream. Vanilla Bean, Chocolate Peanut Butter, and Black Raspberry. We sat on the back porch to eat it, but I guess this picture was taken before the ice cream had arrived. I honestly can hardly remember Saturday evening. If I don't take pictures it never happened, lol!
SUNDAY
Sunday was another full, very fun day! We went to Kiss Cafe for brunch. Rose's two daughters, Christy and Julia, work there.
It was so delightful to get to not only see them, but to see them in their work setting! The food was fantastic!! True southern! We took our good old time enjoying it all!
From there we went to the Angel Oak tree. It is somewhere between 300 - 500 years old!
Rose and Mike had their wedding there in March!
When we got home I made a pan of peanut butter rice krispie treats. Then Rose's family began descending upon us! What a fun, loud, crazy bunch!! We ordered pizza. I don't know where they got it, but it was SO GOOD!! The mushroom pizza was the BEST I have ever had. Also, Katie brought a delicious peach cobbler.
Rose's daughter Katie and her husband Matt have three children and a dog. Julia's fiance Alex has a son. Christy's girlfriend Britt has a teen brother, college-age. One of Britt's friends came too. I think we had 19 people and two dogs. It was a loud, crazy, fun time!
Picture time! The six Witmer sisters with Rose's three daughters.
The Witmer sisters. Jean, Mary Ellen, Doris, Rose, Barb, Betty. Good grief, you're probably tired of seeing us by now, but there will be more!
Rose and Mike (in the middle) with Alex and Julia, Britt and Christy, Katie and Matt. Rose also has two more daughters and a son. Maribeth and her husband Teo live in Tampa, Matthew and Olivia live near Atlanta.
Later Katie's husband took their children and dog home with him, and Alex took his son home with him, and then the rest of us crammed ourselves into the back porch. We had the most fantastic time reminiscing, laughing, and shedding some tears. Katie wanted to know more about our mom, her grandma whom she had never met. Rose was just 18 when our mother died from pancreatic cancer. There were a lot of sad stories to tell from that time in our lives. But as you can see on the pictures below, there were lots of funny stories too!
MONDAY
Monday was our beach day. Some of us, including me, had not been to an Eastern coast beach in many years.
We went to Folly Beach, and it was absolutely beautiful!! Not crowded at all. We did have to walk a ways from where we parked, and everyone kept checking on poor Jeanie with the plantar fasciitis trailing behind everyone else. Ugh. I felt so old.
The water was as warm as bath water!
After a few hours we went back to Rose's house to get showered and changed and to eat some of the many leftovers in the fridge. Then we headed toward Folly Beach again for an open mic night where Mike and his friend John were playing. What a fantastic venue and crowd! The weather was perfect while we were there. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Here's part of a song Mike sang. Bless him, he mentioned before the song that his wife's sisters were here, and he mentioned each one of us by name!! Needless to say, we like him a LOT!!
We saw an amazing sunset on the way back to the house. Back at the house we went for a walk around the lake in their community. It was so beautiful! And a bit sad that it was our last evening together. We already started making plans for next year.
However, our fun was not quite over! I read some of my "trip diaries" from our weekends together back in the 90's. They were good for some more laughs and commentary! Then we pulled out the music. We sisters sang a few songs together, and Mike and Rose sang some together. Our last precious evening together for 2025. Here's a video of each.
TUESDAY
Bless Rose and Barb - they were out the door by 5:00 the next morning so Barb could catch her flight. Then Rose came home and eventually took the rest of us to catch ours. How could our time together be over already???
But not quite. Betty was flying later and came to the airport when we did so Rose would not need to make three trips. So we got to hang out with her until our flight. Meanwhile Barb texted us from the Dallas Fort Worth airport saying that she was all by herself and missing us. Awwwww.
Our flights to Atlanta and then to Harrisburg were uneventful. We had fun watching our flight on the screens in front of us. It was a GORGEOUS day!!
Here are two pictures Doris took. I was a sweet sister and let her have the window seat, lol! The bottom picture is a fantastic view of the island in Harrisburg on which the baseball field is located. We've been there several times, but never saw it from this view!
At Harrisburg Dale picked up Doris and Mary Ellen, and right after they left, Dick pulled up for me.
It was so nice to have Dick drive me the two-hour trip home. I remember last October when I got back from Lisa's in Florida, I got in my car and drove home without stopping to pee because I was trying desperately to beat the dark. What can I say? I was younger then. And I'm so blessed to have a hubby that likes to drive.
If you made it all the way through this post, God bless you!
