Asphalt at Sanibel

DW and I had a great time at this year’s asphalt convention in Sanibel.

We dropped the kids off with Nen and left on Thursday just before lunch and made it to Sanibel, early evening, after what felt like driving for three days.

(I posted this pic on Instagram, and got 3 texts that afternoon wanting to know what was wrong with my ring fingernail. Ha. My accent nail was painted like a road…) ;)

After we got checked into our rooms, we had dinner with cousins, William & Stephanie and Mike & Jenn.

Grammy & Pop had picked up the little darlings from Nen that afternoon and had them for the rest of our trip.

The guys were up early on Friday for their welcome breakfast and the start of a full day of meetings and speakers.

The girls all went to the spouses’ breakfast and then spent the day laying by the pool. We got the better end of the deal, hands down. ;)

After the social hour, that night’s dinner theme was beach-casual. It was nice to meet new people and also be able put faces with names of people I’ve heard DW talk about. It was also fun getting to hang out with our group in a relaxed setting, versus just work.

We stayed up way too late that night – and my stomach hurt the next day from laughing so hard.

On Saturday morning, we headed out for breakfast and to check out the beach.

Afternoon naps were a must and then we got in some more pool time. The guys (and Stephanie) went out on Jet Ski’s and then it was time to get ready for the awards banquet that night.

After the banquet dinner, we cheered on our guys, who accepted awards for 3 different jobs that the company paved.

Growing up, DW never saw himself working for the construction company or being an asphalt man, even though the company has been in his family for over 50 years. In fact, it was never even on the radar, but we both believe that the Lord directed his (our) path and we both feel it’s been reaffirmed many times that this was the direction he was meant to go in. We’re all-in or none kind of people – so if he’s an asphalt man, that makes me an asphalt wife. We believe in supporting and being dedicated to the industries that are our livelihood- so you can bet while I sometimes cringe when I see “Road Work Ahead” signs, I’m also always glad, too. ;)

It was a fun long weekend getting to see some different aspects of asphalt and mingle with people who are in the industry, too.

On Sunday morning, we checked out and headed home. It’s always so nice to get away, but the very best part to me, is ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS-  coming home.

~amw~

June Randoms…

- The beginning of June was filled with lots of watermelons. The farm crew worked all day and into the night for several weeks. As “office girl” I was given the food safety audit job. This was brand new to all of us, and I’ve never had to do something that I knew NOTHING about before. After lots of researching, and calling around, and PRAYING – I’m so serious- I sat at the computer one night and just cried because I had NO IDEA what I was doing. I just prayed and asked God to give me a “super-natural understanding and ability to get our stuff together for the audit” – and HE DID! A week later, I finished our manual at 4:00 a.m., and met the auditor at 8:00 that morning. The audit lasted until around 2:00 that afternoon. All we’d hoped for was PASSING, which isn’t typically like me, at all- so that says how hard the whole deal was and how unsure I was about it. When the results came two weeks later, we made a 93! It was an absolute, no-doubt-about-it, answer to prayer. Another thing that’s for certain, is that I was thrilled to be done with my little part of watermelon season after that! ;)

Nie-Nie’s birthday falls right in the middle of melon picking, but that didn’t stop us from celebrating. By instruction of Pappy, Kels & I coordinated a Krispy Kreme breakfast at the packing shed for the whole crew.

- We started swimming lessons with Tucker.

Like his sisters, he started the first day as swim school Valedictorian. No crying, he even let them pull him under. He spider walked and did everything they asked him to do. He thought it was over. He didn’t know we had to go back for two weeks. He cried every single day the rest of the time- EXCEPT the very last day. He did get a prize when it was all over, though…

- My Dad has been promising to build the girls a zip line at the new house since they bought it. With moving in and remodeling, he hasn’t gotten to it yet, but mom called the other day to invite us to supper and to tell the kids they had a surprise for them. The girls just squealed when they saw it! Tucker loved it, too. Momma even made them a funfetti cake to celebrate. The funniest part was it actually my parent’s 41st anniversary that day. It wasn’t wasted on me, that they had us over for dinner and to surprise the kids with the zip line on their anniversary. I loved it. I made them cut the cake like a wedding cake. Ha. ;)I’m so thankful for my parent’s commitment to each other and to our family- they’ve been choosing each other for 41 years. They taught me what real love looks like – and it’s not a fairy tale. It’s sometimes disagreeing and even arguing and sometimes it’s bending and giving in. It’s work, every day – but it’s worth it and it’s even better than some ole fairy tale.

- I found a U-Pick Blackberry farm close by and we picked blackberries one Saturday morning. We made a detour for breakfast, first…The blackberry bushes were beautiful! It wasn’t a very good season for them, but we were still able to pick quite a few. They’re domestic bushes, so there’s no thorns on them, and the kids loved picking – for about 10 minutes. Ha. Then they were hot and ready to go. After picking, while they weigh your berries and you check out, they give you ice cream and blackberry topping. You can also check out their chicken pens. The  kids went home with Grammy after and the girls helped her make jelly with the berries.

- The county has several 4H day camps in the summer. This year one of them was a livestock focused camp. The campers visited local beef producers and on the day they visited Whitehurst Cattle, our 4H club provided snacks for them.

- We saw a couple pups from Paw Patrol at the library as part of their summer fun program. There were even crafts, which are my girls’ love language.

- We put up some cream corn! We left the house at daylight with Grammy & Nie-Nie to pick corn at Uncle Jerry’s. We spent the morning and afternoon shucking, washing and creaming a whole truck bed full of corn. We decided around 1:00 that our eyes were bigger than they needed to be and were wishing we hadn’t picked SO MUCH. We all ended up with a couple dozen bags of garden gold, though. My kids won’t ever know gardening and canning to the extent that I did growing up, but we always try to do a little bit in the summer time so the kids can get a little taste of it.

~amw~