We have also had the chance to get to know our new nephew.  We congratulate Ginger and Chris on their beautiful baby boy!

We now find ourselves in beautiful Western North Carolina having decided to call Asheville home for the time being.  The train rolls on…

Now that we have introduced you to our family, I would like to show you where we are living…

Our house - the second level window on the left is the room we are staying in for right now.

This is the building right next to the house. We will be living in the second floor apartment when it is renovated.

The vineyard in our back yard.

View from our back porch. Awesome!

The summer kitchen. All meals are cooked out here during the warm months. We are almost out of these months and it is only September! Uh oh!

The property also has a giant garden where we get most of our vegetables, a green house, a pool, an old house and lots of storage space.

During the past week we have done a lot.  We visited Ruslan’s mom’s house again and had a wonderful meal there.  On the way there, we stopped by a house that had an amazing vineyard with all different kinds of grapes that we got to try.  On Saturday we had a baptism day in our pool where 7 people got baptized.  Sunday we went to church and then came back here for a birthday celebration – it was Roma’s (Ruslan’s brother) 28th birthday.

This is a picture of Ruslan's mom's village from high atop the hill. Beautiful - one of our favorite stops!

The playground near Ruslan's mom's house. The equipment is the same that Ruslan used to play on when he was little. It is rusty, old and dangerous looking, but the kids are so happy to play on it!

Raegan, Isabella and I making flower halos on the step of Ruslan's grandma's house.

BEAUTIFUL!

Archie with mama in her kitchen fixing an amazing meal!

One of the baptisms...Our friend Dima.

Tea and cake time after the baptisms.

Everyone that came to the baptisms from church. Fun Day!

We grilled out yummy meat for Roma's birthday celebration. (Ruslan on left and Roma on right)

On Monday, we took a trip to Vinnysta and it was such an interesting day, I thought I would share an excerpt of my journal with you so that you can get the whole picture…

“A day in the life of Андре и Ларіса (Andy and Lori)”

9:00 am – Load up the car to head towards Vinnysta.  The van held Ruslan, Archie, Isabella, the neighbor, Larissa and her daughter and son, Andy and I.  We were taking Larissa and her family to Vinnysta for a follow-up for her son’s surgery (he has CP).  He is has to stay in the hospital for a week.

9:00-10:30 – Driving to Vinnytsa we made 2 stops.  One to pick up 3 hitch hikers and one to get a drink.  Picking up hitch hikers is very normal here and they paid for our gas to get to the city, paying 25 Grevna a piece.

10:30 – arrive in Vinnysta and drop off all of our passengers.  Archie, Isabella and I went by foot to get Isabella fitted for shoes and Andy and Ruslan went to unload a washer and then load another one (Ruslan often makes trips and deliveries for other people – we never really know what is going on, we just help out where we can)

11:30 – meet back up with Andy and Ruslan with a small loaf of bread each to snack on.  We head to a mall – this is the point of the day where Andy and I stop asking questions and just go with the flow.

Betweeen 11:30 and 4:00 we made 3 stops at various malls and 1 stop at a crazy looking warehouse…but like I said, we don’t really know what is going on!

4:10 – we arrive at a bank for Andy and I to exchange some traveler’s checks into Grevna and Dollars…”Sorry” the lady says, “we quit exchanging checks at 4:00.”  Of course you do, we thought!  Of course you do.  She then directs us to another bank that handles check cashing until 6:00 – GREAT!

4:20-5:15 – Again, I lost time – we stopped at an ATM and I am not sure what else.

5:15 – we arrive at the other bank.  Archie tells the lady we need to cash checks and her first question is, “Do we have time to do that?”  45 minutes until they close and she is not sure if they are going to have time?  Of course you have time, I think, What?  I soon figured out why she asked that question.  I had signed half of the checks and Andy had signed the other half, so we decided to cash mine first.  They took about 20 minutes studying and reviewing my checks and comparing the signature to my passport.  Well, the problem was, I signed my passport about 7 years ago when I had just become a Fleming and I wrote every letter of it.  Now, 7 years later, my “Fleming” has become a “Flg” – big problem here!  50 minutes later, after tons of paperwork and copies of paperwork done, and lots of Ukrainian exchanged, we left with my checks in hand and only half of Andy’s checks exchanged into Grevna.  They refused to exchange my checks because of my signature!  Uh oh!  The old Soviet way of doing things is extremely frustrating.  So, not having a bank in our village that will deal with traveler’s checks, we will have to make this trip again!

Oh – but wait, the day is not over!

6:30-8:00 – eat at McDonalds – YUM!!

8:15-11:15 – Shopping at Metro (my favorite place – like an American Sam’s club)

11:15-12:45 – drive back to our Village

12:45 – pull up to another crazy looking warehouse to unload whatever we got to deliver…some kind of pipes.

1:20 am – arrive home and go directly to bed…

Did you get all that?  CRAZY LIVING!!!  Here are some shots from the day…

He didn't want to waste any sauce, so he dipped his fries in the sauce on his beard! Hilarious. But, you really don't want to waste the sauce because you have to pay extra for it.

Ukrainians say, "Ya lublue McDonalds!"

We went a little crazy at Metro (it is a store like Sam's or Costco). This is our receipt! Hahaha!

Tuesday was spent getting ready for “First Bell” on Wednesday.  September 1 is the first day of school and there is a huge celebration here.  So preparations were made and then Tuesday night we went to a leadership meeting at church, and then got to do something really great.  There is a family of 7 that attend the church we go to including 5 children under the age of 10.  For this family to be able to have hot water, they had to fill their wood heater with wood, light it and then wait for the water to warm up.  In the winter time, they could barely even hold their hand under the water if it was not heated because it was so cold.  So, on Tuesday, we were able to bless them with an electric water heater.  Ruslan was able to get it along with a washing machine and a sewing machine and we delivered it to them as a surprise.  What a feeling it was to see their faces and know that this would change their lives!

Vitalic and Andy with the water heater. Look at his happy face!

Vitalic and 4 of his 5 children. His other child is 2 months old.

Wednesday – First Bell.  This celebration included singing, poems, welcoming from teachers and staff of the school, the giving of bread for a good year to come and, finally, the ringing of the first bell by senior and a 1st grader.  This day is a holiday for everyone as the first day of school.  Technically, though, the 2nd of September is the day most kids start classes.

The kids ready to go to their first day of school. The kids that are not dressed up are still in kindergarten which will not be open until next week because the chicken pox are going around.

The Ukrainian Flag marched up and down the row of students starting school as the national anthem was sung.

A senior and a first time student at this school ringing the first bell to signify school starting again for this year.

Where's Andy...can you find him?

Raegan and I outside of the school. Raegan is from Tennessee and has come to live here for a year between high school and college. It is great having another English speaker to talk to!

The fam on the front steps of the school.

I will leave you with a picture that is typical of our “down time” here at the house.  Hope you all are well!  We love you and miss you all.

Dya Dya Andy being attacked my the kids...they love him!

I am sitting down to write this post and looking out of the window at the beautiful Dniester River and the country of Moldova.  The weather is simply stunning–high 70′s and very little humidity.  The end of summer in this part of the world is upon us and rainy season is just around the corner.  However, no one can imagine rain on a day like today.  As we are adjusting to life in a new land, we are very thankful for this beautiful time of year to help us ease into our new life here in Ukraine.

We are also extremely appreciative of our new Ukrainian family, the Tkachuk’s.  We would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to this fine bunch.

Papa Ruslan. In this picture, he looks like he would be right at home in SC riding atop a John Deere Combine. His hat even has a bottle opener on it!

Mama Archie. Amazing woman to say the least!

The kids acting silly on the swing.

Vika

Yula

Sneezanna

Sasha

Katya

Isabella

Ilona

Diana

Bogdanchik

Bogdan

The entire crew

The past week has led us on many new adventures including a trip to the village where Ruslan was raised and a family outing to the traveling circus.  You never know what may be waiting around the next corner, ya know?

Ruslan and his brother Roma in front of their childhood home in the village

Holy Garlic Batman. No vampire will dare come near this house.

Using the sink. Do you see any pipes? That's right, no running water. It is fetched from a well just down the road.

Enjoying some good old fashioned rock throwing down by the river.

On the way back from tossing stones, we ran into ths cool cat and his entourage.

Lori using hand gestures and funny sounds to communicate with Ruslan's aunt and grandma.

Fresh tomatoes from the garden. Lori and Archie spent 3 hours cutting these in order to yield 5 jars of sauce for the long winter.

The Great Circus Outing

We were only about 25 feet from this bear. He was masterful!

Lori loved this guy

This man balanced these glasses for an incredible amount of time. Lori took about 20 pictures waiting to capture a spill. It never happened.

Isabella and the circus clown

Walking to Moldova

We are literally "off the grid". Ukraine had just stamped us out and we were not yet stamped in Moldova. Weird.

HUH?

Auntie Lordi (as the kids call her) enjoying a sweet treat

Until next time…

We flew out of Germany at 2:00 pm and got into Ukraine at 6:00 pm.  Thus, the adventure begins.  Andy and I were brave enough to find our own way to Vinnysta, where our friend Ruslan was going to meet us:  this city is 3 hours away from Kiev where we flew in.  It took about 45 minutes to get through passport control and customs and then our task was to find a bus right outside of the airport that was to go to the train station where we had more instructions.  Not knowing any of the language, you can see how challenging this was.  We found the bus and were able to communicate that we needed to go to the train station and we were able to pay our money.  We loaded up our luggage on the driver’s side of the bus.  We made it, we thought, and were proud of ourselves at this point.  Our next instructions were to look for a McDonalds where the bus stops and there would be Sprinter Vans parked out front that would take us to Vinnysta.  So, the bus stopped and we saw a McDonalds…so what do we do?  We get off.  We realize that we are 2 of only 5 people that are getting off, but we see the McDonalds; this has to be it.  Andy rushes around to get our bags and he is confronted by oncoming traffic – there is no way he can get our bags – he thinks, this can’t be right!  The bus driver is yelling something to him in Ukrainian and finally just waves us back onto the bus.  Oops!  Wrong stop!  So we get back on and travel the rest of the way to the train station.

We find our van (Marshutka in Ukrainian) and walk up to the driver to request a ride.  He speaks no English and we speak no Ukrainian.  Andy gave him the number of our friend Ruslan, and the man called it to see what in the world we were saying.  Finally, we reserved 2 spots on the van and went to eat.  We get on the bus at 9:00 pm and take off down the bumpy road.  About an hour into our trip, we pull off at a gas station, that we found out was a MANDATORY bathroom stop.  Since we had gone an hour ago, we did not have to go.  The bus drive kept saying “Tyalet, Tyalet…”  We would say, “no we are okay, we don’t have to go.”  He did not understand, so he called one of his friends that spoke English and asked how to say “Tyalet” in English… Toilet!!  So again, we said, no we are okay.  At this point, he took us by the arm and led us into the gas station, found our bathrooms and pointed to me and the girl’s room and then Andy and the boy’s room…so we went!  Ha!  At 12:30 am we made it to Ruslan who was on the side of the road and honked at us to stop and let us off.  We then drove 2 hours to our village, Nemia, stopping once to take a 15 minute power nap.

On Wednesday, we met the family and rested up and settled in.  That evening, we went to a meeting for a summer camp at Archie and Ruslan’s (our new housemates) church.  The summer camp was to start the following day.

Thursday through Saturday were spent helping out with this camp…we jumped in with both feet!  Andy and I helped out with the teen group, especially a young man named Dima who has Cerebral Palsy.  Andy and Dima were instant friends as you will see in some of the pictures.  These days gave us a range of emotions from joy to frustration to feeling uplifted and then torn down.  Not being able to communicate will wear you out!  Thank goodness we have Archie and Ruslan to come home to and talk through our feelings.  They are awesome!  Our other new housemates/family includes Sasha, Katya, Bogdon, Bogdonchik, Ilona, Sneezanna, Diana, Ula, Vika, and Isabella.  We are a full house!

One of the goals we have here is to work with children with special needs.  We made a contact in Dima, and also with our neighbor named Bogdon.  He is 3 years old and has Cerebral Palsy.  He came over and swam in the pool with us.  We will be meeting regularly with both and hope to start working with others eventually.  I will let the pictures tell the rest.

Us with our new friend Dima at the lake on the first day of the summer camp

Andy in his awesome shorts he had to borrow from the pastor, Igor - hilarious!

Andy had the awesome trunks, I just swam in my clothes...you really just have to roll with the punches here.

Our bible study at the lake.

Andy on the trampoline at the house

This is the second day of summer camp at the river. We played a game with all of the kids that was so much fun.

Ukrainians love their watermelon. This is Katya, one of our new family members

Ula, Isabella, Ilona, Sneezanna (from left to right) doing their skit during summer camp.

These were some of the counselors and the pastor

Us with some of the kids in the park across from the church where we were having camp

Our mode of transportation everywhere we go. This is our new family!

The whole summer camp

Dima loved the parachute!

New best friends

Our eating spot at our house.

Andy and Sasha working to bury the pipe in the vineyard

Andy and Bogdon - our neighbor we will be working with

Fun with Bogdon

Working to make him kick his feet

Linda (the big one) and Crasunchik - these dogs bark all the time!

Digging our septic tank - hardest work ever!

Burying the pipe. We had a special ceremony for the burial

Andy cleaning out the apartment of debris

On the night of the 6^th of August, Andy and I took an over night train from Paris to Munich, Germany. Our first experience on a train like this was an interesting one. We slept in a tiny room with 6 “couchettes” (as the internet called them). Really they were skinny beds that were stacked closely on top of each other: 3 on each side of the room. We shared a room with 2 Korean gentlemen and 2 Canadian girls.  The funny part of the story (not at the time, but right now it is) is that one of our roommates had some atrocious flatulence, and let me just say, the air in the room had very little circulation!

We got to Munich at about 8:30 am and our good friend Sascha was there to greet us. We spent time in Munich hiking in the Alps, going to a Bayern Munich Football Game, touring the city and just hanging out with Sascha, Silke and their son. Our hike in the Alps was amazing. We hiked through the mountain crevices along a raging river. There had been large amounts of rain that made the river rage more than usual. The football game was also an awesome experience. Because the regular season has not started, this was a family day at the stadium and the game was played between Bayern Munich and another team made up of winter Olympic athletes, special Olympic athletes and qualifying people from the local gym that was sponsoring the day. Needless to say, the pro football team won 11-1 and the only reason the other team got 1 is because their entire team came onto the field at the end of the game to make it 25 players to 11! Hilarious! On Monday, Silke was our tour guide around the city, and what a great tour guide she was. We loved the city and had a great time with our friends. Thanks you guys for having us!

Andy on his couchette for the night on the train.

We got up to 120mph on the Autobahn - awesome!

Our gorgeous hike through the Alps

Us with Sascha in the middle of the hike. Now time to turn around and go back through the mountain.

Traditional Bavarian Breakfast. Yum!

We are in front of the Munich Football arena - the white exterior changes colors depending on which team is playing. Very cool!

Us with Silke at the game.

This was one of the Special Olympic players. He was a goalie...amazing

The game. We were 5 rows from the field...we could almost high five the players as they came over for a corner kick.

Munich from the top of St. Peter Church. We were looking at the Glockenspiel.

We rode bikes all around the city on these rental bikes. We went to the"beach" at the local river.

We flew WizzAir from Germany to Ukraine...And yes, I said WizzAir. This was a free-for-all plane, meaning no assigned seating, and let me tell you, people trampled us to try to get a seat.

Next stop…our new home for the next 10 months. Ukraine here we come.

We arrived in Paris via the Eurostar (which was amazing) on Monday the 2nd.  It only took 2 1/2 hours to get here from London.  The realization hit us that for the next 5 months our language will not be spoken by most people.  Having had 6 years of French between us, though, we have done alright.  We have had such a great time here and when combining the sights, the food and the people, Paris is definitely one of our favorite cities thus far in our journey!  Here are just a few things that we were able to see in our short time here.  We feel like we did so much, but we merely scratched the surface of what Paris has to offer.  Although, we like to say that we want to live the city/place rather than just see it – and we definitely did that!

Our train car on the Eurostar. Very roomy and comfortable and the service was unbelievable!

La Musee de Louvre. This is just one wing!

Crepes...one of our favorite things to eat. AND I had to get french fries in FRANCE!!

The Seine River - Beautiful

Notre Dame Cathedral

The rose window in Notre Dame

I had to put this in because I got caught trying to take a picture of them and thought I played it off, but when they passed by us again, they wanted me to get one of them posing!

We sat right at the base of the Eiffell Tower and ate cheese and bread and drank wine.

Kind of small, but still amazing.

Venus De Milo. It was so cool to see these things in person.

The scene of one of my favorite movies

This wall had "I love you" written in every language...we couldn't find English though

One of the members of the "27 Club" - Jim Morrison

Fredrick Chopin tombstone

Arc de Triomphe taken from the Champs-Elysees

280 steps up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe - Whew!

Taken from the top of the Arc de Triomphe looking down the Champs-Elysees to the Louvre

On the top of the Arc...this is our last hoorah in Paris!

Tonight at 8:30 we board an overnight train to Munich.  We are staying with 4 other people on couchettes for the evening.  Another adventure I am sure!  See you tomorrow morning Sascha, Silke and Silas.

We managed to find our way from the port of Southampton, UK, to the lovely town of Havant to see our dear friend Crazy Mike.  We have been friends with Mike for the last 15 years, having met him through (you guessed it) Camp Kemo.  Mike moved to England 5 months ago to spend some time with his girlfriend and her family.  Our experience with Crazy Mike in a different country was, well, CRAZY!

Our time was spent eating English Breakfast, Monster burgers, and Ya-Cakes, touring the town of Havant, and enjoying a VERY memorable evening at one of the local pubs.  Thanks for an incredible introduction to the U.K., Mike, Yasmin, Heidi, and Collin.

Mike, Yasmin, Andy, Heidi, and Lori overlooking the town of Portsmouth

Traditional English Breakfast-courtesy of 'American' chef, Crazy Mike

My very own carousel at the local mall

Perhaps one of the most interesting photos ever taken of Crazy. And there have been some wild ones in the past. Check out the gummy nips!

Don't even ask. Cuz we don't have a clue.

Chowin' down on Mick's Monster Burgers

Whew!  That was some experience!  Off to London, where we took in the sights, lived like locals in our own little flat, and met up with another Camp Kemo alum.

July 29-August 2, London

What visit to London would be complete without a visit to Buckingham Palace?

The spectacular Tower Bridge

I was concerned about the stability of this building, so I had to help prop it up.

View from the London Bridge looking down the Thames

Queen Lori smelling the roses of London

I couldn't resist

Big Ben and Westminster Hall/Bridge

The beautiful Princess Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park. Note the woman who decided to take part in "Pants-Free Saturday"

"Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall"

A wonderful evening with our friend, Laura, who lives in London

Taking the walk across Abbey Road. The origin of the greatest album ever recorded.

All Together Now

EPIC

Our picnic in Hyde Park with Laura. Meal courtesy of Harrod's

View from the top. Do we call this an upper decker?

Well, we are off to go under the English Channel en route to Paris.  We’ll check in soon.

In preparation for our travels, we looked at many different options trying to find the best and least expensive ways to get to Ukraine.  We searched every different airline website and tried every different combination of dates to fly.  Everything was so overpriced, so we started looking at a different mode of transportation.  We looked into cargo ships, which sounded like a great, cheap way to go, however, that was not the case.  It was very expensive and you have to book at least 5 months in advance!  So, as a joke at first, we looked into transatlantic cruises and, to our surprise, a 7 day cruise on the Queen Mary 2 was the same price as a one way ticket to Ukraine!  Since we were not on a strict timeline, we decided to do it and WOW was it a great way to travel.  And, on top of going on the Queen Mary, Andy found a deal to use hotel points and stay for free at the Waldorf Astoria in NY the night before we boarded the cruise!  What an amazing experience.  Check it out…

Our lives in 5 bags! This is all of our luggage to move to Ukraine. We also shipped 1 box each with all of our winter clothes.

New York street meat...YUM!! Eating in Central Park (one of our favorite places)

Entertainment in Central Park - check out the guy playing 2 trumpets. Awesome!

Carrying snacks back to our room in the Waldorf! CRAZY!

Pretty cool view from our room!

Our last 2 meals in the USA included street meat in Central park and Outback Steakhouse!  Time to board the Queen Mary.

HUGE!!

Yay!

Picture from our room on the ship.

NY from our ship - AWESOME!

Last time we will see land for 7 days and the last time we will see the USA for 5 months! BYE - WE WILL MISS YOU!

Can't see land anymore, but we still have my sunsets...this is from the very back of the ship (you can see our wake)

Cruising on the Queen Mary 2 is very formal.  We had 4 formal nights and a semi-formal night.  Moving to Ukraine, we did not plan on bringing formal things with us, so we had to rethink our packing strategy a little bit.  I packed 2 formal dresses that I borrowed from a friend (thanks Meredith) and a semi-formal dress that I just wore in a wedding!  Andy packed 1 suit and 3 ties.  We just had to rewear!

Our second night on the ship - our first formal night

Semi-formal night - this picture is taken in the main lobby of the ship.

Third formal night on the grand staircase.

Last formal night in our favorite pub.

Probably the coolest thing for us on this cruise was our rendezvous with the Artemis Investment boat.  This is a 23 foot row boat with 4 men rowing across the Atlantic Ocean trying to beat the world record of 55 days which was set 114 years ago!  One of the men on the boat used to be an engineer on the Queen Mary 2 and knew our captain.  Our gps was able to find them, so out of the fog came this tiny boat bopping along the waves of this great ocean.  It was an amazing sight.  They were on day 36 of their journey and they had already capsized twice and two of the men had fallen out at different times.  Also, one of them had an ingrown toenail that another man on the boat had to cut out with a pocket knife!  You can check out their journey HERE.  UPDATE-They shattered the record!

The Artemis Investment boat and our rescue boat that went to say hi and take pictures.

You can really tell how small it is when you see the 2 men start rowing.

We made some awesome new friends on the cruise…

Andy, Nick and Sven

Us with Melissa and Sven

This was our favorite place on the boat. We spent a lot of time sitting here reading and watching the ocean.

WOW, huh?!

Every day they would update or location...this is the last day - almost there.

This was the sunrise outside our room on the morning we got to England. The sun is rising over France. Gorgeous!

Just a couple of things to add as little bonus -

1. We had a sommelier every night for dinner who was from Odessa, Ukraine.  So we got to practice what little of the Ukrainian language we know!

2. The following video is part of a karaoke performance by Andy and I will point out a couple of things to watch for… number one and most obvious is the guy dancing with Andy.  We made friends with him later and he is in a picture above (Nick), but we had no idea who he was when he was doing this dance!  Hilarious!  It was like he could not stop – he even puts on his coat and shoes like he was finished and then keeps going.  He was awesome.  Another thing to watch is the woman you see sitting at the table behind where Andy is singing.  I am not sure if that song went over too well with that crowd!!!  HAAA!  Listen to Andy’s words.  Especially at the beginning.  He is trying so hard to get the audience involved, but it is not working!  Close to the end of his 7 minute song, there are 2 times that the crowd tries to get him to stop and he doesn’t realize it.  They try to cheer him off and then they turn the lights off.  He didn’t realize they did that until he saw the video!  One last thing is if you want to watch the whole thing, make sure you keep it running after he finishes singing. Enjoy

After our 5 month adventure on the road, we were back home with family and friends for 6 weeks.  What an incredible 6 weeks it was!  We started off with an amazing week at Camp Kemo.  This year was extra special because I (Lori) celebrated my 10th year as a counselor!  Andy celebrated his 16th year.  The week at camp really has a way of helping us realize what is truly important in life.  Thanks to all of the kids and counselors for making it so awesome.

We bounced around SC staying with family and friends as it only took us 3 days to sell our home on wheels.  We were able to spend a long weekend with Andy’s family in Tybee Island, Ga.  From there we went and spent a week in Charleston, SC, with all of our great friends.  Our last 2 weeks were spent with family in Columbia and preparing for our upcoming move to Ukraine.  We saw and ate with as many people as possible, we attended a Lasting Impressions (teen cancer support group) graduation, and Lori did a triathlon!  The 6 weeks was capped off with a send-off celebration that we will not soon forget.

We will let the pictures do the rest of the talking…

Andy's making a splash at Camp Kemo

Andy with some of his campers during woodworking

Lori and the Dolphins (7-9 year old cabin) during Arts and Crafts

Wolfpack (teen cabin) Counselors

Dolphin Counselors at the Dance

Lori and one of her campers at the Dance

One of the highlights of the week...the DANCE!

Closing Campfire - the end of a great week

Andy and cousin Emily at Tybee Island, GA

Meeting of the Minds

Hanging with Mike, of fatguydiary.com fame

Celebrating Gina's birthday with the Strother Family

Boating in Intracoastal next to Flipper

Lori and her brother Troy enjoying the afternoon

Suckin' some suds at Coast Brewery with the English Muffins

With Eric, Lindy, and the twins...thanks for hosting the fantastic brunch

Meredith and Uncle Greg

Back in Columbia with Papa, the patriarch of the family

Celebrating our nation's independence

Alley is introduced to her new roomie

Lori and her sister Sara after completing triathlon

Our niece, Emily (center) in a fine rendition of 'Annie'

Nomadic Rendezvous with Chris and Cherie from technomadia.com

With Papa at his home

Enjoying dinner with Andy's coworkers/friends

A special day for five very special teens-graduation from Lasting Impressions

Family at the epic send off party

Sara and Lori

Andy and Mom

Lori and Ginger

Lori with the superstar, Emily

Lori and her folks

New buddies, Colton and Jack

Homeless, carless, phoneless, we embark on a new adventure.  Ukraine, get ready, here we come!