After we got everything cleaned up after the race, we all went out to eat our traditional post-race lunch.  We often eat at Little Italy, and it never disappoints.  Here is our crew as we were finishing up:  Andy, Renee, Zollie, Cooper, Taylor, Lig, Rachel, friends Patty and Daniel, Boo, me, Sherri, & Meg.

We ate and some folks headed home, but Meg, Zollie, Cooper, Taylor and I headed with Lig back over to Central Park, where the race was headquartered, for a nature walk.  This was a program Lig had set up in her new job as Parks and Rec director for the Town of King, and it was absolutely great.  She had a naturalist, Jim Bridle, come from the Piedmont Land Conservancy to lead the walk, and people really had come from all over the area to go on it, too.  Here he is talking about the lichen, which grow only a very few millimeters a year, that are on the chimney rocks of the old cabins that have been moved to the park there.  It was a great way to end our great day.

Tenth annual Feed Stokes 5k was yesterday, and while it was a nasty day all day long, it was a beautiful event.  This may be my favorite picture of the entire day – my great-niece Mia running past my checkpoint 🙂

And while everyone was not in this group shot, we wanted to get one of as many people as we could before Nathan and Mia had to hit the road home to Cary.  From left are Meg, Taylor, Lig, Rachel, Boo, me, Mia, Nathan, Sherri, and Andy.  Such a great day for such a great cause.

Friday morning I headed over to help with the incentive day for the 8th grade, for everyone who qualified grade-wise, behavior-wise, and attendance-wise.  At least I believe that’s what the kids told me the criteria were.  I got this picture of Mallory and her buddies Ayla, Shayla, andEmma, as soon as the event got underway, when they stopped by the table where I was working to get cupcakes.

Home to pack to head to King as soon as the day was over, and then I was back to work the 6th grade incentive.  The cupcake table was next to the face painting, so I was able to watch June get her face painted 🙂

…of the regular season, anyway.  I got this picture of June Bug after the 6th graders finished up.

Here are a couple of pictures of Clara and her biggest fans after the Bible pancake supper Saturday evening.

We did indeed have a busy day Saturday.  Jeff & I had been at Boo & Shea’s at Murrells Inlet for a couple of days, and left there at 6 AM to get to Columbia to watch Mallory and her teammates compete in the state robotics meet.  They didn’t do as well as we’d hoped, but it was certainly a great experience – for all of us.  Here she is with her teammates Ryan and Abby behind them heading to the field for one of their rounds of competition.

As soon as their part of the competition was over, Jeff & I hightailed it back to Clover, to be here for the Biblical Studies Release Time pancake supper fundraiser.  The different elementary schools perform, and we wanted to get here in time to watch Mason sing – and we got there just in time.  They did a great job.  I am so thrilled that our kids are still able to participate in this program.  I got this picture of our star afterwards.

The entire purpose of us heading to the beach for a couple of days last week was to go with Dennis and Cinnamon to the Coastal Carolina University baseball tournament, where Indiana was to be playing.  And, wouldn’t you know it, as we were driving to the stadium for the game it started pouring down rain.  We went to the college bookstore to kill time until it let up, and when it slowed down to a drizzle we headed over to watch the game.  And just as we were getting to the ticket booth they made an announcement that the game was postponed until the following morning.  We were thankful, though, that 1) we hadn’t already paid for a ticket, and 2) we didn’t stand around for hours waiting for them to decide if they would call the game or not.  We did walk up into the stadium itself just to check it out, and got this one glimpse of the Indiana players as they were heading to the dugout to head to their bus.

Since we couldn’t get to the game, we decided instead to go check out the new Top Golf that was just opening that day in Myrtle Beach.  It was fun, and we all had a good time playing together.  I got this picture of my fellow golfers just as we were finishing up 🙂

Thursday Jeff & I left about mid-morning to head to Myrtle Beach.  The plan was for us to meet Dennis & Cinnamon there for a game at the baseball tournament that Coastal Carolina was hosting – Indiana was due to play.  As it turned out that game got rained out, but it was so much fun visiting with both Boo and Shea (Jeff & I stayed at their house) and Dennis & Cinnamon.  We stopped by to see Boo at his job, and then stopped at the very cool consignment shop to see Shea at work.  They just had some beautiful things.

After that we had an hour or so to kill before either of them got off work, so Boo gave us their pass to Huntington Beach State Park, and we headed down.  It was too cool to get in the water, of course, but just walking on the beach was wonderful.  It’s hard to take your eyes off the water, in fact 🙂