This weekend was great (even with both of the kiddos having a low grade fever...I swear its a weekly occurrence for Harry). Speaking of the prince, he is walking. He still prefers crawling but he can take 10-15 steps when he feels like it so that has been fun to watch and cheer him on. He's such a sweetie but boy is he attached to his MOM. Totally my fault as I never put him down his first year of life. Ted just looks at me and laughs...."you did this", he says!

These are the type of weekends that makes me feel normal...we hosted a casual dinner party on Saturday with two AWESOME couples and their sweet children. We made some yummy food and had drinks and chased the kids around. Sunday, Ted and I met up separately with one of the couples to run a few miles then we all met up again later at the pool...it's been a lot of fun to have great friends that have kids that like to have a lot of fun like we do. Everything was going great and I think for several hours I even forgot my Parents were dead...until later this evening, Justin kept calling. That's when reality sets back in...things were normal, we have such great friends here, we just got back from an amazing vacation, work is going well....but, I still have a mentally ill brother who took my Parent's life. I still have to face this every day and I have plans to see him in a few weekends when we are back in MI. Alone this time so Ted can stay with the kids and our friends. I care for my brother very much and I worry about him...he's made SO much progress with still a ways to go either way it saddens me. I just want to be normal and enjoy my life, my kids, my friends....I wish I had parents, and a brother and I wish my Sister and I could just be sisters....and that we didn't have the stress of the lake. I wish, I wish...I guess the big positive is everything else going in our life is wonderful but the tough stuff is really tough...

But, this weekend was great and I go to bed thinking of my Family and being thankful for our wonderful friends here and the fun we continue to all have together and thinking of all of our friends in MI, PA, AZ, MA, VA and everywhere else....we miss you all so much.

Leaving you with pics from our beautiful vacation in St John that I meant to post last week....a few of my favorites...

All my love, Mom and Dad.....Melissa