My Grandma and Granddaddy Leftwich had three children. My Granndaddy passed away almost 11 years ago now and unfortunately never met our kids. My Grandma Leftwich is still living, but is into the later stages of Dementia/Alzheimer’s. Emily Katherine (our Emily) is her namesake. My Grandmother’s name is Ruby Katherine. Their three children included my dad, P.D., and his two younger sisters. His sister, Judy is 3 years younger than he is and his sister, Kathy is about 11 years younger than he is. They each have children. Kathy has two children, Kristi and Brett, who each have two children. Judy has three children. Shawn, Michelle and Bradley. Shawn has two children, Bradley is recently engaged, but no children yet. Michelle just had two children—twins in our family again!—They apparently do run in our family after all. We stopped to see Michelle, her husband Joe and their three month old daughters, Addison and Emma on our way home from the beach. And, to our pleasant surprise, our Aunt Judy (Michelle’s Mom) was there too. Though the girls tend to favor their mother, you can see facial features and expressions that are dead on their dad.
They are both beautiful girls! My children were privileged to be able to take a picture with their new second cousins. In that picture they are as follows . . . L to R-Emily, Emma, Ryan, Addison and Lydia. The other picture is the proud mommy, my beautiful cousin Michelle, with Emma and Addison. Congrats Michelle and Joe—having twins is the greatest amusement park ride of chaos and destruction you will ever be honored to ride every day of your life.
their own kite and had a really great time seeing them fly through the air, but they dove down to the ground quite often. Mike's parents had given him an old kite he had many years ago and was still being stored at their house. He brought that out and flew it as well. The kids had such a great time with their kites! We are hoping the $1.00 kites last a little longer so we can fly them again on another windy day!
Our beach trip was amazing!! I got a little carried away with pictures and videos, but it is so hard to decide which ones to use:). We arrived on Friday, September 5 with the predictions of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Hannah fast approaching the South Carolina shoreline. This was something we debated about doing. Do we wait until Saturday to go and miss a day on the beach if she moves though as quickly as they were thinking? We called the people who worked at the resort and they did not seem too bothered by this tiny Tropical Storm. After arriving that evening, we attempted to buy groceries and many of the stores were boarding up their windows in anticipation and were closing early. We did find a Kroger that was open and we were able to get a few staples there before they shut their doors. She was pretty strong for a Tropical Storm and could change into a Hurricane at any moment. Deciding to come down on Friday was definitely the right decision. The wind blew harder than any of us had ever seen. Mike, my dad and I all walked out on the beach during the high winds for just a little bit. I had never been in a Tropical Storm and wanted to see what the fuss was about since I knew it was not life threatening. With it being windy on a beach normally, it did not seem too different at 10:30 when we went outside. A mere hour later, the winds were crazy! We stood on our deck protected and watched the pool below us that was having the water blown out of it as a result of the winds The power lines on the street were blowing in the breeze and small trees were bent in half. The power flashed off and on two or three times, but that was it. When we awoke in the morning Hannah was long gone, the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to come out. There were a few branches down and the house behind our building had lost some siding and shingles, but other than that we saw no damage. The rest of the week was amazing!! There was a chance of thunderstorms in the forecast each day, but it never actually happened until our last day. On Thursday we were out on the beach until about 5:00 (hoping to be out until 7:00 on our last day) and it began to thunder and lightning. All in all we had a super week!! Ryan, Lydia and Emily played a lot with their cousin Adella and all 10 of us had a great time! Somehow, we managed to come home with a lot more than we arrived with:) Thanks Mom and Dad! It was great!!
