Saturday, September 21, 2019

The military community holds strong

When we were stationed in the Azores, we made friends with many wonderful people and families. One of those families was the Steele family. Richard and Mary Kay have five children: four girls and a son, and while we only overlapped a year, there was an instant connection between our families. 

Fast forward about half a decade and Richard has retired from the military and he takes a job at a small country church here in Greeneville! We are now "neighbors."

(Okay so we live on opposite ends of Greeneville, but STILL! For country folks, that's neighbors!)

I am so so so SO excited to have the Steele family nearby. Two of their daughters are now married, one is in college, and one is still at home along with her younger brother. The opportunity to have this wonderful homeschooling family closely is simply a fantastic blessing. Mary Kay and I get along so well, and I've always really looked up to how they have raised (and are raising!) their children.

Yesterday, we had an opportunity to spend a day at the Biltmore in Asheville. The last time JB and I were there was in March of 2008! (You can flashback with me to that post by clicking here.) The kids had never been so we took an opportunity to go with a great coupon and event: learning all about sustainability at Biltmore.

Mary Kay and her youngest daughter, Melody, joined us for the day. (Grampa and Grama came too but they wandered and did their own thing away from us slow pokes :)

Here are a few pictures from our fun day together:

Sisters on a random statue!
Melody and Mary Kay
I mean: who doesn't have a pipe organ in their dining room?
Our rapidly growing family!
The five "kids" (Melody is 17 so she barely qualifies!) with some big growth on a tree :)

2 comments:

Joia said...

Awesome! I haven't been to the Biltmore yet, but would love to go!

I think the big growth on the tree is called a burl?

Rick said...

It looks like Abigail is being dramatic, pointing out the growth and feeling sorry for it!