We got up this morning and went to Salem Chapel, Ben and Jessica’s church.  Ben was playing bass at both the 9:00 and the 11:00 services, so we saw him sparingly until he got home.  Milly cried when we dropped her off at the preschool room, but not for long.  She was happily playing with some toys when we picked her up.

After Milly and Graelyn took their naps we went to Old Salem.  We walked around a bit, took some pictures, played in some fields.  I like going there and would really love a chance to have a real look at some of the old houses.  It seems almost strange that so many of these houses, most of them built in the late 18th and early 19th centuries are still occupied when so much of the area has been preserved.

We went by Costco after that to get some things for a cookout we were all going to.  As we were leaving, Jessica and I both got smoothies, but both of our daughters wanted to partake of them.  At least they shared nicely, though Milly probably did have close to half of mine, at least.

The cookout was ostensibly for a group of people who were all going on a beach trip together next month.  Ben and Jessica only knew one other couple real well, but they knew at least most of the rest some.  It turns out that a couple of the people there knew Kyle and Lorin van Zandt, which is funny because Amanda and I joke that you can’t go anywhere in Wilmington and not find someone who knows them.

I was chatting with the owner of the house, and he mentioned having been a part of Campus Crusades and that he went to NC State, so I asked if he knew Reece, which in fact he did.

Reece, as a side note, told me he’d bought a surfboard.  He sounded pretty excited about getting out and using it.

Milly was off and on cranky at the cookout, so we didn’t stay too terribly long after eating.  She was the oldest kid there.  No importance to that statement, I just thought it was an interesting thing to note.

The girls had a bath then went down to bed.  Well, they were put in bed anyway.  They were up for a while just laughing at each other.  It’s so funny that they interact more when they’re alone and can’t even touch each other than they do otherwise.

I called my cousin Dave to talk to him about stopping by his house on the way home tomorrow to see his new daughter, Anya.  When he picked up the phone he said, “You must not be a Game of Thrones fan, huh?”  I never watch it when it actually comes on, so I didn’t realize it was even on.  We chatted for a bit and will be seeing them and Ksusha, his wife, tomorrow.

I can hardly pull myself away from reading A Game of Thrones, by the way.  Really loving the book.  The show had been really faithful to it, too.

In gaming tonight, I won two games of Dominion, Ben won a Monopoly Deal then Jessica won one after that.  That’s a big deal because Jessica has never, at least in the last couple years, won a game when playing against the Dotseys.

Ben and Jessica have a Scrabble card game that Amanda wanted to try out, so we played that.  I won the first one and she won the second, so she did finally get a win during our extended weekend.

We’re up a bit late waiting for sheets to dry.  The Lambeth cat, Smokey Bob, got stuck in the guest room during one of Milly’s naps and pooped on them.

Zach Dotsey