Summer Part 3

We took a trip to Whitewater at the end of June. We didn't get many pictures because........it's wet! Here's one of all of the kids, though. They had a good time. Caroline, Ethan and I rode the tornado, which was the highlight of my day. I had always wanted to ride it, but there was an eternal line. We go there early this time and this is the first thing we did. The rest of the kids were not tall enough to ride........maybe next year.

The night before we went to Whitewater, I found out that my friend, Maribeth, had lost her oldest daughter, Kate. Kate had become suddenly sick. Apparently, she had an enlarged heart. When I was pregnant with Ethan, Maribeth was pregnant with Kate. We also had a friend, Nellann, who was pregnant with her son, Evan. We made frequent trips to Arby's and shared our pregnancy stories. This was the first pregnancy for all of us. Maribeth had 3 girls, Kate, Claire and Lauren. Nellann had 3 boys, Evan, Tate and Reed. Ethan remembered Kate, mostly from pictures. He wanted to go with us to the funeral home. It was absolutely the most heartbreaking experience. I can't imagine going through this kind of loss. Nellann happened to get to the funeral home right when I did, so we got to see Maribeth together. She encouraged us to go up and see Kate, so we did. The next day, I went to the funeral. The sweetest thing was that her middle child, Claire, who Maribeth says is the shy one, wanted to sing a song. She sang "Where He Leads Me, I will follow". The younger girls had also written a letter to be read at funeral about their sister and what a great big sister she was. Kate's dad, Clay, was an Auburn football player. I found this picture from when Clay got to do the Tiger walk and he took Kate with him.

We also took a trip to the Fernbank. We loved the Imax. It was on Antartica and had alot of penguins in it. There was a young boy volunteering who told the kids about the fossils that were built into the floor. The rest of the time we were there, the kids found fossils.....even in the bathroom.

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