The month of August brought us to North Carolina enjoying our daughter and her family...we especially enjoyed our grandchildren! Madison was thrilled to see Nannie & Poppie pull up in "her" motor home! We surprised them with a Japanese Maple Tree from New York to plant in their yard. We had a nice tree planting ceremony. It will be fun to watch the tree grow as Madison grows because it is just about the same height that she is now! Ian is growing like a weed and is a very good baby!  He and Poppie had a great time "bonding", even to the extent of "look a-like hats"!  The month flew by with Daryl having another hernia repair surgery and doing things around the house to help out. Daryl's surgery went well and laughing wasn't even a problem this time! We managed to keep ourselves pretty busy "puttering" around the house and doing yard work. Guess we got "our fix" of doing household chores and yard work! Daryl was pretty limited as to the things he could do and some days, he did things that he shouldn't have done! Typical!!  We enjoyed several outings to Raleigh and enjoyed a Revolutionary War Re-enactment, a concert in the park by the  North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, and an evening of reminiscing old Eagles songs sung by the group, Hotel California, in Raleigh. They put on quite a show! We also had the opportunity to get together with another friend from Batavia. Our friends, Sue & Rich G. now live near Raleigh, and after trying to track them down, we were finally able to get together and catch up! It was great seeing them again! Daryl managed to read several books during this time of recuperation and he also enjoyed the friendship of the new next door neighbor, Craig. He and Craig swapped stories and Daryl really enjoyed hearing about Craig's travels!  We've heard that Craig has been in "mourning" since our departure. We really should have gone through with moving the motor home to their driveway!! (A very funny story!) Ryan and his girlfriend, Melissa, stopped on their way to Florida and Madison was thrilled to see Uncle Ryan!! Before we left, we managed to design "Nannie & Poppie's Garden", which consists of rocks  that we collected from the many states during our travels across the U S. I'm sure it won't look so much like a graveyard once a few of the flowers come up!