First Family Visit

We had a house full of the Stemler's this weekend!!

Michael's family drove up from Concord, NC (about a 5-6 hour drive) on Thursday and arrived at 1am early Friday morning! Unfortunately, Michael and I both tried to stay up but ended up falling asleep before they got there.

Our festivities began on Friday morning! Michael had to work until about 3. So Carolena, Brad, Wayne, Barb, and I took the morning to be lazy.   We watched a couple of FRIENDS episodes, ate a late breakfast at 11am and enjoyed catching up! We took a visit to Jersey Mikes for lunch to see Michael hard at work. Which he always is :) After he got off, Michael, Carolena, Brad, and I ventured over to the YMCA to get a workout in, because we knew this weekend would consist of GREAT food, but not healthy food :-\

Friday evening we went down to the Waterside in Norfolk where there are tons of fun restaurants.  We ended up going to Outback steakhouse! YUM YUM! Waterside is a beautiful place. There are tons of hotels and restaurants that line the water and there is a naval shipyard, so you get to a see a lot of cool navy ships! Also, they have music festivals most weekends that a lot of people go to.  It is really a fun place to hang out on a Friday or Saturday night! After dinner, we took a nice walk outside and enjoyed the scenery.  Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our camera that night so I don't have any pics of us :(

We headed back home for a chill evening, where we popped in a redbox movie and relaxed.  

Saturday morning we slept in, but I made WAFFLES!!

We headed to the beach after we all got up and got ready! 

We were supposed to play bocce ball, but the boys decided to "juggle"

Nicki came to the beach with us! 

We only ended up staying for an hour, because a huge dark cloud started coming our way.  There was a little bit of thunder, but we thought it would pass, so we decided not to leave yet. Then we saw a huge strike of lightening about 10 feet from us.  We got all packed up, but it was too late, the cloud opened up and dropped a massive thunderstorm on us.  I wish I could have video'd us running off the beach, it would have been hilarious to watch, but it really was not funny at the time! 15 minutes later, our towels were soaked, my hair was wet and tasseled in my face to where I couldn't see in front of me, and my rainbow sandals were pretty much shot. We all made it back to the cars alive and got back to Norfolk safely! 

That evening we had a dinner party where Marsha & Brent VanNorman, and their nephew David came over, and Nicki and Brandon Kristol.  

Barb cooked a delicious meal- Barbeque ribs & chicken, her famous hash-brown casserole, corn on the cob, baked beans and watermelon.

and I cleaned and set the tabled!

For dessert we had an amazing strawberry pound cake, topped with strawberries and whipped cream that Marsha prepared! DELICIOUS! 

You may be wondering what happened to Mike and I's crazy weight watchers diet.  We are still on it, but took a little break for the weekend.  It was really hard to count points when there was going to be a delicious meal prepared for us! (which was not all that healthy, but it was GOOD) 

After dinner, we played family feud, where of course the GIRLS team WON!  Then we broke out into different groups.  One group played SORRY (David's favorite), and another group played scotch bridge (A Stemler favorite). 

We had a great night and enjoyed everyone's company! 

The boys- Michael, David, and Brad Boy

Marsha & Carolena chatting

Our new and great friends in Norfolk: Nicki & Brandon Kristol

My favorite sis-in-law :)

the cute couple Carolena & Brad

My wonderful in-laws :) Wayne & Barb 

The Stemler's headed out Sunday after church, it was sad to see them go but we had a great first family visit! Can't wait for many more.  

I am getting excited about our next family visit THIS weekend from my sister, Jen and my nephew, Micah!!