Blessed by visitors!

I love the blessing of family. I am so thankful to have such wonderful family in my life. This past weekend, my aunt Mia came down from Boston to visit and I had such a great time showing her my house and my life here in North Carolina. She came with her friend Diana and her 3-year-old daughter, Emmy, who picked her up from the airport in Raleigh. What a blessing to share the weekend with family and new friends! It was definitely a visit full of laughter and good times! 

A picture is worth a thousand words, so instead of writing about everything, I'll post pictures we took over the weekend. *caution: there'll be a lot of pictures in this post!* 

(photo credits by aunt Mia...I just uploaded all the pictures from her camera!) 

Coming into the base. Since they had their own car, I had to meet them at Pass & ID for them to obtain a pass to enter the gates. 

Showing off Angel's tricks. This is her "sit pretty!" 

Good girl Angel!

I hide a treat in one of my hands and she has to pick which hand it's in. She picked the right one!

This is her newest trick! When I start dancing and moving my hips she jumps up and dances with me! 

Praying before we eat and thanking God for all His blessings! She doesn't eat the treat until I say "Amen!" 

This is Diana and her daughter Emmy. Emmy was terrified of Angel, but each day was an improvement! She was even able to walk around the house (for a little bit) without her mom carrying her! We went to the dog park and she even threw some sticks for Angel. Yay Emmy!

Emmy would only throw at a distance, but I think she really enjoyed it! 

Angel just LOVES to fetch sticks! 

Taking the stick from her is sometimes the hardest thing to do! 

Aunt Mia took one of my favorite pictures of Angel. This just totally encompasses my lovely Angel! 

Walking back from the park. I'm so proud of how calm Emmy was with Angel next to her. 

My lovely Aunt Mia, Emmy, Angel and me in front of Buchanan Drive! 

Here's a pic of the front of our house

We went down to the river to find some seashells! 

A beautiful day to be out to enjoy the view

Each one of us...deep in thought...looking out into the horizon...

Back at home, Aunt Mia took some pictures of my house...here's a pic of the dining room in the Gowan household...

One section of the living living room...

The other side of the room. I love how adorable Emmy is! 

On our way to historic downtown New Bern!

We explored the Tryon Palace. It was completed in 1770 and served as the 1st permanent capitol of North Carolina and home to the Tryon family.

Some of the people dressed in costume.

A rifleman demonstration

Aunt Mia and I with one of the officers who taught us a lot about life back in the 1770s! 

Us with a woman from back in the day...

Headed to the stables!

Trying to get Emmy to come up to take a picture with me...

...but she didn't want to! So, I had to take one myself!

We weren't able to take any pictures of the inside of the palace, but we were able to take more of the garden outside. 

They had ALL sorts of vegetables and spices growing. Here's their lettuce garden...amazed at how big the lettuce is!

Picture outside with Diana and Emmy!

Walking around, we spotted so many bear statues...here's a picture of one of them!

We stopped by a gourmet cupcake store and indulged...

I definitely indulged...it was an amazing mint chocolate chip cupcake. Yum!

We were so hungry after our tour of the palace, so we stopped by Bojangles and indulged some more!

The next day, we made an Indonesian snack called jalan kotek...here's a picture of the filling.

Frying the yummy treat.

I didn't realize how hard it was to roll dough!!! My first time doing it...

Practicing on perfecting the technique so I can make some for Caleb when he comes home from training.

Finished product.

Enjoying the deliciousness. 

And lastly, an Indonesian cake called lapis surabaya that Diana taught us to bake. We didn't take any pictures of the process, but we sure had so much fun baking in the kitchen. We stopped for a moment to take some pics from my webcam!

LOVE this picture. It just captures the happiness and laughter we shared!

Thank you Ie Mia and Diana and Emmy for visiting me and Angel. We loved having you guys here and want you to know you are always welcomed in casa Gowan. We love you and come back soon!