Another week in the life of Luke, Caroline & Jackson

Hola Familia y Amigos!
Happy Spring to you all. Hope all is well! Brian was here for 2 days between the US and leaving on a 15-day trip, so we had some family play and bike-riding time at the beach.
Look out world! Here's comes Jackson!
It was a beautiful day and there were a lot of sailboats out, I thought they were so pretty.
Brian and the kids looking for a good place to play futbol.

Caroline out for a stroll with a view of our favorite church by the sea in the background.
And Jackson doing what he does best. :)
It has been so dry here, and then one day we finally had rain! They were so excited, so they headed out with their rain gear on and tried to find some puddles.
They found a few puddles, but also found a snail that they watched in amazement for a while.
Here he is.

The day it rained was actually the day of Uncle Charlie's Memorial Service. We were hoping to go miniature golfing and out for ice cream in his memory, but the weather was iffy and the mini-golf place wasn't open until Saturday. Then the kids decided they wanted donuts instead of ice cream in memory of Uncle Charlie, so we headed to the one and only donut shop in town "Dunkin Coffee", which looks exactly like Dunkin Donuts. Miss Annette joined us for a snack and coffee.
Jackson wanted her to try on his fireman rain jacket!
Luke got ahold of the camera and took about 20 photos of the donuts, signs, and the manager of the shop. I had to include one.
So the next morning we went to Luke's futbol match, with plans to check out mini-golf afterward. He's in the middle of this picture, his friend Dillon is the blondie in front of him, and the boy beside him in the goal is the boy that I think looks EXACTLY like Brian did as a kid.
Caroline and Jack enjoying a snack while we wait for Luke to get his treat after the match. All the boys get a pastry and drink after they play, it's very sweet. Anyway, I liked this picture because you can see the futbol field and the sea in the distance.

The next two pictures are actually from yesterday, we had a picnic lunch on the beach and let Tarheel play for a while. Luke is throwing rocks into the sea.
And then Caroline joined in the fun.
Miniature golfing! We finally made it there, and really had a fun time golfing and talking about all the times we golfed with Uncle Charlie. The kids had a ball.
Caroline working on her putt.
The three of them posing together. This is something we'll definitely do again, they loved it.

Well, I also tried to post three videos. I finally learned how to make short ones on our camera. I'm not sure if they all posted properly, but they should be included below.

We are now looking forward to the arrival of Nellie & Josh, and my cousins Burnie & Brandon! They're arriving next Friday. We can't wait!

Lots of love to you all. Have a great weekend!

Love,

Tonya

A Tribute to Uncle Charlie

Our dear neighbor and friend, Uncle Charlie, passed away on Saturday, April 12, 2008. He would have been 89 years old in July, and he and Shirley would have been married 57 years in June. Wow, that's a long time. He will be dearly missed. We were so fortunate to have been able to visit with him at home on March 26th and in the hospital on April 6th before flying back to Spain on the 7th. Even though his body had deteriorated, his mind was still sharp and I still thought he would probably be around by the time we came home next. It was quite a shock to get the phone call that he passed away. We have so many great memories with him. This is a picture from Barney's where we went for dinner and miniature golfing last summer.
In the summer of 2004 Uncle Charlie said he wanted to take Luke miniature golfing, and so we had an outing to Scoops for some golfing and of course ice cream. Luke absolutely loved it.
Uncle Charlie with Caroline when she was a baby, visiting at their home. He had one brother, two sons, and four grandsons, so Caroline was his little girl.
Uncle Charlie came over to hang out with Luke one day and the two of them sat in our big chair in the family room.
The kids always asked Uncle Charlie & Aunt Shirley to read to them, and always received lots of books from them as gifts.

They came over one night after Jackson was born with lots of gifts for everyone. They always made ALL the kids feel special. Charlie was so funny with his little camera, always taking pictures of the kids.
I believe this is from Easter 2005, Uncle Charlie reading a book to Caroline that they had gotten her.
It was actually a sticker book so he helped her decorate her shirt with stickers.

Uncle Charlie is helping Luke open a birthday gift. They just spoiled the kids with gifts for every occasion. I'm sure one of them made him wear the lei. :)

Celebrating Charlie's birthday with them at their house, with neighbor and friend Thelma.
Uncle Charlie, Aunt Shirley, and another neighbor Aunt Arlene at Jackson's 1-year luau at the indoor waterpark at Willow Valley resort.
Jackson sporting his new outfit from Uncle Charlie & Aunt Shirley. Charlie even picked it out himself.
Uncle Charlie is helping Luke read the directions to something, I believe on Christmas Eve, 2006. We went to church together and then exchanged gifts. One of my favorite Uncle Charlie stories is from that Christmas. Shirley said they were sitting there watching TV and a commercial came on for that year's Hess trucks, which came with helicopters I believe. She said before the commercial was even over, he stood up and walked out the door (didn't say a word). He thought the boys needed to have them and went right away to buy them!

Charlie wanted to take us out for a nice dinner with their family before we moved to Spain. I believe it was in August, 2007. We really had a wonderful time.
One of the kids took this picture when we were home visiting over Christmas this past year.
We again went to church together for Christmas Eve and then exchanged gifts at their house. Uncle Charlie & Jackson are looking at the calendar we made for them.
And this is our last visit with him at their house, March 26th, 2008. We have a tradition of eating dinner from Isaac's together, so we did that and then the kids hunted for Easter baskets and gifts around their house. Here Uncle Charlie is helping Jackson open some marshmallow bunnies.
And Jackson is showing them to me. A week later Charlie was taken to the hospital, and we were able to visit with him there before we left. Brian and I took turns going in, and I am so thankful for the special visit that I had with him. When Brian came back out to the van his first words were "what a gentleman", which is so true. True to the end. He was a very special and sweet friend, who we will always remember fondly as Uncle Charlie.

Lots of love to all of the family, I'm so sorry we can't be there to be with you all at the memorial service on Friday. Know that our hearts will be there with you and we will be praying for you.

All our love,

The Kings

We're back!

Hola Familia y Amigos! We hope this finds you all doing well. We had a great time over the past two weeks visiting with family and friends in PA. Before we get to that, I wanted to include a photo from Easter morning on our way out to church.
On to the US! Here is one of Jackson's sleeping poses on our flight to PHL after connecting in Munich, Germany.

Once we arrived the kids were pleased to find Easter baskets at Auntie Nellie's, Easter baskets at Uncle Charlie & Aunt Shirley's, and Easter baskets from Grandma. Here we are visiting with Uncle Charlie & Aunt Shirley, our neighbors in Landisville.
Lots of fun stickers, books and candy were found throughout their house. :)
Here Pop-pop is making Jackson laugh.
Lots of family came over to Josh & Nellie's to watch the Tarheels play! It was more fun than watching them in the middle of the night by myself in Spain!
We had fun visiting cousin Esme and Aunt Jess one afternoon. Here the kids are playing trains with Esme.

And here they are playing in a tent that Esme gave to Caroline for her birthday.
The kids spent a fun afternoon at Uncle Dave & Aunt Sandy's house. Here they are watching Monster's Inc. with cousin Emily. He looks scared...
but luckily was laughing too.
They spent some time with Jess & Esme at the playground near Sandy & Dave's house. Sandy took lots of great pictures and I got copies of them! Here's Esme on a slide.
Jackson climbing with Aunt Jess's help.

The kids making a train down the slide (or at least trying to!)
Caroline hanging on the monkey bars.
Cousins on the see-saw.
Esme swinging...what a cutie.
Caroline swinging and giggling.

And while all this swinging was going on, Jackson was busy "working" with his sticks. :)
Emily and Caroline swinging.
And Luke & Derek getting lots of exercise playing video games. :) Look at Sandy and Dave's poor trashed house!
Jackson being a lazy boy.
We also had a fun sleep-over one night with cousins Isaac & Juliana at Nellie & Josh's house. Here's Isaac and Jackson in the morning.

And Caroline, Luke & Juliana.
We had fun visiting Hannah, Ella & Jared Murray one morning.
Jack the Builder! We were invited to a FUN birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese for our neighbor Nadia from Landisville! Nadia and her family were at Caroline's birthday party at the beach here in Sitges, so it was perfect that we were in town for her birthday as well. Now they are both four.
Here they are playing a game where they try to knock ducks out, lovely huh!
And look at this sweet girl praying before eating her pizza in the middle of Chuck E. Cheese, with no one prompting her to do it.

Here's a shot of the whole gang, even baby Corbin! :)
Nadia blowing out her birthday candles.
And Zachary, Luke and Reese, happy to be together again.
Nadia is showing us her new birthday ring from Caroline, and I'm not sure what Caroline is doing!
Here's Caroline on a ride...cute outfit, huh?! She dressed herself. :)

Nadia and her Mom Kathleen.
Another day we visited more neighbors in Landisville, Emily & Sam. They live right across the driveway from our house.
Back at Josh & Nellie's here's the Grammy train with Caroline, cousin Juliana, Luke, cousin Ezra, Jackson, and cousin Isaac.
We managed to hit another birthday party on our last night in town as well! It's always fun to see cousins Sydney, Ryan and Tyler (and share some birthday homemade strawberry pie!)
Here's Jackson on the flight back to Spain. This boy is born to fly!

Jackson had fun finding all of the surprises in the Delta bag. Ha!
And Luke as well.
Caroline getting ready for a snooze on the flight.
Back in Spain, we picked up Tarheel and headed to the beach. We had a great time just relaxing and playing. The next morning we had a pancake breakfast and Luke wanted me to show you the HUGE pancake he ate.
Caroline wanted me to show you that she ate her's into the shape of a C.







Thanks to those of you who had us over for meals or play time, let us use your van, stay in your house, watched the kids, gave them Easter candy, and on and on. It was a busy but very fun visit. We're thinking of those of you who are sick, had surgery, were in the hospital, or making major decisions, we'll be praying for all of you!

God bless you all and we'll talk to you again soon once we recover from jetlag. It's 2:15am here and Jackson is sitting on my lap as I type this!

Lots of love,

Tonya