Family and Friends
Lilli and Shelby and their families visited us in Virginia, June 10 – 16, to celebrate their birthdays, see friends, and assist with decluttering our house. We took Stephen and Thomas, and later Violet, to the DC Mall to visit Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein, as well as other memorials. On Friday morning Shelby and Stephen toured Manassas Battlefield, while Thomas and I napped in the car. We were grateful to the Lodals for making their farm in Orange County available to us, while Sean and Steve played in a golf tournament at Farmington Country Club. Shelby and Sean were married there in 2004. Lilli and Violet met us at the farm on Friday evening; Sean and Steve grilled our dinner.
On Saturday morning we drove to Charlottesville, where we visited my former student Michael Salvatierra and his family. His sons Noah and Ethan kindly shared their well-stocked playroom with three visitors. After we all lunched at Bodo’s, Shelby and Lilli updated their UVA gear, saw their favorite places on campus, and took a swim in the Farmington pool.
On Sunday we returned to Arlington. That evening Elizabeth and Jan Lodal, their daughter Kirsten and her family, Carolyn and Phil Cohan, and their daughter Lisa with her baby William came to our house for fajitas and birthday cake. We got this rare picture of three Wild Rice Women (Carolyn, Elizabeth and I, friends since 1962), our four “Sprouts” (daughters Lisa, Kirsten, Lilli and Shelby), and six “Seedlings” (Stephen, Violet, Thomas, Billie, Joni, and William). We missed our sons (David, Douglas, and Eric), and six more seedlings, but hope they can come next time.
Lilli also got to see Amy Heiden and Kim Elliott and their families at the fajita party. Kim’s three-year-old daughter Nora was delighted to fall heir to Shelby’s famous milk truck that Gen. Williamson made for her when she was three. Both daughters took home a lot of things that we would otherwise have given away. Before she left on Tuesday, Lilli arranged a brief visit with Pam Bradford and her grandmother, Nellie Grant. Family + Friends = Abundant Joy.
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