Our Winston-Salem Trip Was Fun!

Conley had a great time at Young Scholars! He had very busy and long 10 hour days at the university. He studied Crime Scene Investigation and they were given a case to solve together as a group. They studied hair and fiber analysis, footprint analysis, chemical analysis, chromatography, and handwriting analysis. In the midst of their structured times, they had recess. They were, however, organized activities! His favorite thing about going to Wake Forest was definitely the university's food court! He ate pizza, chinese food, and ice cream almost every day! By the way- they did solve the crime! While Conley was at NYSP, Savannah and I got to hang out around Winston-Salem. We worked on summer scrapbooks for her and Conley, went to the mall one day and got free makeovers at Glamour Shots. (Someone was interviewing there and needed to do a styling session as part of the process.) Savannah has decided she isn't in any hurry to wear makeup. She hated how it made her skin feel! We spent one day in Old Salem which was started by a group of Moravian Christians who fled Bohemia because of persecution by the Roman Catholics. It's very much like Colonial Williamsburg except that people actually live in the historic homes there. We also spent a day at Reynolda House Museum of Art and Reynolda Village and Gardens. RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company was started there. RJ and his wife Katherine built a large bungalow home in Winston-Salem, but he only lived in it 6 months before he died. He was 30 years older than Katherine. It reminded me alot of Biltmore Estate except it is a smaller scale. Wake Forest at this time was a smaller school on the eastern coast of NC. Mrs. Reynolds coaxed the university to come there by donating 350 acres of her land to them. The Reynolds were friends of the Vanderbilt's, Pulitzer's, Rockefeller's, and Carnegie's. During this time period, the wealthy were leaving the cities and moving to the countryside mostly because of influenza, typhoid, and other disease epidemics. They believed they would be more protected from the diseases because of having fresh air from the country. We also accidently came upon Graylyn International Conference Center while driving through some neighborhoods. Graylyn was one owned by Bowman Gray- whose father was the founder of Wachovia Bank. Bowman Gray was Chairman of the Board of RJ Reynolds Tobacco. You can pull up Graylyn online at http://www.graylyn.com/ . It is really beautiful! Today it is run by Wake Forest. We are now preparing for our trip to Florida! We are so excited about seeing our friends and family there! Enjoy our photos from Winston-Salem. Love you all!

Savannah's Not-So Happy Feet!

Savannah is still recovering from her foot surgery last week. We take her back tomorrow for her follow up. We attempted to go see the fireworks on the 4th, but during the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra's concert, bad weather came and they canceled the whole show. We had borrowed a wheel chair from our church for Savannah and stopped at KFC so we could picnic in the park. Savannah got a first-hand feel at what other people with disabilities go through every day. Some people stared at her, others quickly turned their heads away. But there were others who were quick to help when we needed it. I could see the anger and frustration she felt when people were staring at her or avoiding her. At one point, I almost thought she was going to speak out. We were all disappointed when they canceled the show, but Gregg took us for ice cream so that improved the kids' mood. Our neighbor, Conley's friend Carly, came over a couple days ago with a tiny newborn bunny. She found it in their garage. She brought it over to show us so the kids got to hold it. Unfortunately, it didn't survive. I knew it didn't look very good when she came over. Well, I will post more after Conley's NYSP week. He's so excited. He had two homework assignments to complete before getting there and finished those yesterday. Love to you all!