State Fair - Fall 09

It wouldn't be the dirty south without a good State Fair thrown in once a year! It's crazy and fun and obnoxious and greasy and exciting all at once - we love it...


We saw our friends Shonna and Leah there ... Reed & Leah

Mini-vacation in the country

We had a really fun weekend in the mountains, as the weather started to cool down and the beginning of Fall started to set in. We housesat for our good friends who live out in the Leicester, North Carolina (about a 20 min drive from town). They live on a beautiful 20-something acre piece of land. I got to get away from city life for a minute, and the kids got to have playmates for a whole weekend, since our friends had gone for a kid-free weekend.

Kids playing in the field with flashlights

The guinea hens were hilarious (except when they would come peck my back as I did garden work)



Going for a hike down to the creek


Thanks for sharing your house with us Melanie!

Reed's First Soccer Season

Reed wanted to try out soccer in the Fall, but ended up not enjoying it as much as he thought. His expectations were for him to have the ball most of the time, I think, though of course that's not a reality on a soccer team. He played for most of the season and then lost interest, but it was fun while it lasted!

Sponsored by lunchmeat ... too funny!

In action

Summer Vacation Part I

I got a week off this Summer! As soon as I got the dates, I booked a plane flight to the Northwest. I went to Oregon and Washington and now have been to all lower 48 states!
My lovely friend Bryce met me in Portland at the hostel I was staying at. We went out to check out the Portland nightlife. I loved Portland! We hung at the Rogue brewery and had some local ales. The next morning after a delicious breakfast at the hostel, we loaded up in Bryce's VW bus and drove around Portland in the daylight before heading North.
Didn't realize quite how much water and how many bridges the area has


Next we explored Multnomah Falls - beautiful!!


And since ferns are my favorite plant ever, the northwest's fern collection did not disappoint...


Then we headed to one of the many McMiniman's breweries to make sure we got a fair sampling of local ales. In case you didn't know, Asheville tied with Portland, OR for the best beer city in the USA!! It was the least we could do for the city that worked so hard to get up to Asheville's standards. Not many pics from the breweries, but this was a cool outdoor patio - unfortunately we didn't get to enjoy it because it was the big heat wave in the Northwest and fairly unbearable to just sit in the sun

Then Bryce dropped me off in Olympia, Washington to see my dear friend Aidan who I hadn't seen since we both lived in Durango, Colorado, about 4 years ago.

Myself & Aidan

Olympia Farmers Market (can I just say, the produce there was unimaginable to me! When even the conventional grocery stores had rainbow carrots, I knew it was heaven)

Capital building over harbor, and a lovely moon overhead

One of the many free natural lakes for kids to swim in around the area (ours in Asheville are all forced or man-made, so don't nearly have the magic as the natural ones)

I had gone there with the thought of this being a place for the kids and I to live, but didn't end up liking the town of Olympia as much as I thought I would. Even so, I didn't get nearly my fill of the area, just a little taste - I'll definitely be back (and not during a heat wave next time). Thanks so much to Bryce and Aidan for helping me get around and making me feel so welcome!

Summer Vacation Part II

While I was in Washington, the boys Grandparents in Memphis, Tennessee had the boys at their house for a week! This was the second Summer they've taken the boys in like this, and it's wonderful - the boys have so much fun and get great Gram & Papoo time, and I get a much needed week of doing whatever I feel like :)

En route - I think this was from the Casey Jones place in Tennessee

To the kids delight, Uncle Alex brought his Wii

Lots of outdoor time with the neighbor kids





The boys and their Gram met Aunt Elizabeth (from Mississsippi) and her 3 kids at the Memphis Zoo - it looks like the boys had some really fun cousin time!

New Nephew!

My brother, Scott, and his wife, Julia, had their first baby, Corrin Michael in late August. After the festival in Boone, the kids and I drove down to Charlotte, NC to see him. Such a sweet baby!

Mama and Baby

Cousins


We bought him a cute little handmade hat from the festival but even the baby size was too big for this little guy

Music On the Mountaintop Aug 2009

Yes it's January and I'm writing about Summer things - but give me some credit, this is the first downtime I've seen in a long time! Fall seemed to disorient my mind when sold our house, moved to apartments and then moved to a house only a couple months later. Finally feeling a little settled and ready to update everyone :)

In late August, the kids and I and our friend Shannon and 2 of her kids went to Boone, North Carolina to the Music on the Mountaintop Festival. So good to go see live music outdoors and even better to do it with friends! This festival was headlined by Keller Williams and Sam Bush.





When we went into see the music, the kids ran around and played on empty stages for a while, but inevitably kids got tired, night got dark and mamas weren't ready to go back to camp yet. Shannon was thinking straight and brought a wagon, lantern, and toys so the kids could play and snuggle down, while the mamas danced.