in with the new

Foto Friday Week 33

The Glee Edition. (AKA the I Meant To Get These Up Earlier in the Week Edition!) We went to Tweetsie Railroad with our friends last Sunday. It's a theme park a couple of hours away. Mas LOVED the rides, the carousel, the airplanes, and the race cars. See!

The Tweetsie train. Cowboys and Indians (yes, "Indians"!) put on a show during the train ride.

Mason's first ride without a parent! That's him and his friend Peyton. He LOVED it!

Our good friends and neighbors: Brave Peyton and Laura on the ferris wheel.

Carousel FUN!

Mason "drove". He loved this and went on three times! The last time with our friend Tommy.

Will and Mas.

A Christmas tree farm we passed. Amazing view!

Sweet

Last night we asked Mason if he's a baby. He said, "No, a boy. A sweet boy."

Will asked him, "What's Mama?" He said, "A sweet Mama."

I asked him, "What's Daddy?" He said, "A sweet man."

Sweet.

Foto Friday Week 32

The Same Shirt, Different Year Edition! Here's Mason last year and this year in his "pirate" shirt. A year ago, he was still wearing soft shoes. Now he's all sneakers! Last year, he still had remnants of baby fat and rolls on his arms. Now he's all slender and sporty! Last year, his face was sweet and round. Now his sweet pointy chin and yummy cheeks are more prominent.

Pool Time!

Will sent me this from his phone. It's pool time in our yard!

Veggies, Bugs and My Garden

We have been getting a CSA (community supported agriculture) box from a local farm since May. At first it was a lot of lettuce, cabbage, and other greens. Now we're getting so many pretty and yummy things - carrots, cauliflower, sugar snap peas, broccoli, radishes, beets... Here are a couple of pictures from the most recent box.

Here is a bee and a butterfly on my verbena plant. These brown butterflies are always on the verbena. And there is always a plethora of cute, fuzzy, yellow-legged bees, working so hard! P-O-L-L-I-N-A-T-E! Goooooooooooooo Bees! ( A little cheer for them!)

And last but surely not least is my garden. I am so happy with my first garden. The plants I bought from the market (6 red lettuce plants, 2 Cherokee purple tomatoes, 2 German striped tomatoes, 4 basil, 1 dill, 1 rosemary, and 2 blueberry bushes), the ones I grew from seeds (sugar snap peas, carrots, and mustard greens) and the ones my dad brought (sunflower, peppers, and squash) are doing so well! They love their spot in the ground, they love the rain, and we love to pick them and eat them! The lettuce is amazing, I pick off all the leaves, and it grows back all new! We have 6 Cherokee purple tomatoes, a bunch of unripe blueberries, and we've been eating peas a little bit each day. Basher eats the pods. Next year, I'm expanding. I want to give the tomatoes more room, grow cucumbers, and a lot of strawberry plants.

Father's Day

"Happy Fadder's Day, Da-yee!" After Will opened his presents (ok, technically one was not wrapped because it was so big - an edger/trimmer, and the other I gave him on Thursday because I was so excited about it - a "Generations of Dads" photo book of his dad's dad, his dad, him and Mason), and after it stopped raining, we spent the morning at the "beach" - Lake Powhatan - with our friends Tara, Tyler and Tessa. Phone photos...

Mas and I picked up Earth Fare lunch, and then we spent the day sipping cocktails (Will and me!) and enjoying the out-of-doors. We were in the back watching and playing with Mason, we were on the front porch watching a storm. After Mason went to bed, we grilled these awesome Korean ribs. Mmmm. Happy Father's Day, Will!

Foto Friday Week 31

It's the Even More Hiking Pictures Edition! Or as I like to call it, the Aren't You Sore You Don't Live Here? Edition! Please enjoy more pictures from last Sunday's hike!

1, 2, 3 Hike!

OK, not that kind of hike! We went hiking off the Blue Ridge on Sunday. We went to mile marker 365(ish - we live around 392) to Craggy Gardens. It was about .7 miles up. It took about 20 minutes to get to the payola, and it paid off big. We were on a plateau and had a 360º view of the mountains. The bonus was that the rhododendrons were in bloom, so we also were treated to pink everywhere. The landscape, the mountains that went on forever, the dramatic clouds, the pink, the Blue ridge in the not-so-far distance were all so awesome.

Here is a video. And a few pictures!

Foto Friday Week 30

Home Run Edition!!!

Bad Dreams

At about 2:30am, Mason was crying in bed. I went in to him, and he was saying, "oh no! oh no!" Poor guy had a bad dream! I snuggled with him and asked him what happened. "Where's vacrosse (lacrosse) ball?" I told him it was ok, that we would find it in the morning. I asked him if he knew where it was. In a sad voice he answered,"it on roof!" I told him that it was in the living room (he was tossing it around last night) and we would find it in the morning. He seemed ok with that and fell asleep. I went back to my bed.

At about 3:15am, he was crying again. This time it was "I want it! I want it! I want it!" He never opened his eyes this time. I snuggled him and we both passed out. I snuck out around 4am. This morning when he climbed in our bed (as he does every morning when he wakes up) I asked him what he wanted last night when he was saying "I want it". He told me, all matter-of-factily, "vacrosse ball!" I should have known.

Mr. Sporty has nightmares about losing his  sporting equipment. He has a lot of sporting equipment. I wonder what will end up on the roof next!