Tomorrow morning, I am boarding a bus to D.C. to march, along with my daughter, countless friends and thousands upon thousands of other women.
I want my daughter to know, that she and countless others WILL not lose any rights if I have anything to do with it. I want her to know, it’s NOT okay to bully. That this climate of fear our new president spoke of is NOT our reality. That education, civil rights, healthcare, clean air and water and free speech are in fact, for all and part of our unalienable rights as Americans. That decency, politeness and caring for your fellow human beings is what we should expect from each and every one of us. This is #whyimarch.
Category: roadtrips
A grand adventure.
We are back to real life after having had a grand adventure last week of the most delightful sort – a trip to Florida to spend a week with our friend Eric and his son AJ at their vacation home on the Gulf Coast.
Lazy, hazy days
We spent the better part of last week down at the lake with the Smileys. After feeling like our summer was highly overscheduled, it was a much needed and welcome escape from town and schedules. Continue reading
Summer adventures.
Edie and I took a quick road trip the other day – she chose to knock out next year’s PE requirement during a summer session, which put a bit of a damper on our usual June roadtrip plans. We’ve been a bit more grounded and structured than I care to be during the summer, but such is life.
A Saturday Adventure.
The plan was to go pick up some composted manure from a friend’s goat farm for our garden plot. Said farm is out in what we city dwellers refer to as “the sticks” – south of town between Schuyler and Scottsville, a few dirt roads off the main road.
Virginia and I set out about mid-morning in our old pick-up truck. We stopped off at the garden to tidy up and drop off some tools before heading south.
The driveway
Peacoks in the hay loft
Goats!
Peacock side eye
They did.
New Years Day found us getting up bright and early to drive to Baltimore for a wedding we’d been looking forward to for some time – my cousin Molly and her beau Patrick. Edie was to do a reading in the wedding, so the idea was we’d leave early to allow time to settle in where we were staying before getting cleaned up and heading to rehearsal. Continue reading
Adventures and ponderings.
A good bit of our adventures throughout the year tend to fall into two categories – events my husband has to attend for work that Edie and I tag along to or things we do with our dear friends the Smileys. Occasionally, the two merge, like this past weekend’s adventures – Pat’s employer, James River Association, hosted an oyster roast down in Lynchburg at Kegney Brothers featuring Will’s Christchurch School oysters.
The scene
UNO!
The grub – trout, kale, oysters, potatoes. YUM.
Sunset over the James.
Smiley men at work.
OYSTERS!
Last gasp.
For months now, life has been over scheduled. I realized we had a weekend with nothing planned, no one was working, so I grabbed it and scheduled a much needed beach weekend. Continue reading
Wanderings, with peaches.
Our friends Tim and Wanda moved out to the country a few years ago, to a fixer-upper with a spectacular view and a small grove of fruit trees. When we saw them at dinner last month, they invited me out to pick peaches, an invitation I took them up on last week.
Scenes from a vacation.
Jumping girls
Walker’s fish!
Trying to get a shot
and another
Sitting on the dock at carp city
In which the children discover they can see under the store at the marina
Feeding the carp (and getting their toes sucked!)
Photo bombing Will
Making movies
Sunscreening himself
Tubing girls
My love.
Chill time.
More tubing girls
Bringing in the catfish
Posing with the catfish
Photo bombing Owen
Photobombing the photobomber
Keeping Walker on the boat
Captain and First Mate
Walker skis!
Huck Finn
The skiing squirrel in action.
Walker skiing
Going for a ride
Lunch on the boat
Later afternoon view from the dock
Water snuggles
In which I hold on for dear life
Back at the dock
Owen practicing his karate kid moves
Briar in her tux
Mollie and Abigail
Captain Will
Edie attempts to get on the tiger
And falls off.
Tricks time
Finally on!
Tubing girls
Tubing Abigail and Owen
Hands free Owen!
Walker and his mama
Watching Walker ski the cove
Floating children
The floating island of children
My girl.
Besties.
Snuggles!
Evening
We spent a few days last week down at Granny’s cabin at Smith Mountain Lake with our dear friends the Smileys. There was lots of fishing, swimming, tubing, skiing, boating and photo taking of it all. Walker, two, doesn’t quite swim yet (although he thinks he can) but he can water ski. Why yes, it was sort of like watching a squirrel. Pat caught sight of a big ole catfish hanging out under the boathouse and made it his mission to catch it, which he did Friday morning. Every male in the house ran down to assist bringing it in, yelling for me to bring the camera. It was a big deal. They now sell little tubs of peanut butter to put on your toes for the carp to suck it off down at Carp City. Of course Edie and Abigail went for it. Walker had me take a few hundred fish pictures, Will had me take a few hundred pictures of Walker water skiing and that’s at least part of how I ended up with over a thousand shots on my memory card from the trip. Mollie and I added clean-out-the-fridge nachos to our meal line up this time – definitely must remember to do that again. I averaged a book a day – nothing says vacation to me more than being able to sit and read for hours on end. The weather was absolutely lovely, with the hottest day being of course, the day we were packing up, which resulted in a last minute jump in the lake, then driving home with a bag full of wet bathing suits which promptly went into the washing machine and hung on the line to dry. It was a wonderful break – thanks to Will and Mollie for having us (and to Granny!).
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 