Category: the sisterhood of the bromance

Out with the old…

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As years go, 2019 wasn’t entirely a bad one. But I wouldn’t necessarily say it was a good one either. Like any year, it had its ups and downs, celebrations and disappointments. We lived through a construction project, I had a milestone birthday and we toured colleges with our not-so-baby girl. We slide into 2020 knowing it’s going to be one filled with changes – change being the one constant you can count on in life. Having spent the last 18 years with my world revolving around being a mom, my every day is clearly about to undergo a vast shift so I’m not going to bother making any sort of sweeping declarations of what I’m going to do in 2020, beyond of course, promise you that I really am not coming back to run the orchestra poinsettia sale, so please, stop asking. Really.

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Celebrating them.

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A few months ago, my girl had asked if we could rent a nearby cabin for her sixteenth birthday party.  We had previously rented Dunlodge for her dad’s fortieth birthday a few years ago and found it to be a lovely hidden little spot in town.  Sixteen being a big deal, I went for it.  And since I had to take the cabin for the full weekend, I thought I’d throw a party for her one night and a party the next evening for my dear husband, who also had a birthday that weekend. It seemed slightly ambitious, but not overly so.  Just to be sure, I texted Pat’s best bromance, Will, to make sure he was in and when he was, I went with the plan. Continue reading →

Three is my favorite.

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On a recent visit with my friend Walker, he accompanied me on a trip to the nearby Urbanna Market to pick up some essentials.  There were of course, certain conditions for this excursion laid down by Walker- one, he was going to ride his bike and two, I was going to buy him cotton candy. Done and done.

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Recent Kitchen Experiments.

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I kept seeing mentions of banana bread pop up everywhere last week, so when I got up Sunday morning, it seemed like the obvious thing to make for breakfast was banana bread.  My go-to recipe for banana bread is from my 1980-something Betty Crocker cookbook. I don’t alter it much, with the exception of subbing in some whole wheat flour for all-purpose and excluding nuts. I am just not a fan of nuts in my banana bread and thankfully, no one else is here either.  To be honest, the only time we like nuts in our baked goods are pecan pie and grandma’s fruitcake muffins. Continue reading →

Adventures and ponderings.

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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!

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Celebrating Mollie

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IMG_7293 (1024x683)My friend Mollie turned 40 last week and over the weekend, her husband Will threw her a party. Saturday afternoon, after Edie’s soccer game, we headed over to Urbanna to help her celebrate.  I’m not sure if the party was a surprise, but our showing up, along with Mollie’s friend Ro, definitely was.

Dave and Wade
Pile of kids
Captian Will
Teal!
Pat lights a fire
Party!
Briar, in the middle of the action

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Scenes from a vacation.

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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!).