Abbie and Kaylah's Baby Lambs

Nathan's brother, Chris, and his wife, Katee lived in Arizona when we were out west.  We had fun visiting different places there and even went to the Grand Canyon together.  They have moved back to Virginia since then and now live in the house that the three brothers lived in while growing up.  We knew they had added animals to their space, but I have not been up there to see all that is going on until this visit.

I hit the jackpot when I did go up, because two babies were born that day.  One of them was born minutes before Mom and I arrived and was still all sticky and wet.  What a beautiful thing to be a part of! 

They are all active in 4-H, and shared some of what they are doing there.  Abbie showed us her skills with bracing.

Katee showed off some of the beauties that live here.  It was clear to me that she spends a lot of time bonding with the animals and really loves it.

We can't forget about the chickens.  Well, you really can't forget about chickens because they won't let you if you are anywhere near them.

Every farm needs a great dog and this was one great dog.  I wanted to bring Zoe home with me.

It was so heartwarming to see life and love filling the place that had sat empty for far too long.  Do you think I could fit one of these in the RV?  It could sleep right next to the horse I am wanting to bring along when we start to travel again!  That will be one downside to our lifestyle, no space for the cool animals that the other family members get to own.  I guess I will just have to be content to soak up the goodness of their animals when I visit and be the aunt to both the children and the pets.

 Living the life in VA!

The Snow is Melting...Already!

 One thing that fascinated me when we lived in Virginia was how quickly snow melts here.

 I lived much of my life in Michigan and snows melts at the end of spring.  If it is a warm year.

 Otherwise, snow falls on the ground.  More snow falls on the ground on top of that snow and the cycle continues all winter long.  At some point the ground is covered with dirty snow.  Not real appealing at all to look at and it gets slick to walk on.

Here it stays nice and clean until it melts and then it is just a memory.  I can handle snow like that!  It will probably be all melted by tomorrow at this rate!

Living the life in fickle VA!

Snow in March!

 We woke up this morning and saw that it snowed more while we were asleep.  I went outside to snap some shots of the snow before anyone else was outside.

 I'd forgot how quiet the world is when there is fresh snow on the ground.  It seems like it's nature's way of saying, "hush".

The only other creature I saw stirring was Russ.  Russ was moving around in the snow, but even he was quiet beyond that.

It is such a strange thing to have weather like this in March!  Luckily Mom has a fireplace where we could stay snuggled up next to and see the beauty of the snow while staying cozy and warm.  I think Russ is a bit jealous of that.

 

Sorry Russ!  Living the life in snowy VA!

Trip to Virginia Complete With a Surprise Once We Arrived!

Nathan and I took our first no children with us trip since...well, ever!  We went to Virginia to stay with his Mom.  We headed out on Friday and ended up getting stuck in traffic on Saturday but still made it there in decent time.

On Sunday, we headed down to Daryl and Diana's where we saw their new barn.

We also met Dustin, Lauren's new horse, who was largely the reason behind the barn.  I actually met Dustin once before, but got to spend more time really getting to know him this visit. 

While we were talking horses, Josh came out to see what we were doing.  And he brought some of the white stuff with him.

I'm not a fan of the white stuff.  It cracks me up when people ask if we miss snow.  I can't figure out what on earth there would be to miss.  It is pretty to look at.  If you are looking at it in a picture.  While sitting in Florida!  Beyond that, nope, we don't miss snow.

 

The chickens seemed to agree with me.  They had ruffled feathers over the snow.

 

By the time we drove back to Mom's house, this is what it looked like:

 I think it's time to hunker down and stay inside until the sun comes out and melts it all away again!

Living the life in cold VA!

Lazy Week in Gloucester

We are settling back into a routine with Austin being back home with us.  I got my staples out and am finally feeling somewhat normal.  Ava is thrilled to have another guy around which means I have been bumped down to third on the list of people she adores.  We bought an island to put in the space where our dining room table was.  Beyond that we are doing the normal, everyday things in life like laundry.

In other words, it has been a very laid back, lazy kind of a week.  We are loving our campsite still even though it has rained quite a bit so we haven't sat outside like we normally would.

Mountain Top and Valley

One wonderful thing about where Nathan's family lives is that you can see the mountains pretty much from anywhere you are at there.  The scenery is breathtaking.  It is so lush that we find ourselves saying, "it is so green here" each time we visit.  It's a wonderful place to enjoy nature at its finest.

 I never tire of this scenery.  I don't think I ever will tire of it.  I mean, can you imagine seeing this and saying, you know what...I'm done with all of this beauty?  Nope, not gonna happen.

What I rarely did when we lived here, and really enjoy now though is the ride coming in.  The ride that allows us a whole different view of this magical place.  The drive over the mountains, where we look down on the valley below.  That is what we enjoyed today.

It is still so green and still so beautiful.

Just an entirely different perspective.

Living the life in Virginia!

Girls, Girls, Girls

As I said, we pretty much had Mom all to ourselves this visit.  We were able to see Katie and her girls for a bit on the day we were heading out.  I so appreciated that also because Katie and I rarely get time together.  We had a really nice chat while Abbey showed me how she can roller blade.  Katie is like Aubi, she likes animals and they like her. 

 I had a little bit of time with my lovely nieces.  They are two of the cutest girls ever and they are just cool kids to boot.  Abbey is getting more grown up each time we see her.  She is getting ready to enter that pre-teen stage.  For now, she still seems to have a bit of the I'm happy being a little girl left in her.  She drew me some pictures and showed me her talent there.  She also loves animals.  She is a sweetheart.

  Mikaylah is the one who came and spent time with us in Arizona.  She is much quieter when everyone else is around, which is too bad because she is an absolute hoot when she does talk.  She is stunning with her beauty, both inside and out.  She's really creative.  She's smart as a whip.  She loves crafts like me.  And she is a sweetheart too.

They are typical sisters meaning they love each other and they fight like sisters who love each other.

One thing I did not like about this visit with the girls-Miss Abbey is almost as tall as me.  How this is possible, I have no idea.  I think she is going to be a tall one like Lauren, Auburn and Ambir.

Maybe Mikaylah will stay short like Ashleigh and I.  Either way, they are gorgeous girlies and I love my time with them. 

Living the life in Virginia!

Trip To Pick Up Austin

This weekend we headed back over to the Shenandoah Valley to pick up Austin.  Since he was at Mom's house and that made it an eight hour round trip, we decided to go ahead and just stay for the weekend.

 Since we went full time I've rarely been able to come and stay at her house.  In fact this year might be the first I've ever stayed at this house.  It is definitely the first I can recall staying when we were the only ones around for most of the visit.  Normally we all get together meaning the brothers and their families.  This time we had a whole day and a half with just her.  As much as we enjoy the others, it was really wonderful to just hang out and have time with her that way. 

We spent Saturday shopping with her.  She took us all over Harrisonburg.  We went to the Farmer's Market where we stocked up on bulk foods.  We went to Costco to look at some things.  We stopped at a few furniture places because we are looking for a kitchen island.  She went to a store and got us a popcorn popper that I'd said I'd love to have (and I do LOVE it). 

We then went to another Farmer's Market where she got us a cornhole toss game as part of our Christmas gift.  It is the nicest one we've seen before or since.  Really nice quality and much bigger than the ones you normally get in the store.  We played a few games with it and I think Mom and I were the best of the four of us.  I'm not saying the guys weren't good, I'm saying we were better.  I am sure that will be short lived though because Nathan and Austin will play 24 hours a day until they get better than me.  It's just how they are. 

Nathan, who is notorious for hating any physical labor at all, did some painting for her.

While he worked I went outside to check on him.  That didn't take long so I took advantage of the views from my MIL's yard.

We used the internet as much as we could because we've been without fast internet for a long time now.  Mostly we just enjoyed the time together with family though.  I had some complications with my healing, meaning I somehow managed to get boils where my dressings were.  This delayed staple removal, which meant by now the staples were hurting.  Even with that going on, I had a wonderful visit.  Very relaxing and lots of fun.  Thanks, Mom for everything!

Virginia Living Museum

The last two times we were in this area, we said we wanted to visit the Virginia Living Museum.  We drove over one weekend day just to find out they had already closed by the time we arrived.  Since I was in recovering mode and couldn't do a whole lot of physical activity, we figured today would be a great day.  We were not disappointed in our choice.

I'm not sure how to describe this place.  It is part museum and part zoo would be as good of a description as I can come up with.  The outdoors area has an area with water and boardwalks.

There are many animals out here to see.

The inside area is part museum displays and interactive learning fun and then has more animals too.  Their website says they have over 250 animal and plant exhibits there.  They also have a planetarium which we did not visit.  We loved this place!

On a side note: the pictures are not great in quality or number because I only used the camera on my phone to take them.  I could not bear the thought of lugging the big camera around today.  I stupidly thought when they released me and said no restrictions beyond heavy lifting that it meant I would be up to doing anything but heavy lifting.  Uh...no.  I really was shocked how sore and tired I was after surgery.  So this was a short trip and a laid back trip for us, due to my body telling me it did indeed have some restrictions!

Living the life in Virginia!

Enjoying the Local Beauty

I am still healing, but we are getting out and seeing some of the local beauty while here.  We don't have to go very far for the beauty because we are on one of the water view sites.

The rest of the places are within minutes of the park.