The horses at Grand Oaks

While we loved seeing the museum, I think the highlight of our visit to Grand Oaks Resort and Carriage Museum was our time with the horses after we saw the museum.  First we visited one of the many barns, to see if there were any horses in their stalls.  

We did not find any horses there so we headed to the pastures.  There are 400 gorgeous acres at Grand Oaks and everywhere we looked, we were surrounded by beauty and horses.

Here are were some of the sweethearts we got to spend time loving on.

And I just have to share two shots of this beauty.  Can you believe those eyes?!?

She was a sweetie too!

Living the life in The Villages, FL.

Florida Carriage Museum and Paintball

Today we split up and some of us went to play Paintball:

and the rest of us visited the Florida Carriage Museum in nearby Weirsdale, Florida.  I don't know much about the paintball fun beyond seeing the battle scars and hearing talk of a return visit but I got the impression they had a blast.  We had our own version of fun at the museum.

I didn't know quite what to expect when I read online that it was a carriage museum.  I was very pleased with what we did find there.  The collection was even more extensive and interesting than I'd suspected might be there.  

The tour guide did a good job of sharing the history behind many of the carriages they had there and the general history of carriages and driving.

I especially enjoyed being able to share the visit with Brittany.  This is the first museum we took her too and I probably should have warned her that this will be the first of many museums she will see if she is a part of the family.  She said she really enjoyed it, so hopefully that is a good thing for her too!

Happy 4th of July

Earlier this week, we made plans to celebrate Independence Day with Rich and Donna.  That was great news for me because I really enjoy celebrating holidays, and having others around makes it that much better for me.  Last night Aric, Austin and Brittany came to stay with us making my day twice as wonderful.

After the kids arrived, they and Nathan played rook while I started party foods for today.  Today I finished up a few food items, Nathan made pulled pork BBQ and when Donna arrived, she provided three delicious homemade salads to top it off.  We ended up with plenty of good food for everyone.

After our meal, we hung out on the lanai and chatted a bit while the kids played with sparklers.

Next we headed over to Mulberry Recreation Center to play some pickleball.  Miss Ava was so happy that she smiled the whole time.  This is her first visit to the courts since we came here.  Unfortunately we only played one full game and one half game before it started raining.  After Rich and Donna left, we watched a movie together and then ended the night with some Phase 10 fun.  It was a long day, full of fun things and good memories with some of the people we love the most in this world.

Living the life in The Villages!

Kanapaha Botanical Gardens

We have been in The Villages for two weeks now and it feels like we've been here much longer because of all we have squeezed in during that time.  We have so much here that it is easy to see how some people never leave The Villages!  We did decide to leave and venture out this weekend though.  We headed to Gainesville and visited Kanapaha Botanical Gardens.

We were really impressed with this botanical garden and liked some of the unique features it offered, like its vinery.

 I loved the Herb Garden!

The Children's Garden was so whimsical and pretty.

A few signs of human life could be found.

I'm happy to say, much more signs of animal life were present than human.

Most of all, I noticed how very relaxing it was here, even with the sweltering heat!  We had a great (Father's) day here.

A Night at Spanish Springs

We have enjoyed our first week here in The Villages.  Nathan has been able to play lots of pickleball and I've been having fun playing bunco and Mexican Train with Donna.  Last night, we finally got to meet up with both Rich and Donna at one of the Town Centers here.  There are three Town Squares here and each one has its own theme.

We had a great dinner at Ay! Jalisco.  Then we walked around Spanish Springs, where the night's live music and dancing was going on.

One of the unique things about The Villages is the golf carts here.  Golf carts are one of the main modes of transportation here, so it is common to see this outside of businesses.

It is so nicely decorated and laid out, that is is pleasant just to walk around and take it in.

After our time here, we headed over for dessert at Ollie's.  It was wonderful and I think we will have to visit both places again while we are here!

YUM is exactly right!  It was a great first week here!  Looking forward to many more.

Summer at The Villages

We have been settled at Peace River for so long that we have started to grow roots there.  It has been a great place to grow some roots and yet we have still looked forward to traveling again.  We considered heading out to travel this spring but decided to stay put for just a bit longer.  To give us some sort of a compromise between traveling and staying put we decided to go to The Villages for the summer.  

The Villages is the place we visited Rich and Donna last summer.  We fell in love with it during our short stay here with them.  There is pickleball everywhere in The Villages.  Beyond the great pickleball, there are tons of other activities to do here.  It is a great way to have a lot of options while staying in one place.  We rented a place for the summer so we could have plenty of time to soak up the fun there.  

We were up and ready to head out before I am normally even out of my PJ's this morning, which says a bit about how excited we were to get to our summer spot.  We had a nice drive up, passing right by Aric on the way.  We were tickled pink with the house and the neighborhood we will be at for the next few months.  I think the outside space will be our favorite space when we are at the house.  Ava seems to agree so far! 

Since Aric is so close by, we also managed to get him to come and spend the night with us.  We are hoping he will visit us a lot while we are here!  We have plenty of room for him and the other kids so we hope to get visits from all of them.  We are looking forward to many good memories this summer!

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!