Westmoreland Berry Farm

This morning our friends the Littlejohns called and invited me to go pick blackberries! The Littlejohns have told us all about the Westmoreland Berry Farm, but we had yet to make it out there. Well, Jason still has yet to make it out there... but I enjoyed my time with the Littlejohn laides (and baby Anderson). I can't say that I've spent too much time on berry farms before, but I know I have never seen anything like this. I couldn't believe how many berries there were. We could have been there picking for days and days. I couldn't stop.

Sara helping Julia and little Lucy find the darkest, plumpest berries.



Julia enjoying a freshly picked blackberry... or two or three. Luckily they don't weigh you on the way in and on the way out.

They have an amazing little store at the top of the farm with salad dressings, jellies, jams, pies, and all sorts of fresh fruit. We all got a drink while we enjoyed the view overlooking the rows and rows of berries!

Sweet Katie and little Lucy relaxing after a picking berries in the hot sun.

Yum!! Hopefully I'll be able to report that I got to make a blackberry pie this afternoon. We shall see...

Lazy Dog

Nacho is a ball of energy when we're outside and he has things to sniff, people to greet, dogs to play with, and space to run in. But inside, he sleeps like a newborn baby most of the day. I cannot believe how much he can sleep. One thing I'm happy about, though - we got ourselves a snuggler :-)

This is what Nacho does when I'm laying on the couch.

And this is what Nacho does when I get up from the couch (so much for keeping him on the blanket...).

Cutting It.....Old School!!!

It's been quite a while since I've gotten/had to cut grass. Growing up I cut grass like it was my job...that's because it was. I had my own lawn business. Well, in Saint Louis we had a courtyard, that sometimes had grass growing in it, but it was never my job to cut it. One of the things we were excited about having in King George was a yard to take care of and hang out in. So, Saturday morning has become my yard day. I begin by weeding the flower beds on my hands and knees. Then I weed eat. Next I pull out the LAWN MOWER. Now this isn't just any lawn mower. It is eco-friendly, uses no gas, produces no fumes, and makes hardly any noise. No it isn't one of those electric ones....it is an old school Schub-powered rotary mower. I have come to really like this thing. If the blades are sharp you get a surprisingly good cut. Now I wouldn't want to cut acres with this thing, but for what we have now it is awesome. I have some pics here to document the whole process.

First I go to the right....


Then I go to the left....



Then I rake the clippings....
And voila....it's done....

Seriously thats about it right then left...the yard isn't too big.. If you zoom in on the first picture I think you can see the grass clippings flying through the air. I figured I'd point that out, didn't want anybody to miss out on any of the action.

A familiar voice...

"HELLOOOOO!" This post is particularly for our St. Louis friends. You know that greeting. I think I even had a conversation with Lori Kothe about this voice being one thing I will NOT miss when moving to King George. Well, it's been getting pretty hot here lately, and you know what that means: ice.cream.truck. I could hear the tunes a mile away. "If You're Happy and You Know it," "Pop Goes the Weasel," "I'm a Little Teacup..." And wouldn't you know it. I could hear it getting closer and closer as it pulled down our street, and when it stopped right in front of our kitchen window, I heard it: "HELLOOOOOO!" aaaahhhhh!!! I just cannot get away from that sing-songy voice

Nacho's New Friend?

For the last six weeks that we've lived here, we've seen a groundhog occasionally wander into our backyard. Schub has tried to block his little hole, but he has continued to find his way through our fence. Normally we have just banged on the window to see him scurry away. Today was the first day, however that the groundhog had come into our backyard since we got a dog. Nacho was sitting at his favorite place in front of the back door and started going crazy, barking at the rodent intruder. For some reason, Jason and I thought it would be entertaining to let Nacho chase the groundhog, assuming it would just quickly scurry away out through its hole, like we had always seen it do. Well, the groundhog is not as fast as we once thought - especially once you see it trying to run from a big dog.

So we opened the door, and Nacho tore through the yard and in about 3 steps had reached the groundhog and was ready to play. He basically ran over it once and pawed at him a little bit... then the groundhog rolled over on his back. and stayed there. and just laid there. Nacho was so so intrigued. He pawed at him some more and sniffed and sniffed. He was just begging for that thing to play with him. When the groundhog lifted his head for a second and looked like he was going to snap at Nacho, I made Schub go out there and bring Nacho in.

And for the next half hour or so, this is what the groundhog did. He just laid there. I don't know if he was totally stunned and unable to move, or if he was playing dead. FINALLY he slowly lifted his head, looked around, and wobbled back through the hole in the fence. It was quite the excitement for King George county. I was excited, anyway.

* I think you really need to click on the pictures and blow them up in order to get the full effect.

BIDWELL!

I made it back from my beach trip just in time for to meet our good friend Patrick (affectionately known as Bidwell) in D.C. for the afternoon. It had been way way too long since we had seen him and we didn't get nearly enough hang out time. We enjoyed an awesome meal at Matchbox Pizza in Chinatown with Bidwell, his dad "The Colonel," and his sweet sweet mom, Diana.

By the way, did you know that you can take a bus from Chinatown, D.C. to Chinatown, NY for $1 on the Chinatown Bus??

Thanks for coming up to D.C., Bidwell. Be sure to pass on the Chinatown Bus info to your mom. I think she was interested. You can leave a comment now and I will read it as sarcastically as I can.

Three sisters and three brothers

Last week my my two sisters, three nephews, and I made a 25 hour road trip (round trip, that is) down to Florida to see our grandmothers. I didn't get to see either of my grandmas pretty much the entire time I was in St. Louis, so it was high time I spent some q.t. with them. We all met at my parents house in Charleston and took a day to go wedding dress shopping with sister Dana. Then we hit the road! (don't know why so many of my pics are super blurry... forgive me)



First stop was Nona's place in Deland, where she gave the boys some awesome handmade knitted quilts that they LOVED. They even learned to carefully fold the blankets and carried them everywhere for the rest of the trip. We also got to see my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Kitty which was really nice.




Next we made it to Pompano Beach for a few days and stayed with my Aunt Phyllis, Uncle Mike, and Grandma T. They a convenient 1 mile from the beach, so we got to spend a little q.t. with the sun as well :-)

We LOVED being there (Jason wants me to take him down there sometime too!). I can't believe we didn't get a picture with Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Mike or my cousin Mark and his wife Kim who I hadn't seen since I was 16! It was awesome to see everyone. Thanks for being so hospitable to us! We love you!!

This is what Dana looks like when she's engaged

love love love my very cute sister.

Good Morning

My windshield has had a crack in it for almost a year now. a big one. too big for my car to pass inspection here in VA. sooooo, we're finally getting it fixed this morning. We really love Fredericksburg. King George doesn't have too much, but Fredericksburg is really cool. So first thing this morning (seriously, earlier than I've be awake since we've moved here) I dropped my car off at the glass place and was able to walk through the University of Mary Washington campus, stroll down the shady streets of historic downtown Fredericksburg, window shop before the shops were even open, and I stopped myself at Hyperion Espresso. We've been hearing from our Fredicksburg friends that this is their favorite coffee shop, so now I'm finally trying it. And enjoying it. Fredericksburg is so cute.

Boys in the Hood

This afternoon on a quick after-lunch walk with Nacho, we passed the neighbor boys again. One of them said "Did you get us that basketball goal?" I said no and he literally said, "why not?" When I tried to explain to him that I wish we could buy toys all the time but we just can't, he said, "well.... can you buy us something else then?" He was up for anything... how kind. Where did they get the idea that we are the toy fairies??

Things that made me happy today:

1. Playing with Nacho (tonight we took him up to the school across the street and ran with him on the soccer field.)
2. New clothes from Target
3. Cookies & Cream Extreme + Strawberry Cheesecake icecream together in one bowl.

Here are more pictures of us with Nacho for your viewing pleasure.




This is him right now after his run on the soccer field.

Nacho Meets the Neighbors

We have these insanely cute neighbors who are always outside playing every game and activity possible. They ask us to come play with them or watch them do some crazy trick on their bike pretty much every time we see them. They were out playing tonight and Schub took Nacho out to say hello. Nacho loved the kids and the kids loved Nacho. They even said "can he chase us?" Schub said that of course he can chase them, not realize that they meant "we want him to chase us right now." So the neighbor boys had a fun few minutes with Nacho.



Then they wanted to make sure that we got a few snapshots of their muscles and wanted to make sure that I felt their bisceps to see just how strong they are. Also they asked us to please buy them a basketball goal and please come outside tomorrow and set up an obstacle course for them. Don't ask me their names because I never remember them. But they are some cute kids.

Nacho Nacho Dog...We Got Us a Nacho Dog! Nacho Nacho Dog! Everybody We Got Nacho!

We officially have one of the coolest dogs in the world. He is Nacho! We decided to avoid the Craigslist love triangles this time and went through the Richmond Boxer rescue. Nacho was raised Mexican and was originally named Tiger. He grew up on a hearty diet of Mexican table food. His foster mom had a hard time switching him over to dog food, so he lost some weight, when healthy he should be around 75lbs. We decided to change his name and in honor of his fondness for Mexican food. He is NACHO! Its funny everytime we say his name in the house a mariachi jumps out of nowhere and begins to play very joyfully. Nacho jumps up and then does this crazy Mexican hat dance. He is cool. He loves people and his tail pretty much wags non-stop. Yeah I know boxers usually have cropped ears and docked tails....but not our boy. He is au-natural. He likes to roll German style (they can't alter dogs there).

Saturday in the Park, I think it was the 4th of July

Hunter and Jeannie were able to come in town this weekend to celebrate our nation's birthday! It was so fun to hang out with them (as always)... especially since our last visit with them was about 12 hours long (and we slept for like 8 of those hours). Schub and I had not really been up to D.C. yet since we've been here, but we're less than an hour and a half away. I have only been to D.C. once when I was really little, so it was really cool to see everything! And there is so much stuff and so much of it is FREE (reminiscent of St.L!!). It's beautiful and there is so much history there. I could definitely enjoy living in D.C. I think. Anyway... here are a few pics of us enjoying all the July 4th festivities and experiencing the sites and sounds of our nation's capital.

Me and Jeans on the steps of the capital building

We watched a really awesome parade of all these international people groups. Abe Lincoln was there too.

The Hope Diamond. I'll be honest... not as big as I thought it was going to be.

Thugs.


This is where ole' Honest Abe got assassinated.

The main event... fireworks on the mall. Barry Manilow and Aretha Franklin were there... but we didn't sit where we could hear them. It was cool being there though!