What the first half of June Looked Like

Power washing the driveway.

Such a satisfying chore!

A hummingbird finally found our feeder!

He is so fast and hard to get pictures of.

Drive-by birthday greetings for Ember

We all drove by and honked and wave.

Celebrations have to get creative during Covid. 

Our mailbox has seen better days.

It is old.

And several years ago when Andrew was Bishop,

someone put a dry-ice bomb in it while he was on

an international work trip.

(Not a fun way to be roused by the police in the wee morning hours.)

It finally got to the point where the door wouldn't

close anymore. Boo.

Our HOA has mandatory requirements for mailboxes.

Look how huge they are!

A small child could fit inside!

That looks better!

(Although the door on the new one doesn't

always stay closed, either...)

My hydrangeas continue to bloom

They make me happy.

For my birthday, I asked the girls to go hiking

with me during the day. They willingly agreed.

We went up to Hanging Rock. 

Pretty views.

Tory's Den,

a cave where Tory's hid during the American

Revolution when there was unrest between

Royalists and those who wanted independence.

There's a pretty little waterfall nearby.

Love exploring with these two.

We also hiked to Lower Cascade Falls.

We were the only ones who didn't bring our swimsuits!

Whit wants to go back later this summer so we can swim.

Tamales for my birthday dinner.

Yum!!

7 Wonders

My birthday cupcakes from Maxie B's.

So, so good.

New hiking shoes! Fun!

At this point, in my forties, I like getting older.

I haven't started falling apart yet and 

thoroughly enjoy this stage of life.

The YW organization at church celebrated its 150th

anniversary this year. In honor of that milestone, the 

YW General Presidency invited us to set goals related to 

the number 150, called the "My 150 Challenge".

The girls and I decided to walk/hike 150 miles between

now and November. We have a three mile loop we

can do around the neighborhood lake that will help us get there. 

We passed this big turtle on one of our walks.

Such a pretty view around the lake. 

I signed up for a birthday club with Edible Arrangements

and got this free box of chocolate dipped fruit for my birthday.

YUM! The pineapple was my favorite.

On a Saturday, we took a family hike

at Mayo River State Park. 

It is a super short (quarter of a mile) hike to this

cool waterfall.

All of us enjoyed that part.

I wish we would've continued on that trail.

Instead, I had us try a different trail in another

part of the park where we had to drive. 

It was boring and buggy.

Boo.

But the girls were still good sports.

Another cute turtle.

I got a fun game for Mother's Day called 

Throw Throw Burrito Extreme Edition.

It's a card game, but includes these giant

inflatable burritos that you use to play dodge ball

at certain points in the game.

It is hilarious.

Whitney and I are still working on our plastic bag mats.

We love it when our friends share colorful bags with us.

So pretty.

The NC governor's stay-at-home order has been lifted. We are allowed to go out, but are supposed to wear face-masks and maintain six feet of social distancing. The Coronavirus is still around and lots of people are still getting sick. Many businesses are still closed: theaters, gyms, large gatherings. Sports are still cancelled: no MLB season so far. The NBA is on hold. Most restaurants are open again, many only offering take-out.

For us, the big question has been whether or not we could take our annual summer road trip. I toyed with the idea. It's what we do every summer. And it's the only way we get to see many of our family members. But several of the people we would want to visit fall into the "high risk" category. And I would feel terrible if we brought the virus across the country to them. AND what would I do if I got sick and we were two thousand miles away? I don't want to be sick for a week in a hotel. Or in a family member's house. It just didn't feel right. So, as sad as I was to make the decision, we decided we weren't going to take the road trip this year. :(

Even though we can't take our BIG trip, I'm willing and excited to take little day trips around here.  I asked the girls and Andrew to each think of two day-trips they'd like to take this summer and hoped we could squeeze them all in. 

My first day trip: 

hiking at Crowder's Mountain.

It is southwest of Charlotte, right near the SC border.

It's a four mile round trip hike.

We walk those three miles around the lake all the time,

so I thought we'd be fine.

Sheesh.

It kicked our butts!

We were all sucking wind as we neared the top.

It was a pretty hike, with some boulder fields along the way.

Caroline wanted to give up when we were about five

minutes from the top. We were tired and sore and hot.

But I talked her into pushing through.

ALMOST there...

The view from the top is GORGEOUS.

We loved it!

We had snacks and water and rested for a few minutes.

The hike down was MUCH easier and enjoyable.

Brandon is finally back to work at the Chocolate Factory.

Their business has slowed way down, 

so they didn't need him when he first moved back.

Some of his handy work.

Yum.

One of Andrew's day trip picks:

Tubing down a river.

The closest one I could find was the Dan River.

It was less than an hour's drive from our home.

It was a beautiful Saturday and we were excited to go.

Whit had gone tubing with us in Utah once,

but Caroline had never been.

We were not happy with the company that we used.

There was NO social distancing and not a mask in sight.

We picked up our tubes here and then got in an old

re-purposed school bus to drive about 15 minutes up the 

road to the drop-off spot.

We were squished in the bus with several other families.

The bus drive was smoking.

It felt very unsanitary.

Andrew was convinced we were all going to 

have COVID after that drive.

But we dodged that bullet. Phew.

Once we got off the bus and into the river,

we had a GREAT time.

The water was great,

a little bit refreshing,

but not too cold.

It was mostly a lazy float down the river,

with just a few areas of rapids to keep it exciting.

We'd love to tube again.

But we wouldn't use that company again,

especially not during the pandemic.

Geocaching date

I thought the sky over the neighborhood lake was so pretty.