What's up with this nutella???
I didn't know there was a special one for seniors...
Shelley mentioned on facebook that her family loves
playing Hamilton karaoke, where they try to do the
songs WITHOUT LOOKING at the words.
Sounded like a fun challenge!
The girls did awesome.
I was OK on a couple songs.
Andrew doesn't listen to the soundtrack enough. :)
Day trip: Conservator's Center
This one was Whitney's choice.
Caroline and I had gone once before,
a couple of years ago with KK,
but Whit had never been.
We found this super cute painted hedgehog rock
while we were waiting for our tour to start.
You were supposed to take it and hide it somewhere new.
We hid it in a crepe myrtle tree by Adams Farm Lake.
We need to walk back by and see if anyone has taken it yet. :)
The Conservator's Center only does guided tours.
The guides are super knowledgeable and friendly.
They do a great job.
Very educational.
It is NOT a hands-on experience,
just a "look with your eyes" tour.
We went on an 11 o'clock tour, which is too late in
the day in July. It was hot and humid. We were so
sweaty by the end, especially since we had to
wear our masks the whole time.
Wolves
Leopard
Lion
The keepers got the lions to "talk" while we were there.
Impressive!
Tiger
Arctic Fox
Serval
Evening walk
Beautiful sunset
Care Bear learned a couple songs on the ukulele
You are my sunshine
I bought a bunch of peaches from the farmer's market
and wanted to try out Grandma Sweat's yummy
peach dessert recipe.
This step, where you have to spread a pasty mixture
on top of crushed vanilla? Impossible!
But the end result was DELICIOUS.
We did another science experiment this month
involving baking soda, food coloring, and vinegar.
Colorful and fun!
We made these baking soda "rocks" with food coloring and froze them overnight
then poured vinegar over the top. Cheap and easy. We liked it.
then poured vinegar over the top. Cheap and easy. We liked it.
Whitney stretched her cooking skills this week.
She made veggie burrito bowl and homemade tortillas.
Honing her inner latina.
The burrito bowl turned out amazing.
The tortillas could use some more practice.
That could be because we ran out of our
regular all-purpose flour and had to use
SELF-RISING flour, which was the only thing
that Wal-Mart had in stock for a while during
COVID quarantine...
I hope she'll try again when we're back to regular flour.
Day Trip: Lower Cascade Falls at Hanging Rock
We'd already gone here last month for my birthday,
but this time we knew to wear our swimsuits. Yes!
Plus, we got there early so that it wouldn't be crowded.
We got there at the PERFECT time.
We passed two people who were on their way out.
And we had the place to ourselves for about 15-20
minutes before the next people got there.
LOVED IT!
So peaceful.
Whitney was super excited to swim.
The water was chilly,
but not as cold as I expected.
Super fun and quick day trip.
Caroline is growing out of all of her clothes.
She grew two inches during quarantine
and is 5'2" now. We had to do some shopping for her
and came across this shirt that totally reminded us of
something B would wear.
I REACHED MY GOAL!
I wanted to add 150 names to our family tree and I did it!
Almost all of them are on the Hiatt side.
That's the easiest side to research because
they've been in the US for so long!
But my dad did help me add three names to my mom's
side of the family tree as well. Hooray!
Also, one of the women I was able to add passed away on July 22 of THIS YEAR.
I can't believe her Find-a-Grave was already published!
Crazy!
Our first time in a health care facility since COVID started.
The girls got their teeth cleaned.
Whitney needs some "preventative fillings"...
I need to ask some more questions about that...
We did a family scavenger hunt around Downtown Greensboro.
I loved it.
Andrew was a good sport.
The girls had fun while it lasted, but were
so ready to be done when we stopped.
Some of the cool things we got to find:
Fountain
9/11 memorial
Musician's mural
Another fountain
This MLK statue says that he was supposed
to be in Greensboro speaking at a church on
the day he was assassinated. I had no idea.
Toto and the ruby slippers
I miss you so much
rainbow staircase
Skyline bench
Rolex lamppost
Metal hanging flowers
Footsteps where the Greensboro four
started the sit-in movements
to help end segregation.
I cleaned out my closet and
came across some sweet memories.
On one of our neighborhood walks,
we came across the world's tiniest frog.
He was adorable!
We also came across this...
Ewwwwww....
Gross!
Thanks to plastic bag donations from several friends,
Whitney and I were able to make THREE MORE
plastic bag mats and donate them to Open Door Ministries
in High Point.
Thanks to plastic bag donations from several friends,
Whitney and I were able to make THREE MORE
plastic bag mats and donate them to Open Door Ministries
in High Point.
There is a comet called NEOWISE that is supposedly visible in the night sky right now. We went out to Adams Farm Park one night, but couldn't see anything. I decided I needed to get away from city lights. I drove out to the boonies. But it was cloudy and I had no view. Boo. Then Andrew and I tried to go watch a movie at a drive-in theater in Eden, NC. But it was sold out. But Eden is out in the boonies, so we decided to wait until it was dark enough to try to see it.
We ate the treats we had bought for the movie and listened
to a podcast together while we waited for it to get dark enough.
We were PRETTY sure we could see where it was.
But it was not very spectacular.
We even had a little pair of binoculars,
but couldn't be sure if we were seeing the right thing.
So....the next night, I took Care Bear out with me and
took my GOOD camera to see if I could capture it.
And we did!
It still wasn't as spectacular as I expected.
But we saw it!
And documented evidence!
It won't be back for another 6,800 years, so
I'm glad we caught a glimpse of it when we could.
Tennis is back in season for me!
Hooray!
My first season back didn't go so great.
I went 2-3 in my 3.5 doubles team. Oops.
The next shortened season has me playing
both singles and mixed doubles with Andrew.
The bad news: My first singles match got rained
out when I was winning 5-1. (We'll reschedule
and pick up where we left off.)
The good news: There was a beautiful rainbow at the courts!
And it was still out when I got home.
It was one of the most vivid rainbows I've ever seen.
As part of the phased approach for returning to church,
the youth can have up to two meetings a month
outdoors with masks and social distancing.
This month, the church put out a virtual worldwide
music celebration. The Greenwoods hosted
both the YM and YW and projected the broadcast
like a movie in their yard.
So cool! The girls had a GREAT time being
back with their church friends for the first time in MONTHS.
Celeste had us download the Marco Polo app and we've had so much fun chatting back and forth with video clips. One of the things that Celeste and Care Bear have been talking about is getting unicycles. What???
We decided it sounded like fun...
And a way to get Bear away from her video games.
She has only had it a few days so far, but is spending time
every day practicing!
Celeste even sent her this super cute unicycle shirt!
And by her second day of practice,
you could already see an improvement!
Woo hoo!
Day Trip: Mount Mitchell
This one was my choice.
I really wanted to conquer the highest peak in NC! (And we learned at the top that it's the highest east of the Mississippi!) There are different ways to get to the summit. You can actually drive almost all the way to the top, with a quick 10 minute walk to the summit. (Too easy.) Or you can do an 11 mile hike from the bottom. (Too hard.) OR you can do a scenic 4 mile loop to the summit. (Yes, please!)
I forgot how much cooler it would be up there. The girls ended up taking our picnic blanket from the back of the van and using it as a makeshift jacket most of the time. 😆 When we got there, we were inside a cloud. There was NO view. I was afraid we were going to be stuck in it the whole time, but the clouds came and went and we had some gorgeous vistas along the way.
They have good signage to help you figure out which trail you're on.
Important for this girl who has gotten us lost on trails before. Ha!
The trail is HARD. Completely uneven. Lots of boulders and roots. But it was gorgeous and magical, too. Felt like it was out of a fairy tale at times.
This tree was so cool!
Pretty wildflowers
Part of the trail was an old road.
We enjoyed the wide, flat trail while it lasted.
It was a great time to play
"I'm thinking of an animal"
while we weren't out of breath or
concentrating too hard on our footing.
There's a tiny little waterfall about halfway.
Even with the good signage,
we ended up off the trail at one point.
Totally just bushwhacking through some
rough terrain.
It was kinda hilarious.
I thought "How are we going to go back
down here without slipping and falling down
the steep trail?" Luckily, we took THE
REAL TRAIL on the way back down. Ha!
Isn't this the craziest plant?
It's called Ghost Pipe or Indian Pipe.
We'd never seen it before.
It reminded me of jellyfish or fairies or angels.
We made it to the top!
My phone died soon after I took these pics, so I don't have any of the way down. We got to forage some delicious wild raspberries along the way. I fell in the mud towards the end. Luckily mud makes for a soft landing. I'm not sad that we don't have photographic evidence of that. Ha!
The cloud that engulfed us at the beginning was gone
when we got back to the parking lot.
Gorgeous view!
I was proud of both of my girls for finishing this hike with me.
It was not easy. And poor Whitney had gotten eaten up by
mosquitos at the outdoor YW activity and she was SUPER
itchy. She hung in there like a champ.
Love exploring this beautiful world with my girls!
