Fall Adventures in Virginia

I don't like the way the new blogger format puts my pics in reverse order.

Ugh.

I tried clicking on them in the wrong order this time,

hoping that would fix the problem...

No such luck.

The girls and I had THE BEST time exploring in Virginia on a random Friday in October. We had planned to go with Andrew on Saturday, but the weather didn't cooperate, so we ended up going without him. The girls are still doing school completely online. And one of the bonuses is that they don't have any live classes on Fridays. So we can go on adventures!

As we were driving around rural southern Virginia,

we came across signs for a Sunflower Maze.

What. the. heck?

We'd never heard of one, but I thought that sounded 

amazing, so we drove around until we found it.

And it was awesome!

Jumping pad

Swings

Slides

Launching apples.

I felt like we were doing a Survivor challenge.

Caterpillar.

This guy was cute.

But we saw some others that were CREEPY.

These things were gross.

After we got home, I googled them and found out

that they actually turn out to be a really cool-looking

moth called a White Sphinx.

That made me slightly less creeped out.

And so many beautiful sunflowers!

Oh, it just made me happy to walk around!

We made it through most of the maze, but

just enjoyed the view of all the sunflowers.

We thought it was interesting that almost all

sunflowers just have the one bloom, but this guy

had a whole bunch.

The pre-formed blossoms remind me of artichokes.

This place was called Doe Run Farm in Ararat, VA.

We loved it and I think all of us would like to go back!

Before the sunflowers, we got to have another first-time

adventure: apple picking! I'm not sure why we've never done it!

We were apparently a little late in the season.

Some of the orchards that I called were done with you-pick

for the year. But Windy Hill Orchard said we could still come.

Yay!

We saw a whole bunch of wild turkeys there.

Look at how full some of the trees get!

It's crazy!

We had a great time picking.

But it's stinky.

So many of the apples have fallen to the ground

and are fermenting. Smelled like beer.

We picked Fuji and Pink Lady Apples.

Some of them are amazing.

And others are not.

I'm happy we did it, but next

time we probably don't need to pick ten pounds.

The man who took our picture also let

us borrow his dog for the picture.

Hilarious.

Ready to pick!

We were there right at perfect time for leaf peeping!

The ride was gorgeous.

And we got to drive on the Parkway for a bit.

Our third adventure for the day was at

Grayson Highlands State Park, also in Virginia.

We had such a great time there last year that we decided to go back.

I was curious to see if we would see ponies again.

It was a PERFECT day for hiking.

The weather was gorgeous.

It's a fairly easy hike on the Rhododendron Trail.

Two and a half miles round trip.

We got to see ponies again!

Lots of them!

Maybe ten or so.

They are not afraid of humans AT ALL.

I loved this one's mane.

They are SO cute.

It's kind of unbelievable that they just wander around

in the mountains, munching away on the grass.

This guy walked right up to us.

So cute!

And chunky.

More caterpillars.

Wooly bears this time.

 So happy to share these adventures with my girls!

We finished an audiobook on the way out,

Other Words for Home.

And then they listened to my audiobook for learning

Spanish with me. :) Grateful for this beautiful world.

And a hard-working husband who helps fund our adventures.

What September Looked Like

Ugh... I hate how blogger's new format puts my pictures in reverse order...

Here we go again... September from beginning to end. 

On one of our nighttime beach walks,

Andrew and I found this half of a fish on the beach.

Ewww... That was a first.

I'm so happy that Whit has gotten back into art.

She is so creative and I love seeing the results.

She had been sketching hands, so I asked

her to sketch out the ASL for FAMILY.

We framed it and put it above our family pics.

One of Care Bear's meals for this month

was pot roast with veggies.

So good.

(And expensive! Sheesh!)

One Sunday after church, we drove past our first house

here in Greensboro. It is so cute! I was afraid this neighborhood

was going to go downhill, but people are still doing a good

job of maintaining their homes and lawns.

I loved that first little house!

I got all of my continuing ed classes done during quarantine

and am officially licensed for another three years.
I feel so professional!

Too bad I haven't practiced in 17 years and am not actually competent...

My latest DIY project:

Bathroom remodel!

I had so much fun working on this project.

I painted three of the four walls.

Put up subway-tile wallpaper on the fourth wall.

Stained the bathroom cabinet.

Removed and replaced the towel rack.

Replaced the light fixture.

And replaced the faucet.

Before and after looking into the bathroom

Before and After looking out from the tub.

When I couldn't find any artwork that I liked,

I had Whitney add her artistic touch.

She painted these canvases to coordinate with 

the shower curtain. So good!

After all that work fixing my washer last month,

I ended up having to buy a new one anyway.

Booooo!

Something ended up going wrong with the timer inside

and it's so old that they don't make the replacement parts

anymore. Nooooo! We found one used one for sale on eBay,

but it was $200 and my repair guy advised against

trying that. He felt like our money would be better

spent on a new machine.

I was SO SAD to say goodbye to our old washing machine.

Here's our new one:

It looks super basic, but it wasn't cheap.

It is commercial-grade.

Nothing digital.

Hopefully it lasts us another 17 years.

More "after" pics from the bathroom.

Drawful fun for FHW one night.

I loved Care Bear's drawing of 

Wu-Tang Clan

There was a cool bird of prey in our front

yard one evening. 

I think it was either a red-tailed or

red-shouldered hawk.

Whitney got her license!

With COVID-19 restrictions, she didn't actually have to take a driving test to get her license. That's kinda weird. However, we were told at the DMV that when we go to get her restrictions off in six months, that she will have to take the driving test at that time. I'll be interested to see how that works. They will be so backed up...

It's fantasy football time!

Here's the team I'm starting out with this year.

I love them! Very hopeful for a good season!

In fact, Yahoo awarded me with the Best Draft of the League award.

Woo hoo!

My friend, Bea, shared on Facebook that her friend, who is a chef, was doing a Facebook Live cooking show to make tres leches cake. I thought that sounded so fun! I bought all the ingredients and was all set to bake! It didn't go as I expected. She went too fast and I couldn't keep up with her. I ended up having to just look up a recipe online to finish it out.

But it turned out delicious! :)

Before our new washer could be delivered, we

had collected enough dirty clothes that we had to make a trip

to the laundromat. We hadn't been to one in YEARS.

We decided to make date night out of it.

We brought cards and played while our laundry ran.

It was actually pretty fun.

And also pretty expensive.

Andrew and I still play Pandemic pretty much every day while we eat lunch together. Such a fun way to spend out lunch break. This game was especially notable because we eradicated ALL FOUR DISEASES! I don't think that has ever happened. Boom!

After four years of teaching seminary, I was released this summer. It was a calling that I LOVED and was very sad to see it end. But it's also an exhausting calling. Andrew and I felt like it was hard for me to give him the support that he needed from me, especially on evenings when he would have late meetings. I was very protective of my sleep schedule as a seminary teacher and it didn't necessarily jive well with Andrew's church schedule. 

The silver lining is that I got another calling that I'm going to LOVE. Our Young Women's presidency was reorganized and I was called to be the second counselor. Yay! Glenda Leinbach is our president, Mendy Greenwood is the first counselor, and Laura Dudley is our secretary. I love all of these women! All of them have been in the ward longer than we have. Laura grew up in the ward and was in the YW program when we moved here. Mendy and I served in a Primary presidency together many years ago. They are all strong, spiritual women and I am excited to serve with them.

I'm also thrilled that I get to serve Whitney and Caroline. What a treat to spend time with my girls every week! AND I get to still serve most of my seminary students, too. Only one of my consistent students was a YM and he graduated last year, so most of the students I was close with were these YW. So happy I can still spend time with them. They are amazing.

 This is a pic from the first in-person activity for our new presidency.

We played Family Feud in the Greenwood's front yard.

Fun!

We have LOVED our hummingbird feeder this year.

So fun to see a hummer or two pretty much every day.

Peach cobbler season. Yummy yummy yummy.

I listened to a series of "Summer School" economics podcasts through Planet Money. You could take a final exam at the end. I aced it. That's right. I'm basically an economist, too. Ha!