first, we headed to boone, north carolina to visit my other siblings, jessie and seth, who are both attending app state this fall. after austin and i turned a five hour trip into seven {stupid detours} we finally arrived in the cute little town of boone where we grabbed some dinner with jessie and then helped jess move some furniture into her new apartment. when seth got out of band camp {he plays snare for app state's marching band} we got to tour his new apartment, as well. it was really crazy for me to go from the 100 plus degrees of texas to the comfortable and then chilly 75 to 55 degrees of boone. i was shivering in shorts and a tee outside at night! the next morning, austin and i bought forty five pounds of bulk candy from the mast general store and then we had yummy lunch with seth. and then i had a tummy ache from too much candy. but i kept eating it anyway. :)
and despite my best efforts and even making a verbal note of wanting to get a picture of jessie, seth and myself, i failed to actually do so. so... sorry.
our next destination was dad and robin's house in greensboro. we got to hang out with them, grab some dinner at angelia's and catch up on big brother. it wasn't much time with them, but we'll take what we can get!
it was then onwards toward home, as in momma and timmy's house. thursday night, we had a big family dinner with mom, tim, sara, bob, grandma, granddad, and marianne. on friday morning, austin and tim headed out for a game of golf while i helped mom out at her school to get ready for the first day of class.
friday night, we ate at mac & bob's {one of my favorites} and then went over to tim's sister's house to have cake and ice cream for my little cousin morgan's birthday. i don't have pictures of her horse themed party, but here she is from our wedding where she was my flower girl!
saturday, however, was our big day. we decided to head up to natural bridge, virginia to see, well, the natural bridge.
first, we stopped in the butterfly garden. where i got in trouble for standing on a bench, which apparently was only for sitting, but i was just trying to get some good pictures of all the butterflies we saw.
then we took the 137 steps {though the count is debatable, we got a different number each time} down to the natural bridge, but first passing by the really cool 1500-year-old arbor vitae tree.
mom and tim walking and austin posing in front of the bridge.
we got to see where george washington supposedly carved his name in the walls of the bridge waaaay back when {maybe 1750} and buddha in the bridge
right under the bridge, we stopped for some pictures and to hear a short lesson on the history of the bridge.
and when i got mad at timmy for not looking at the camera when i wanted his picture, this is what i got:
you wouldn't believe the number of snakes we saw on the short walk to the falls.
we made a quick stop in the salt peter cave and to check out the "lost river."
and i found this little guy trying to run away from me.
and at the end of the cedar creek nature trail, we made it to lace falls, which we slightly unimpressive due to lack of rain...
so we turned around and made the trip back down the trail {and back up 137 ish steps} to then check out the creepy wax museum where we met many famous people, including the obamas.
and austin even made some new friends.
and lastly, on our way out of town, we stopped over in the uk to see stonehenge.
oh wait, i mean foamhenge, that's right.
between the drive out to natural bridge, all the touring, foamhenge, grabbing a bite to eat and then driving back home, we were exhausted to the max. it was a loooong {but fun!} day.
and now, we're back home where i've got just enough time to finishing preparing for school, classes start next week and we've already been assigned a ton of homework!
