mini vacay.

so austin and i just got back from a mini vacation trip back home to virginia to see my momma, my timmy and the rest of my family. austin took off from work so we could have a long weekend and so i could spend even more time enjoying my family.

on thursday morning we loaded up the car and were on our way. unfortunately this is what we were driving in:

beautiful weather for a six hour drive, yes? i mean, at least we didn't waste a pretty day driving... i guess?

austin and i have made the drive from tennessee to virginia so. many. times. but each time we make the trip together, we stop at the state line for a little picnic. this time it was an indoor picnic thanks to the downpour. but the good news was that we got to have a little bit of a history lesson regarding the crooked road, virginia's heritage music trail, by tuning in on our radio. bluegrass, anyone?

eventually, we made it home. and i was so. happy. to be out of the car. and momma even had some fresh lilies waiting for me in a vase. and also a little big bang theory inspired soft kitty pillow. so cute.

the rest of the evening was spent catching up with mom and tim, snacking on appetizers and pizza on the patio and catching the first episode of the season of big brother. oh and trying to keep the peace between these two.

friday morning, we took a trip to visit the salem museum.

i hadn't been since i was in middle or high school and we got to look at some interesting stuff about the history of salem, lots that i didn't even know. and they even had an entire exhibit on the old lakeside amusement park that was in salem. i made mom get a picture with the model of the shooting star, the roller coaster she rode as a little girl that traumatized her for life.

saturday morning, i watched as mom, tim, and granddad worked on this pretty vw truck and momma even took me for a ride in it, despite having not told me the brakes weren't exactly functioning properly...

afterwards we all drove downtown {in a car with functioning brakes} to check out the taubman museum of art where they had exhibits including depression era photos by dorothea lange, a collection of faberge, and something called the big lick boom.

these pictures were taken in the big lick boom exhibit, which is an installation by artist wayne white who, turns out, is from chattanooga. and for those of you who are wondering about the name, big lick was the original name of roanoke {something about salt licks and deer...}

this guy was like a giant puppet on strings that you could pull to animate him and make him talk.

after the museum, we wandered around downtown for a bit checking out the farmer's market and making a stop in the market building for some baked deliciousness of baklava. yum.

then the seven-year-old in me forced momma and timmy to take me to the fair since it was in town. and i can't remember the last time i was in town when the fair was.

i made momma ride the tilt-a-whirl with me. we spun around and around and around. 

and i don't care what you say, the old rides at the fair are the best. maybe not the safest, but the best. probably because of the memories i have of them as a kid.

it was so incredibly hot out we only got enough tickets for the tilt-a-whirl and one other ride. and because i'm a nice person i let austin pick the ride.

and while we look pretty excited about it, you should have seen our faces when we were done. total disappointment. it was like sitting in a dark room for 14 seconds with a strobe light occasionally {which was supposed to be scary}. thanks a lot, austin.

after the fair, i was hot. and tired. so i napped. but then we had family down again for some fresh from the garden {and farmer's market} veggies for dinner. and a lot of catching up and general family time. good stuff.

sunday morning i got to spend some time loving on my pretty horse, wendy. ok, so she's not really my horse, but i like to pretend.

alien horse!

i also spent some time wandering around taking in the pretty views that i love so much.

i sat and watched the hummingbirds for a long time. they fly so close to your head and there are so many of them up there!

unfortunately, like all good things, our visit home was forced to come to an end. not cool. but at least we had sunny weather for our trip back to tennessee. and as has become a tradition for our trips, we stopped at sheetz for some lunch. most people around here don't know anything about sheetz, but austin considers it to be the greatest gas station ever. and you probably think that's weird, but once you try some fresh made to order food from their infinite menu you'll agree with him.

after a very tiring drive we finally made it home. after a quick stop at little caesar's for some pizza for dinner. i wasn't cooking after that drive.

juliet says "are we there yet?"

all in all, i had a wonderful visit back home. it's always so good to see my family but i always wish it could last longer. hopefully it won't be too long before i see them again.

i have some more pictures to share of some goodies we brought home with us, but since this post is ridiculously long as it is {i'd actually be surprised if anyone is still reading...}, but i'll be back to share those later.

not much to say.

so i don't have much to say, but i've got some pictures to share.

of course the fourth of july was last week and we saw some fireworks. juliet was festive and wore here "little sparkler" tee. because that's what she is. a little sparkler. or something.

and then she fell asleep sitting up in the car. i might have done the same thing.

so our independence day celebration was a few days late, but who cares? we headed up the mountain for swimming, cooking out and our own illegal personal fireworks display.

what you really can't see through these pictures is how dangerously close we were to where the guys were setting them off. i'm thinking about 100 feet away at first. we kept moving back as we realized we were waaaay too close. oh and also after one of them fell over and shot fire directly towards the crowd. i'm also pretty sure the cops were called on us. but it's fine.

but really, the most important/exciting thing that's happened lately is this:

and please, ignore the humidity-struck hair. but look! it's deedur!! all the way from south dakota, don't-cha-know {you gotta say that with the right accent, of course}. austin and i were able to meet her and her main man, noah, for some dinner and drinks on friday night and again on saturday for way too much fro yo. and i have no idea why i'm saying/typing things like don't-cha-know, main man and fro yo. i'm just gonna go ahead and apologize. and blame it on too much sugar. point is: it was super awesomely amazing to see danielle. i sure do miss her.

so yeah. that's about all i have to say about that. i'm going to go eat some more cotton candy.

a peck of pickled peppers.

who even knows how much a peck is? i don't. but i feel like it's a lot. and more importantly i think we have a peck of pickles and peppers and beets canned fresh from our garden.

and while i can be proud that austin and i have a {relatively} successful garden and we can turn it in to good food for ourselves, it's really too bad that i won't eat any of it. because the thought of pickles makes me want to throw up. although i will use the jalapenos and other peppers in cooking {but i won't actually eat them, just the flavor of them...}

but one thing we've made recently from our garden veggies that i will actually eat is this:

homemade tomato sauce! yum! we decided just to freeze it in freezer bags since it really won't be that long before we'll want to use it. and in each bag we only put the amount we would use for one meal, so we can just heat up what's in the bag and the rest can stay stored in the freezer until next time. i can't wait to have some pasta with homemade sauce. i hope it's delicious.


so that's about all i have to share today. we have literally been doing nothing over the past few days other than attempting to stay cool and hydrated. please let these 107 degree temperatures back off a bit, because i'm getting summertime cabin fever. but i can't really complain too much especially when i know my family back home is in the same heat without any power. that means no air conditioning, people! hopefully the wonderful power people will have them back on the grid sooner rather than later...


oh. and look at my pretty puppy. she's been a little absent lately, so i just want to share her cute face with all of you.