A few recent pictures

Hello family. I thought I would post a few pictures of what we've been up to, at least what we've been up to when I've had my camera. :-) We went to Texas in June, so there are some pictures from then as well as a few others from this month. I hope you all are going great!

San Antonio River Walk - Our car was 111 degrees when we got back to it that day...

Mexican market in San Antonio

Dinner at the river walk

This was the Hard Rock Cafe, I liked the guitar railings.

The one thing Carl wanted was a cowboy hat, so we found it in the first stall we got to at the market. Everyone else took a river tour but Carl & I had to miss it, so we found the candy store. I have a picture of myself with this same bear when Jordan & I came for our first anniversary 16 years earlier. 

They had Blue Bell Ice Cream, of course we needed a pre lunch treat.

Our hotel had a pool, the boys were so excited! Aunt Donnas room looked right over the pool, so I was able to stay dry and cool while watching. (Others were down there with them)

We went to a drive through zoo and it was pretty cool but our most favorite part was the aviary. So many birds!!! The boys and I have decided that we will be getting birds once we move.

Carl was scared at first, but he got a little more comfortable after a bit of time.

Jack was the bird magnet!!!

Granpa had a stroke (they think) and is in assisted living. Most of the doors of the other people living there had wreaths on them and Granpa said he wanted one for his, so I made him one!

Headed home to Virginia.

We decided to celebrate zero cavities for all 4 of us with a trip to iHop and...

...our first time seeing a movie in the theater in years! We saw the Minions: Rise of Gru. It was also the first theater movie Eli was old enough to be aware of what was going on.

I have a dear friend who is a wonderful artist. I've been collecting her works through buying and bartering for the past few years and I decided to dedicate a wall to her lovely pieces. I have two others but they live elsewhere in the house. I was taking a picture to send to her and Eli wanted to be included.

We decided to take a spur of the moment trip to explore and see where the road took us last weekend. We meandered through West Virginia and Maryland. This picture was taken in front of an artist co-op in Lost River, West Virginia. Pretty cool bench!

Thomas, West Virginia. This is near where Jordan grew up, he went to the orthodontist in the next town over in fact. This was a lovely little riverside town that we spent hours exploring.

We of course had to find a hotel with a pool. Not only did the boys get over an hour in the night we got there, but they were also able to get over an hour the next morning since check out was 12pm. First hotel I've stayed in with such a late check out!

We had a lovely time and saw so many beautiful sights. West Virginia is a gorgeous state. We were able to visit Jordans Grandmom in her assisted living apartment both coming and going. We might do it again, we saw just a fraction of those beautiful states!
 

6/4/22 Fangorn Sycamore Clean Up

 Yesterday, Friday the 3rd, we had someone come out and cut down a sycamore tree that was right in the middle of where the driveway needed to go. Sad to see it go, but it had to be done. Today we headed out and got going about 9am. Here are a few progress shots and videos in case you're interested.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Learning new skills

Jack reeeeeally wanted to drive. Jordan said he has to learn on different equipment first.

Thankful to Jordans dad for the use of the Bobcat, major help there.

We're not sure what we can do with these logs, but we'd like to incorporate them into the house somehow. Probably as shelves. The wood isn't too strong. Any ideas?

Pollen. Only reason we quit when we did. We were all sneezing and coughing and just miserable. Definitely need to find a stronger allergy pill and some masks as well. 

End of the day, about 3.5 hours. The boys were good workers, really pushed themselves. Carls toes were saved by wearing boots and that's something to be thankful for.

Got the stumps up and stacked the sycamore limbs.

I didn't take too many pictures. Trying to pull my own weight and also keep the boys motivated is a rather consuming task. Hoping the more they work the easier it'll get. We'll see. 

Fangorn

As you might have heard, we bought 88 acres not too far from where we are now a couple months ago. Woohoo! Now we have been getting things to the point of being able to get a perc test and all the fun things that must happen before a house can be built. Fangorn is a forest in the world of Tolkien, it was home to Treebeard the Ent and was a fabulous old place. Though our forest is not so old, a good portion of it being Pine trees, it still felt fitting. Anywho, today (5/22/22) we took a hike and I remembered my camera for the first time, so I figured I would bring you guys along! There's a couple recent pictures mixed in too, not land related as well as some earlier pictures from my phone.

Got a new machete

Blurry :-(

Periwinkle?

Alien eggs?

We were properly grossed out by this but also fascinated

A "bowl web" spotted by Jack

I think this is Deerberry

Nice spot for a house

Any ideas on what this is?

Anyone know what these are?

Looks like a nice home

This was the same rose bush from earlier except taken about a week earlier

Jordans been clearing

Dry stream bed

A bunch of weirdos at the Ripleys Aquarium in Gatlinburg

If any of you have any idea of what any of the plants or trees are, please leave a comment! I'm slowly looking them up as I go along, have an idea on a few, but there might be some that y'all recognize right off. Sorry the pictures are out of order, blogger is not the most user friendly. I hope y'all enjoyed the little tour or Fangorn!