River Farm Reunion  with the McDowells.....

5:00 am this morning, someone was having a hard time getting out of bed and getting on the road....do you see her feet?
Luckily, we found a friendly T-Rex in Holbrook who was willing to babysit the sleepyhead while we got some breakfast.

We made it to Elk City Oklahoma tonight without running into any tornadoes. Tomorrow - Memphis!

May 13, 2008, Flagstaff, AZ: We wake up to slushy snow falling out of the sky. It's freezing.

Tomorrow we hit the road (I40 east that is) back to the southeast for a month of weddings, festivities, reunions, and nice cold beverages. Boy are we ready for some warmer weather and southern hospitality.

Hope everyone is enjoying more typical spring weather....

The 'ol bachelor party in the outer banks of north carolina: variations on the theme drinking, fishing, physical abuse, or as Neil so eloquently put it: "Its my fucking party!"

I basically loved every minute of it. A common question: how was it being the only girl? My general response has been "well, we drank, played football and basketball, ate lots of meat, broke things, discussed burning down some beach houses, and passed out." Perhaps I am not the best girl to answer the question, or maybe I mean my party would have looked awfully similar...

this saturday spring teased us a bit on gen's birthday. we celebrated with mimosas and a game or two of washers in the street in front of our house.

sugaree has a new vantage point

more photos from the herbalgurgle visit - some pool on a snowy friday in flagstaff and a desert hike next to a muddy creek....

theherbalgurggle meets bumblebeecrownking
in the snow storm that is flagstaff...

2nd big snow storm of the year came this weekend and we decided to try out snow shoeing...it involved putting our special snow outfits on, piling 8 people + 2 dogs into a vw van and heading out up the mountain. it was great fun tromping through the deep deep snow. addy's ears got cold, but luckily she had her sweet fleece to keep the rest of her warm.

new years long weekend - my long lost best friend from 7th & 8th grade came to visit. we went on a freezing walk in sedona and played 32,000 hands of rummy 500. it was a good time.

River Farm Weekend:
~ lots of good walking and finding trees to climb over and under
~ exploring the barn and finding a deer left over from a viking party
~ Frankie took us to a sink hole where a creek pops up in the middle of nowhere (it goes underground a couple of miles away
and goes under a ridge and a river before it comes back to the surface)
~ Casper found another tree to climb into
~ more walking along the river and searching for treasures
~ we found a treasure of an old car in the woods and the boys had to pose by it
Our weekend at the farm also included lots of sitting by the woodstove and making and eating delicious food with good friends - I can't wait to go back....

our weekend started with a friday evening neighborhood gathering at the our house - complete with the paper bag game and a stellar dance party and progressed into a cozy weekend of snow (it's still snowing now) with lots of fires in the woodstove and cuddling on the couch with addy and her bff sugaree.

i must say, this north carolina girl is currently loving wintertime. we'll see how i feel about it come march....

nc time:
got to meet casper - my parents' new dog
flew into bright bright leaves
granddaddy sweet talked us into planting 2000 onion plants in the snow
moose stew at the family reunion
hikes in the woods
visiting with wonderful friends
overall a fabulous thanksgiving....

back tracking a bit: november 7th
meg turned 25
presents were opened
chocolate pudding pie was eaten
apples to apples was played
and way too much fun was had with the camera....

November weather in Flagstaff has been lovely lately...warm days with blue skies that are perfect for tossing the nerf with julia in the street. and evenings cool enough for a fire in the wood stove...