Sunset

I saw the sun for about 3 minutes in the last 2 weeks, it was, of course, setting at the time.  

Go Sun!  I know you can burn through these oppressive winter clouds!  Keep trying!!

My specimen tree.

I take a photo a week of this tree, about a mile from my house.  

Past experience has taught me, it is likely the tree will be cut down now that I have taken an interest in it!

Birthday!

Chan's 12th birthday is today.  Unlike her brothers, her birth was very fast and easy, my first contraction was a little after 8 a.m., she popped out after 2 pushes at a couple minutes after 11.  They said, "It's a girl!" and I immediately asked Matt if that was okay!  LOL!  We had just figured another boy and had not really talked about a girl.  He had tears running down his cheeks and said, "Are you KIDDING?  It's fantastic!"

And it has been, she is the best kid, so funny and creative and smart.  Also, she is quite lovely and does not balk at hard work or failure-she just keeps at it.  I could not have ordered a better girl if I had a checklist to go by.  Twinkly eyes, freckles, giggle-prone, voracious reader, loves to write and draw.  She even enjoys hiking and camping most of the time and swims like a fish.  I could not be more pleased.  

Yesterday, we had lunch here and her girlies slept over last night.  By slept, I mean stayed up all night and ate a LOT of cake and talked and by the looks of things, drew pictures of dog-based creatures.  We need a bigger house!  : )

The girls!

The kids!

The moms

Kaitlin knitted Chan a doll! She is SO cute!  I put the party glitter on her.  

Kaitlin also knittted a cap for the guinea pigs.
Here, Blitz is modeling!

I loved this one, the girls are roasting marshmallows and Emily is devouring hers on the couch.  hehehe!

Sacrificial marshmallow!

What happens when you put a marshmallow in the microwave?

hehehe, it's a lecture on the properties of microwaves.

The finished product is sufficiently gross!

+++

A Sunday

Matt and I went to Bankhead for the afternoon.

This happened to me!  Waaa

Our van would not start after a stop to geocache, we had to wait for help!  Ack
We got jumped off, without much hassle, by a man who was a little drunk.
Then we went mudding, without much advanced planning...

Happy Weekend

In celebration of surviving another cold snap, Matt and I headed out to hike a bit today.  We went geocaching, but that did not really work out.  We could not find the first one and my ass literally started to freeze right off, first it was numb, then it started itching along the backs of my legs-which Matt assured me were all the parasites thinking I was dead and they were escaping, which gave me the creeping willies because-EW.  I don't eat pork because I am convinced the worms will burrow into your leg and butt muscles and that episode of House just confirmed it.  But, I LOVE bacon and will occasionally eat non-turkey if I am sure it is cooked perfectly.  I am pretty sure the itching was from my muscles going 'HUH?' and NOT pork worms making good their escape.  Pretty sure.


The point was, my rear-end, then the left side of my face then my hands all went numb, so I bailed on further exposure once we were in the van again.  Weenie!


So Matt bought me a grilled cheese and some fried pickles and we drove around to look at old houses, which I will post another time.

Ice in the treetops

Frost heave along the trail.

Close-up

Icicles, underneath

Giant Shadow Esther!

On the way home, just before sunset, we stopped at a small cemetery in Crawford Bottoms.
I hope to go back, it had some interesting stones!

It was a great day.  I can hardly wait for warmer weather!

Trace Part One

Cathy and I went with our kiddos to the northern end of the Natchez Trace yesterday and drove south until we ran out of day.

Our first stop at Birdsong Hollow, at the Double Bridge over Hwy 96 outside of Franklin, TN

The bridge is HUGE!
It was freezing, we walked over to the base and went right back to the van, it was too chilly for the way we were dressed.  We expected it to be about 15 degrees warmer.  Darn weather forecast, wrong AGAIN.

This is the Gordon House, which was built to house the couple that ran the ferry across the Duck River.

One of several tobacco barns along the drive.

The girls at the overlook behind the barn, it started warming up a little...

At the parking area for Jackson Falls, the kids found a dust devil making the leave whirl and went to jump in!

Jackson Falls

Behind the falls at Fall Hollow

The site of the Meriwether Lewis grave.
He was younger than me!

This is one happy kid.

This was BEFORE he got the text from his Dad that he was cast in Oz, as a kalidah!  He got even happier after that!

The kids in the one shot I made them line up and smile for the camera for.  hahahaha!
No, really, they are there on the porch area.

We took a short walk on the old Trace, the actual path used by travelers.  

This is my favorite spot on the Trace, Metal Ford

After leaving the Trace just south of Metal Ford, we made our way back home via Lewisburg, TN and stopped at Pulaski to grab some food.