Life is a Highway

I love road trips.  Going someplace new, or even someplace I've been before.  I always have.

We always drove when we went on vacation, or to visit family.  My Daddy had to travel a lot for work and we would sometimes go with him during the summer when he would go to Oklahoma.  We would also go camping in Florida and Arkansas every summer.  (When we lived in Louisiana.) After we moved to Georgia, we would make the drive back to Louisiana about two or three times a year.

 The first time I ever got on a plane I was 14, when we went to San Francisco. I guess my parents thought that was too far to drive. Well, or that it would take too long since we were going out there because Daddy had to work.  We stayed for three weeks that trip.  And I LOVED being out there.  The city was pretty cool, but I loved the weekend day trips we took to see the coast and countryside of that part of California.  It was just so different than the Eastern US and so beautiful.

My sister Chrissy and her family have moved a lot and I've taken the kids on road trips to visit them in Durham, NC (when we lived in Atlanta), Fairfax, VA (which is a REALLY long drive from Atlanta with two toddlers) and to Dallas, TX, which is a really long drive from NC with young children and a baby.

My kids have always been good travellers.  My mama says that's because I didn't give them a choice.  :)

Chrissy now lives in Missouri and I was really hoping to make the trip to go see them this summer.  But Natalie got a part in a production of Peter Pan in our local community theatre and her rehearsals start just before school lets out for the summer.  And Will is probably going to be in braces before the summer's over, so we're spending money on that instead of trips this year.  Sigh.

Some people where we live now don't travel, and that is just foreign to me.  But John pointed out that those people don't have family that is spread out all over the place (like mine) so they don't have places to stay, which is one of the things that make it easier for me to go since I don't usually have to spend money on lodging.  (The relatives we stay with usually feed us, too.)  And since their families are all local, they don't have a reason to travel.  I would probably never have gone to Cincinnati if my parents hadn't moved there.

Since Natalie is doing the play, we'll actually stay home for most of the summer.  Which might actually be kind of nice.  Even if I will miss seeing my sister and her family.

...How Graceful I Saw Her Come In

Biltmore Gardens pics, Part II

The Azalea Garden at Biltmore is 15 acres with over 1000 azalea plants (according to their website).

At the end of that garden, there is Bass Pond, with a trail around it.  Since I had no one with me complaining of anything, I continued my walk.

Then there is the Meadow Trail which heads off from the path around the pond.  I took that one, too.

It was a quiet morning on the meadow trail.  At the end of it, I was back on the trail around the pond, with a little side path to what they call a "waterfall".  I always though of falls like these as "spillways" since it comes off the pond and is man-made.

Then it was back through the azaleas and the Walled Garden again to go back to the car.  There are several paths that wind through here so I took a different way back to the Walled Garden.

I took lots more pictures on my way back; it was very hard for me to choose which ones to post.  They are incredibly beautiful gardens with all the blooms this time of year.

I didn't encounter very many people on my way into the gardens or around the pond or meadow but by the time I made my way back into the Azalea Garden, more people were wandering around in there admiring its beauty.

I enjoyed my walk and my solitude.  It was nice and quiet.  I heard mostly just the birds singing, the wind in the trees and the sound of the various creeks running through the gardens.

As May Comes In

 Part I

We had passes to Biltmore last year and I enjoyed it so much that I told John I wanted to get them renewed for Christmas.  We went a lot in the first few months of the year.  We took John's parents, my sister Stacie with her boys and my sister-in-law Susan all separately within the space of a few weeks.  That was back in January and February when there was nothing going on in the gardens so we just went through the house.

Natalie and I have gone back a couple of times; in March and in the first week of April.  But it was early spring so there were just a few early bloomers like daffodils and forsythia.  I've been wanting to go see the tulips since they've been blooming, but as I said in my previous post, April was insane here and we just could not make it down there.

Yesterday morning, I went to see the gardens.  And they were beautiful.  I got there shortly after the gate opened, so there weren't a whole lot of people around yet.  And most of those went to the house first.

The Italian Gardens

The Walled Garden is one that they change every season.  Last spring, we saw the tulips past their peak.  Yesterday, I think it was much closer to their peak than it was then.  They were so pretty!

They have also have flowers other than tulips in the beds.

Looking into the Rose Garden.  I'll have to go back at the end of the month to see those blooming.

 Last year the girls and I saw the azaleas blooming at their peak.  I got to see it again this year.  They smell so good as you walk through them...  I love walking through the Azalea Garden this time of year.

This was the first time that I went through the gardens by myself; I didn't have to listen to any children complaining about being hot/thirsty/hungry/tired/ready to GO/are you done yet/need the bathroom/this is boring.  So I walked on some trails I'd never been on. I really enjoyed myself.

Tune in next time for still more pictures.

April Goes Out...

The month of April was INSANE at my house.  All three of the kids were involved with activities and I don't know how we made it through.  But we did.

Our Spring Break was the first week of April and the kids and I went to spend a few days at the lake with my parents.  That was nice and relaxing.

 

We came home on April 4 to this:

 Will was on his school's baseball team, but most of their games in March were cancelled due to weather.  So they extended their season two weeks.  So our April was even busier than I had expected...

I had to miss some of Will's games because Laura had practice or a game and/or Natalie had a rehearsal or a Girl Scout activity.  (I think I forgot to mention that Natalie was in a production of The Little Mermaid with the community theater so she's been having rehearsals for a few months.)

I do not know how single parents do it.  John was able to get off work early enough to pick up random kids when they all had something going on the same night.  Thank goodness...

Natalie's performances of her play were on a Friday and Saturday evening.  And I was a little relieved that both Will and Laura's games were cancelled that Friday so our weekend was slightly less hectic than originally scheduled.

The rest of these pics are in chronological order.  And I did not include photos from every game we had.

Laura's first game.  She's the right fielder.

She got hits her first two times at bat.

On third getting ready to come home.

Will and John came to Laura's game after his game was over.  He got the game ball that night due to an awesome play and was made a starting player for the rest of the season.  (As a 7th grader, he didn't get to play a whole lot the first part of the season.)

Laura hanging out with me at one of Will's games.  Natalie had rehearsal.

Natalie played one of Ariel's sisters in The Little Mermaid.

Her Kindergarten/first grade teacher came to the show and brought her flowers.

Here is her mermaid costume.

It was a crazy busy month.  Now the only things on the calendar until school is over are Natalie's Girl Scout meetings and Laura's softball games and practices.  Easy peasy!  lol