Visit in Richmond

I left Thursday after work and drove to Holly's. We dropped her car off at the dealer and then hit Wegman's to find dinner to take home: Soup and chicken pot pie! It was a little late by then, so we slipped into our pjs, turned on HGTV, and enjoyed loving on her two new kitties, Ghost and Mousie.

I dropped her off at work on Friday, and made my way to Trevor's. His kitchen--which is shared by two other guys--always looks like this.

Quite the opposite of the girls who lived in this apartment last year--it took a team of cleaning people four hours to make it livable for Trev, Eric, and Jackson. It had been completely trashed.

We've long wanted to visit Maymont, and the weather was perfect! It wasn't my plan to tour the whole place, but we did! We started with the herb garden, the Italian garden, the waterfall,

the Japanese garden,

meandering over to the bears and eagles,

 up around the farm, past the nature center, eventually finding our way to the mansion, where we toured the basement, which were the original servant living quarters.

It was 100 acres of fascinating, relaxing to just walk the grounds and visit, before going to Kokonut Grill for lunch (delicious!). Trevor's tracker counted 5 miles of walking for the day. We ended up hanging out at his place for the last hour before I picked up Holly from work. We picked up her car, and I was home just as it was getting dark on Friday.

A wonderful way to begin the weekend, and it was a special treat to have a short work week, spend Thursday night with Holly, Friday with Trevor, and the weekend with Robert!

The End of Ballast Point

My gosh, it's been such a great run. This place opened two years ago, and we've spent a few dozen nights here with friends, family, and date nights. $10-$12 Monday night specials with amazing burgers, sour beer for me, Black Marlin Porters for Robert, and when weather permits, sitting on the patio enjoying the view.

Nostalgic spur of the moment dinner this week. I could not tap the photo button to save my life; I was laughing so hard that I was crying! Robert finally leaned over and poked it a few times.

Followed by an amazing sunset from, of all places, the Food Lion parking lot.

Fourth of July week

Holly took off a few days and came home for the entire week. Pumpkin has not been eating well, quite concerning for a 14 year old cat, so they went to the vet here. Everything checked out, and she's acting fine in every other way, playful, curious, etc., so Holly and Robert have just been working on getting Pummy to eat whatever she will eat. So far, steak and deli turkey meat are the favorites.

We've had quite a bit of tumultous weather, unpredictable showers/storms in the late afternoons. While we really wanted to go tubing, we went kayaking at Carvins Cove instead. I wasn't brave enough to bring my camera, I wasn't sure how steady I would be on the kayak. BUT SO MUCH FUN!!!!!  Trev, Holly and I all had our own and quickly got accustomed to paddling. We hugged the shore up the first part of the reservior, watching fish splash in the water, and coming close to a deer along the water. It was hot, almost 90?, but we were comfortable. We started to make our way across to the other side, and then cut back toward the dock. Trevor was goofing around, paddling hard to catch up to Holly, and SPLASH!!!! ended up in the middle of the lake. But it was SUPER FUN, and he and I have plans to go back this summer. I truly can't wait, and I was super proud of myself for bring brave enough to do it!!

Holly and I went shopping at Goodwill and got great deals on shorts (me!) and work dresses (both of us). We sat around and played board games. Robert and I cooked up a storm--fried fish, chicken souvlaki, ribs (for July 4th), a full German meal of weinerschnitzel, potatoes with mushroom gravy, sauerkraut, and sweet and sour red cabbage; chile rellanos are on the menu tomorrow. We went to Ballast Point (Holly's first time).

Last night, we headed to Fincastle for fireworks. As we left the house, the storms began rolling in. We parked at the elementary school and waited in the car as it sprinkled and thundered. We waited for more than half an hour and made the decision to head home. As we left, the lightning intensified, and we watched it as we drove. Turning down Glebe Road, the sky opened up and it began pouring to the point that I stopped on the road because I could not see it in front of me for all of the rain.  It was kind of eerie, but we were so close to home that I wasn't concerned. (We were focusing on the fact that our power would surely be out!) But the power was on, and we all played LIFE and snacked as the storms continued. Truly crazy rain, like nothing we've experienced before. Not the night that we planned, but still fun. It's been a nice week, and I'm glad there is still another day and a half.

A Best Day Ever Kind of Day

Trevor's been home for three weeks, finishing the semester with 4 As and a B, the same grades he pulled last semester. It's been a great year!

We went up today to clean out his room, as it looks like he found someone to sublease for the next few months.

On the way, we passed this milestone, 200,000 miles. Just two months short of ten years old, my car looks great. I love my Toyota!

We picked up Holly and went to Trevor's apartment. He and Robert had mostly cleared it out a few weeks ago. We moved out the remaining stuff and did some minor clean up. It's been a nice place for his first year away at school.

We celebrated with lunch at CAVA--perfect full circle, as this is where we celebrated last summer after his VCU orientation!

It was a hot, hot, HOT day (90!), but we had great luck finding shade to park in. Holly wanted to go to ULTA, which was conveniently next door to Trader Joe's, and then we stopped at World Market to check things out before taking Holly home.

Such a great, great day--perfect, really, the best.

A Wedding! Day Two

We woke up to a beautiful morning and headed across the street from the hotel for breakfast at Darto's, a little hole in the wall I found online.

Robert willingly agreed to hit the old Slovak cemetery with me to search for the graves of my great-grandparents. Although the cemetery is still in use and not very large, there were some decrepit sections, some with stones fallen over, others off in parts of the woods. We wandered through for almost an hour to no avail, although I did see several other names familiar to me--very cool. We have a bit of a history with cemeteries, I suppose. Waaaay back in the early 90s, we wandered through Littleton Cemetery just reading the headstones and wondering at family's stories. We have pictures of 3-year old Holly playing in the Forestville cemetery where Robert's grandparents are buried. Shortly after moving to Virginia, we came across an old cemetery and wandered through it simply because we had the time. We spent one of our anniversaries at the Bedford cemetery where many of the Bedford Boys and their families are buried (and we went there specifically for that reason). A year or two ago, we found a local cemetery where Mrs. Howell's husband and family are buried--I think her brother who was killed at D-Day is there too. (I would know this if a was still a faithful blogger.) Robert cleaned up the family plot and we then went to Mrs. Howell's house so she could see pictures on our phones. Anyway, cemeteries are fascinating.

We went back to the hotel to get fancied up, because it was WEDDING TIME!

Aunt Loretta and Aunt Barbara right in front of us.

Moms lighting candles.

My favorite! Tommy came out, a little nervous, turned and looked around at everyone. I snapped this picture just as his eyes landed on me, and he gave me the GREATEST big smile. Precious moment for me; made me all teary for this wonderful guy!

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Motko!

Barb, Loretta, Marie, Casey

:)

There was a several hour break between the wedding in Easton and the reception in Nazareth, so we headed over to Joe and Kathy's with Barb and Loretta to snack a bit. The reception was at a lovely country club along the Delaware River.

Kathy and Joe--awesome picture of two truly wonderful people!

Tommy and Loretta.

It was a beautiful wedding, a lovely reception, a wonderful time. It was such a privilege to be able to be there and share in Tom and Nicole's special day.

A Wedding! Day One

Last weekend, Robert and I travelled to Pennsylvania for the wedding of Tommy and Nicole. I don't even know the last time that just the two of us went out of town overnight together. Holly volunteered to take a day off to come home with Trevor and pet-sit.

We left Friday morning. Robert's cousin Geraldine lives just south of Allentown. Robert hasn't seen her in more than 40 years! I dropped him off at Geraldine and Dick's. Her two sons, who are Robert's age, live nearby, and they came for dinner with their wives. I missed it all, choosing to see my Aunt Barb. She was amused by my request to go to the Farmer's Market, where we got food for dinner and snacks later.

Murphy. laying down like such a good boy!

I went back and picked up Robert and wound our way to our hotel in downtown Bethlehem . . .

where I discovered I'd brought six pairs of shoes for two days. Nothing like being prepared for the weekend!

Long holiday weekend

Holly had a long four day weekend, with Lee-Jackson Day on Friday, MLK Day on Monday. Trevor has no classes on Friday, and Monday was also a holiday for VCU. He'd already planned to come home, and she decided to come along. It was mostly a lazy weekend, we didn't go anywhere but cooked up a storm at home, both for dinners and for packing to freeze and send back with them. Robert and I really enjoy doing that, a definite love language of sorts, and I know it's well appreciated.

It was bitterly cold, with windchill overnight below zero. There was a blood moon lunar eclipse, which Holly spotted--from the back deck! We were able to go out and view it a few times, at the beginning and the high point. It wasn't a total eclipse for us in Virginia, but it was amazing to watch, and I'm glad we braved the outdoors for a few minutes.

I took them back on Monday, where we found an Indian buffet for lunch. We went to the New Grand Market (Asian food), right by Holly's house, for Trevor to see for the first time. It was definitely nicer than the one he and I visited back in the spring--although H-Mart is still by far the favorite, this will make a fair substitute.

Back to school, back to work. I'm already planning to take off President's Day (a floating holiday for us). It's soooo nice to have these great breaks to look forward to over the winter!