This was the begining trip of our summer break. We started it with the family mountain house at Grandfarther Mountain in N.C. It's a place we enjoy coming to and just taking a little time out.

We play board games here and read great books and do some of the best antique shopping which is my favorite thing to do. The food is even good out here, and the friendly people out here is so refreshing. I deal with so many moody people I look forward to coming to a happy place.

We are always able to work on some sort of scout badge here too. So we took the opportunity to earn Angie's hiking Girl Scout badge and boy did she. She went on a great hike and it was well earned. They hiked the grandfarther mountain itself. They call it Grandfarther Mountain because when you look at it from a distance it's shaped like an old grandfarther, like the one from the classic movie "Heidi".

They were able to witness lots of wild life on this hike. I always thought a deer had the weirdest eyes. You can't tell in this picture but their eyes are on the outside of the socket of the eye. I learned that awhile back at a petting zoo. It freaked me out. ha! ha! Oh, where was I while the kids were hiking....well John and the kids did this great little hike, our Moe and I went treking ourselves around the antique shops in the town there. My most favorite part. Moe is so much fun to antique with. Oh, let me explain "Moe" is my mother en-law. Any who....we found some great finds and we had a great lunch at the little town drug store. You know the drug store kind with the 40's and 50's flare with the best food. Well I have to share what I ordered....I was hungery but not fatting hungery. Like a large meal kind of hungery. I ordered a "grilled peanut butter & jelly" sandwich. It was wonderful. I wish I took pictures of our little treking adventures but the other half needed to take pictures too. I'll share later what treasures I found antiquing. My favorite is a neat globe for our family library. Moe & I share this love for antiques and we always have such a great time. She is the one who taught me this joy.

It did rain this trip but that didn't stop them!

My little outdoor explorers! They really enjoy this stuff. It wears them out too! Big plus!

Here they are in action!

We met some of John's Granny & Pal's friends on this trip. Moe introduced us and they were really nice to get to know. They have a barn at their house and some apple trees and trackers so we were able to look around and see all the great things they had to share with us, more like some great laughs!

If there was ever talk about moving and building our house this would be it! I love this house! It screams "farmhouse". It looks so cozy with lights on and trees giving shade all around and the big welcoming steps. The wrap around pouch welcomes a nice sit in the rocker with lemonade or work on your cross stitch with fire flies flying around. Or just playing a good card game and some good conversation. I would add a tire swing on one of the trees there though. Then I think of this and think this is nice but so is what I have and the whole idea of some day not having a morgage payment sounds even better. I want to play and own "own" a house. So this is nice but my house can be like a farm house my way and make it cozy too. Now I want to stay here some day cause you know what? This is a Inn! Yep! So I can still take a little vacation with this farm house and that's a treat too!

Okay I did this a little backwards but I'll explain myself here. See on this trip we found the church and the reception house for our kids weddings. I know I'm rushing it but as every girl knows we dream about our weddings and our kids weddings. It's so ROMANTIC!!!!

So with that being said John, Moe and I decided this is it! ha! ha! This was the reception house which is this really nice club house which isn't far from the Inn I just showed you. Which means we could house out of town guest and a first night honeymoon! See I told you we have it all planned out! ha! ha! Can't you just see spinning dresses and shoes dancing on the open porch.

This is the inside of the little church we found, well more like Moe found. She brought us out here and I mean out here. It was tucked away on a narrow dirt road in the woods. So pretty!

This little church dates back in the late 1800's. So neat!

I know it's Episcopal and yes we are not that, but hopefully when the kids are ready to marry it can be any religion welcomed. So if this is ment to be then maybe SOME DAY!!!! We will go to this little chapel just like the old song and have a sweet little few weddings!

Here we went into town well a small fun town called "Blowing Rock" and we just enjoy the little shops there and the best family park ever and REALLY good ice cream from what my kids tell me. I love getting garden ideas at this very place. You can see why through these pictures.

Angie wants to do this for here bedroom window! What a cute idea! It made Angie smile!

The kids with their Moe! Brad and his hiking stick! ha! ha!

My daughter!

Angie, you goof!

Even better Angie!

The climbing wall! Caleb just needs to step up now and he's on top the darn thing!

The freedom we get from this vacation is always in our hearts of hearts. The peace and beauty.

A quiet summer late afternoon!

There's non-thing like a vacation at the family mountain house. Many memories to live a life time here. How sweet it is to have a place like this. I'm ready to go back! Maybe a fall trip is in the works! How lovely it would be!

Fire pit dinner! There's nonthing like it! We love summer time fire pit dinners. O' mother hubard cupboards are a little empty so we pulled together a fire pit dinner...it was yummy!

As you can see we used "peeps" in place of marshmellows for roasting into smores. The kids were having fun with that. Putting the peeps to their firey dealth! Yikes! I need to stock back up on marshmellows since summer is here. So hot dogs and fruit and for dessert peeps smores! Not too shabby! Happy kids and full bellies and a little family time!

Guess who's turning "12" this Sunday?! Our "Rookland Bartholomew " (aka "Rookie")! I think a birthday treat is in the plans for this old guy! We have this great ice cream stop (a little pricey but so worth it).

Well they have ice cream for dogs too and every now and then when we have the dogs with us they get a little treat too! They love it! Rookie was our rescue dog! He really is a sweet dog and kinda corky and he cracks us up still. He still as old as he is still thinks he can catch his tale! Crazy pup! He goes in circles so fast and we just crack up! I think he loves his family cause his eyes tell his whole story!

Well here is once more some late posting of events that has happened in the past two months...This was the girls bridging off into "Girl Scouts". They did it and we are so proud of them. They truely are a great group of girls. We truely have the best time and they can be so sweet. The perfect group of scouts! I think it will be fun watching them grow in the next three years into lovely little ladies. Holly (leader#1) and I have so much planned for these girls in time ahead. We are all geared up for a major trip at the end of the three years to the Juliette Low (founder of girls scouts) camp in Georgia state. The girls are so excited about the trip as well. In the mean time we are ready to work twords achieveing our badges. We are a very busy group of girls and they end up becoming very decorated due to that. We get stopped a lot in public and people tell us how decorated the girls are. They are so proud too. So with that being said I'm already in the works for over the summer to have a few badge parties so we can earn a couple badges over the summer. The activities are in their hand books and are usually life lessons and are pretty fun to do. I will provide summer snacks and a shady spot on the porch and a whole lot of fun and a badge at the end. Just to get a jump start for the new and fresh vest they are sporting now. Angie has already gained two badges. She earned her hiking badge maybe twice and back cause she did some major hiking in the last month so that was well earned and her dance badge...well seven years of dance is well earned too. We will be ready in the fall and onto our first year as a Girl Scout! I just love these girls!

Yippe SUMMER TIME!!! We have the summer list ready to go and we are doing the things we planned out already! Lots of swimming and boating and eatting ice cream so far. The summer list is jam pack with some pretty fun stuff so I think we can plan on a good summer. It's been nice sleeping in these days. Course I've been up still at 6am cause my body is still set, but that's good cause it allows exercise time and garden time in the early mornings while the kids are still sound asleep. That is the best way to start the day I learned. I got the summer list idea from another blogger mom and loved the idea and well we are doing it too. So moms out there you too should do this it really makes your summer fun and stuff to look forward too and the "I'm bored" line is fixed by one glance of the list. The kids back packs are cleaned out and old food in lunch pales is no longer. Mr. Brad had worked his tale off the last end of school and was scoring A's and B's and even rewards and the best part no "SUMMER SCHOOL"! He was so happy and relieved. Caleb is now a High Schooler come fall....boo-hoo my baby boy! Angie is just happy to be happy. She is so ready to play in the sun and just enjoy some down time.
Well Brad convinced me to try one camp out weekend and he promised me it will be fun. So I guess I have to try it once ...I really hate to camp but since he worked so hard in school I guess it can't be too bad! So that is on the list. (What did I get myself into!) I love the movies and the roller skating idea . I've been riding my little Volkswagen bug with the top down these days and the fireflies are so wonderful in the summer. My garden is in full bloom and the pool feels wonderful on these hot, steamy days we've been having. I just need to find a good shady spot in the back yard which I know I will be fighting with the dogs for and pull out my easle and paint away. I was promising myself I would do that this summer. I love watching the sunset on our porch swing and waving to our neighbor friends. That's where I do some great cross stitching there. I just hate the bug bites! Other then that we are ready for this season. The boys will be off to their camps this July and it will be just Angie and I for a little bit. OOOOooo no boys! I have the girls just wanna have fun song in my head right now! ha! ha! I know lots of things she and I can get into. I do have a wedding to go to the begining of July. I haven't been to one in so long. I'm getting my hair done and the dress that has been sitting in my closet with price tags still on waiting for that special day well I think it will be perfect. I'm sporting tan legs to boot too! So I'm looking forward to this. It will be just John and I so it will be kid free! Yippee!
As for John well he has a few trips to take so it will be a little lonely but we are used to it being a former Marine family we've been programed to handle these trips so it's really easy-peasy for us. Oh, John is finally on a BIG-BOY soccer team and he is having a blast! His old man body still has the drive for the sport. My soccer stud! I think this is so good for him! Well that's it for now. I better refill my tall glass of ice water and put a new lemon slice in it and go chill for awhile. I still need to cook a meal for our dogs. We ran out of dog food and I don't food shop tell tomorrow so cooked meal for the pups....they will love me tonite! I can count on a few dog kisses tonite!

Here's some more late posting....back in April we finally took a trip to the Spy museum and we really enjoyed it. I love how it had you play a spy through out the museum. The kids digged that!

It was a great family Sunday and just getting out of the house too. We left the museum with a feeling some body is always watching us and we are watching them! ha! ha! You never know!

Here's my summer reading! I can't wait! My new favorite found author "Mary Kay Andrews" She keeps me turning the pages. It has all the right contents that I like...Love story, funny parts, and she talks about redesigning homes, restaurants, appartments,etc. with antiques and junking and just clever ways to bring you in the place and moment in the book. I Love that! The woman are strong too which is another plus. So I'm hooked! Mary Kay Andrews has a blog on Borders site and it's pretty good. So the first book I started with is "Savannah Breeze" and I can't wait for bed just to read a few pages.

This book is the best for kids any age over the summer, especially if you plan to travel. It gives great pages with a map of the United States and interesting facts about the states and some really funny ones. This book is always off the shelves in our house.

The summer reading has been picked out! We love to read over the summer. Something we look forward to everytime just cause we are allowed a little more time. No home work, late bedtimes, lake side reading , park reading and just the back yard in the tree house with lemonade. (The kids love that and so do the dogs, course they try to get a lick of the lemonade.) The fun thing we like to make the book a little more interesting is putting the characters with different accents. We start to crack up every time! You should try it sometime, it's so fun.

Hey dad, Happy Fathers day! I love you lots and lots! Pretend like I'm giving you a great big hug!