food, crochet, merriment
This moment~
A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from our lives.
A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
If you have a “moment” of your own and would like to share–please link to it in the comments.
Happy summer weekend everyone!
With just a few meager weeks of summer left to us–if was obvious that a huge, wonderful, amazing trip of some kind was in order. Not just any trip, but a real, live road trip.
A magnamonious one.
We are indeed ready and waiting…seat belts fastened…sippy within reach. If you’ve been following carefully, you may have a clue where we’re headed. If not, just follow along.
Here we go!
We have about 7 or 8 hours of driving ahead of us–so toddler entertainment is essential.
Big people entertainment is dang important too. We played the license plate game that kept us busy for a lonnnng time. We even spotted a Maine and Alaska–clear out here in the mid-west. Stunning I tell you. But I’m holding out for Hawaii.
Well, I am.
Pretty easy to tell when we crossed the border into Wyoming because there were THESE stores all over the place, but since the type of fireworks they carry in there are totally illegal in our home state…we just kept on driving.
Til lunchtime that is. Taco Bell is a lovely place to take a break. Oh, and I showed my BagBag–the one made from Taco Bell bags–to the Taco Bell ladies. They told me to send a picture to the corporate because, “they’d be dang impressed.” Who knows? Might be good for a free Chalupa or something.
Most of us were just glad to get out and stretch around for a minute.
Then, of course, it was back in the car, for more…
of this…
and this…
and this.
Luckily, we had a bit of “Ponyo” going on as well. This, my friends, is one high-tech road trip.
Which is lucky, because there was a heck of a lot of this to look at. Beautiful, yes…but after a few hours…
even the most stalwart travelers get hazy.
The scenery was occasionally broken up by construction cones–we have them at home, thank you very much–and…
huge piles of sand. Almost thought we’d driven clear to Egypt when I saw this one.
After the pyramid thing, it was pretty exciting to see a semi-truck filled with Burmuda onions.
Filled, I tell y0u.
At the end of the day we were so pleased with the good natured, patient, happy little travelers we have here.
Yes…yes. What good-natured, patient, exhausted travelers we have here.
Sleep well my lovelies.
We have a big, big day tomorrow!
We are going on a road trip my friends. From our little Rocky Mountain home to a couple of places we’ve always wanted to see. Can you guess where we’re going?
Here is a picture of my sweet Jillian, while she was in England, goofing around about where we are going this week. See if you can figure out the clues. First one to guess it correctly will win…
something from our trip. Don’t know what it is yet because I haven’t been there. Oh, and the friends and family that already know where we’re going–you don’t get to guess…because when you know something–it’s not a guess anymore. You know that.
Sheesh.
Our sweet Jillian took a surprise trip to England last month to visit her dear friends Sarah and Hilda. It was pretty much a hush-hush sort of deal because she was planning to meet up with and totally surprise Dane in the airport in Georgia. We didn’t tell anyone that she was even taking this incredible trip to make sure that word didn’t accidentally slip back to Dane somehow and spoil the surprise.
Anyway–she took some amazing photos that I need–yes, need–to share with you guys. Remember how our family just got finished reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula? Well, our gal went to the actual place where some of the scariest stuff in the book actually happened…for real. No, I mean it.
Yes, yes. Sometimes I have a teeny, tiny bit of trouble distinguishing between reality and…fantasy. It’s a struggle.
In the book, one of the character–named Lucy, is being sucked in–ha ha–by the count himself. She starts wandering around in her sleep/trance, in the town of Whitby. These are the very stairs she climbed up in her creepy white gown in the middle of the night. Can you just picture it?
Her dear friend, Mina Harker chased her up these very stairs to try to stop her from meeting the nasty old Count Dracula again. Oh, he got her anyway.
Are you getting chills yet?
This is the very seat that Mina and Lucy sit on–in the incredibly creepy cemetery–to rest and chat a bit. I know I’d certainly want to sit in a really spooky cemetery for some nice, relaxing girl talk.
Yikes.
This is the very path they walked on while Lucy–unbeknownced to Mina–was slowly being turned into a vampire.
View from the middle of the incredibly creepy cemetery. The very one.
Ooooooh-hoohh!
Now, I’m too scared to speak…
so I won’t.
Jillian says:
“Pointing out to my family just how cool this run down Whitby Abbey looks. It’s PERFECT for the Dracula city of Whitby. I highly recommend that book by the way. One good thriller!”
Go ahead. Read Dracula. It was fabulous and scared the heck out of me. Then come back here and see if these beautiful pictures don’t just make you shake…like…
me…
the scary book wuss,
————
That One Chick #15
When I was a teenager, coming home from a trip to the Middle East, a friend and I got stranded in Holland for four days. It could have been fun, but in anticipation of actually leaving the country on Saturday morning, we spent all our Dutch money–therefore had no food for that whole time. We had to live at the airport until we could get a flight out. Being stand-by passengers in a foreign country, we held the same status as charity or non-paying passengers. In other words–we were considered the lowest of the low. Each time we got to the front of the line to get a boarding pass, the agent would say, “Paying customers first. Go to the end of the line.” With this method, we missed every flight out for four days.
It was a pretty strange situation because they had no water facets and you had to pay the janitors a tip just to use the restroom and again, we had no money–none. We had to wait until about 4am for the janitor to leave and then sneak in and drink from the sink facet, using our hands as cups.
By Tuesday morning we were pretty dang hungry so we slipped into the airport restaurant and waited until a fancy looking businessman finished his meal and went out. We rushed over and ate everything that he left behind. Even the parsley garnish tasted wonderful. We somehow pulled it off without being noticed and slipped back out to the airport. It was something at least.
That night when we finally got out and onto a plane headed to New York we were both so hungry and thirsty that when the flight attendant came by with the drink cart and peanuts, we both started to cry.
Cold, clean water never tasted so good.
