Fall and I are Like Peas and Carrots

September is right around the corner.  It makes me giddy inside.  I have this fetish with fall.  It's the relief of smoldering heat and the welcoming of a nice pair of old jeans.  It's Friday night football games, hanging out on our front porch, making apples a part of every meal, eating hearty food, carving pumpkins, and dressing up for Halloween. 
As I've grown older the feelings get stronger.  When I was in High School, Friday was my absolute favorite day of the fall week, football season in full swing, wearing jerseys, painting faces.  Yeah, Mindy Piper and I had some good times preparing for those football games.  And did I mention a good pair of jeans? 
The fall reminds me of our just getting married, too.  Granted, our wedding fell in Summer, but fall was just around the corner, and I have memories of coming home after work on Aaron's days off with the house clean, dinner in the oven, and the house smelling of warm apple pie from our tart warmer.  Windows were open, house was cool, perfect for cuddling up in a blanket with the hubbs after a long day.  I've never been more attracted to him in all my life, I do believe.
Fast forward some to last year, and now for that matter.  Kids make every season better.  Always.  (Okay, maybe not flu season, but cut me some slack.)  It seems like Aaron and I spend the whole summer trying to find unique things to do as a family.  It's either too hot to be just hanging out outside or it's too hot for anyone to plan anything outside.  I'm so completely stoked to get Bryton out to the apple orchard this year (apples are his favorite food group, I'm pretty sure... and probably his best pronounced word after daddy and momma), to the football games, to the pumpkin patch, and just outside to play like a normal kid!  Can you say corn mazes, apple cider, pumpkin carving and fun!  I can! 
I'm already in the works of planning our Halloween.  I have one of those awesome husbands that will dress up as a family for our trunk or treat, so the goal is to go as Shrek, Fiona, and Puss in Boots (or Donkey).  I'm totally stoked about this if you can't tell! 
And then Bryton's birthday follows right after that! 
Then, right around the corner is Christmas.... ahhhh.  It doesn't get much better! 
My jeans are all clean and in the closet waiting patiently (though few of them may be worn this year without the help of a hair-tie, it may be maternity jeans all the way.)  I've been collecting some good hearty fall recipes for going on three or four weeks now.  I'm already envisioning being able to hang out on our front porch.  And ah, a good sweatshirt is in my near future. 
SN@C this time of year always moves things along for me.  The first week is always hot and summer like, but by the time week 4 moves into view, we're getting a nice wonderful break in the weather. 
Here's to reds and yellows,  browns and orange, warm apple cider, kettle corn, a brisk breeze, and hello to the greatest season of them all!

Chronicles From the Road: Best Seasoned State

Virginia.  Hand's down.  We were there often, at least it seemed like, and besides Arkansas, it was my least favorite state to drive in and out of, especially when driving into it from the West.  (From the south wasn't too bad.)  For this girl that doesn't get carsick, I finally learned to keep some dramamine on hand for the rides in and through the mountains. 
But, the ride was beautiful.  And not just occasionally, always.  We reveled every time we drove through the area because we knew we had seen it before, but every time it took our breaths away.  I'm not even a huge mountain fan, I'm an ocean fan, but wow. 
We rode through those mountains during every season.  Summer was gorgeous and green, and we drove over bridges with sparkling water, and you could see little villages on the mountainsides.  But fall was enchanting, the trees made the moutainsides look like they were on fire, it was absolutely gorgeous.  The 'crisp' in the air made fall in VA oh so wonderful. 
And then there was winter, everything snowed and iced over made the hillsides glisten.  The little villages were all lit up and looked warm and cozy in the midst of the cold. 
And then spring, all of the trees starting to bud again, flowers like crazy.  The state was just beautiful... and friendly.
We liked Virginia!

Baby Stuff

A short update:
Had my first real prenatal appointment yesterday.  Everything seems to be going well, I'm almost 11 weeks,  measuring right on schedule, haven't gained any weight (that's a good thing) yet, and have an active baby with a heartbeat in the 160's.  I'm sure I'll  be posting things here as time goes on, but I've also created a Baby website over at The Bump. 
Feel free to get your baby fix over at http://greggbabytwo.ourbabychannel.com
Thanks!

Chronicles From the Road: May as Well Get this One out of the Way, Hawaii

This blog deserves a preface.  The road was hard.  It was hard on us physically (eating out all of the time, in a car at least two days a week for 12 hours or more each time, late nights, etc).   It was hard on our marriage. (It sounds nice to be together 24 hours a day / 7 days a week, but seriously, it's not nice to be with anyone that often.  The only place we had to go during a fight was the bathroom or the lobby.)  It was hard on us spiritually.  (Not knocking evangelists, but the same 12 messages, coupled with theology classes, don't exactly feed you spiritually over a 15 month time span, not to mention the lack of fellowship with believers who knew us and we knew them.)  So, it was difficult.

I'm not, however, going to lie and say that there was not perks.  There were... and that is what this blog is about, Most Remembered Perk!

Hawaii!

This was a dream come true for me on so many levels.  One of my bucket list items is to see all 50 states and 5 of 7 continents before I die.  (I'm debating putting all 7 on there, afterall, it's a bucket list and they DO offer a cruise to Antarctica now.)  I've been to Alaska previously, so visiting Hawaii knocked the other big one off the state list. 

Not to mention I love, love, LOVE the ocean.  It's beautiful, and it's big, and it reminds me how small I am, and it's mysterious, and it smells good, and it reminds me of warm weather, and oh, I just love the beach.  I experience God when I experience the beach, and Hawaii, wow, they are islands, which means a LOT of ocean.  Awww, did I mention I love the ocean?  I do.

So, we got to go to Hawaii.  We got to eat the food, immerse in the culture, hang out with the people, experience a desert and a rainforest on the same island, drive around cliffs where water was beating against the rocks we were driving on, awww, it was wonderful. 

We were on the island of Molokai, deemed the most Hawaiian island, it has not been "commercialized" much... which was nice.  We ate at one little Pizza place often, a little restaurant on the ocean a few times (beautiful), and at Subway (the only chain restaurant they have on this island), once.  We also watched while the pastor ate an interesting little contraption, spam and rice wrapped in seaweed, which he bought from a gas station like we would a burger or something.  Weird.  We didn't try that.

It was beautiful.   The flowers were gorgeous, the ocean was more than I could have ever dreamed, we visited a white sand beach and a black sand (volcanic) beach on the same day.  Not to mention, church was amazing.  Nice little building with four sets of french doors opened up to let the breeze in.  No need for air conditioning anywhere. 

We slept right on the ocean, and I swear we got attacked by bullfrogs every night.  But it was wonderful.

And did you know that Hawaii has no snakes?  Crazy, right?  And when you go in and out of the state at the airport, they go crazy checking stuff.

I can't say enough about it, it was beautiful and wonderful and by far the biggest perk of the road.
Here are some pics to get my point across ;) 

Us just getting to Molokai.  This tree was at the retreat center we were staying at, it was huge!  And the fresh flower leis were great and wonderful of course!

The prettiest beach and water that I ever did see!  Has nasty rip currents, but it didn't keep us from going back more than once!  It's forever long and surprisingly unpopulated!  (The sand here is hot though, unlike the sand at Orange Beach, AL.)

One of many pretty flower pictures I took.  They were everywhere, you really couldn't get them all!

Us at our favorite little Molokai restaurant.  If you look real hard you can see where the waves are breaking way in the background, that is the reef.  This was basically how our little hotel room / apartment thingy set, this was our view everyday. 
I had french toast at this particular restaurant our first meal that came out purplish / black.  It had been soaked in an egg / guava juice mixture.  It was amazingly good!

And this is the black sand beach, though it doesn't look so black in this picture.  This was down on the peninsula that was a leper colony.  I had just hiked down something like 3 miles, which was 4000 feet straight down sea cliffs.  It was an awesome hike, and a really great tour once we got down there.  So much amazing history.  The inhabitants of the peninsula are those that were forced to live there years ago, all of whom carry the disease.  (Controlled now by medication.) 

A statue of Jesus in the church that used to be Father Damien's church.  He was a priest that came to live amongst the people when their disease was not controllable or curable.  He completely changed the way they lived, but eventually contracted the disease and died himself.  It really is a remarkable story.  I really advise you to check out these two websites about it!  It was one of the most remarkable parts of our trip! 
CBS Story Done in 2003
Molokai's Website About Kalaupapa