Ok. Now I still do not have the mini laptop up and running which pains me so, so much. Storm is in the process of working with HP to get the restore date back to where it needs to be to see if that fixes the virus that I picked up while cruisin' the blogs one night. We need a software thingey that costs under $100 (we are assured by the Geek Squad) and I cannot wait for it to be fixed! I am using the PC and posting during work hours which will make Storm fume as I always complain that there is never enough hours in the day for me to do my work stuff. But in my defense I have questions for him about the stuff I'm working on right now and since he's on his "Daddy-date" with the girls and since his phone has run out of charge (they watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse whilst at the DMV getting my car registration done!) he is uncontactable! Hence I have some free time...
So, now you have the background of the laptop saga I am going to provide you with some background and piccies of what we've been doing (to help balance out the amount of text that has been on this blog lately.)
Moving on...
Ok, so that we can learn more about the area we've made a promise to ourselves that our weekend will be spent with one day doing errands/chores etc and the other day will be spent on daytrips to various places that take our fancy.
So far we've managed to do the local festival - Freedom Weekend Aloft - here in Simpsonville, the little town of Landrum, SC for antique consignments shops, pub lunches and a covered bridge and this weekend we're hitting Tryon, NC for a BBQ and Music Festival. You can imagine storm's excitement at the prospect of BBQ!
So let's cover the first two daytrips.
First, I'll start with the Freedom Weekend Aloft here in town.
Now we went on the Saturday which meant we did not see Colbie Caillet and Gavin DeGras which was a little disappointing but since I'm not one for crowds it was probably for the best. The weather was sublime with sunshine and a breeze which made for a really pleasant afternoon. We checked out some stalls and made our way to the frisbee/dog show. The girls love - I mean seriously love - dogs, cats, horses, cows, pigs, goats, sheep, bugs..yes bugs, well practically everything in the creature kingdom so they were fascinated at this dogs and made sure to throw a frisbee for Rudy when we got home.
And yes, we missed the proper gate to go in and see them and watched the pups through a fence.
The amphitheatre. And before anyone asks - no I am not pregnant. I am back in the sugar saddle again and the beer doesn't help.
We found the place we wanted to sit and the girls were enthralled with a couple of boys playing frisbee!
And then the music came on (yes there is a band on stage) and the girls got their wiggle on.
Kendall with Daddy.
Sydney with me.
Check out the "I love Simpsonville" sticker Syd has on her dress. It was given to her by a rep from the Chamber of Commerce. And just in case you're wondering, we all do. Love Simpsonville that is.
After "dinner" (and I use that term so loosely) the girls wanted to get a birds eye view of the boys playing frisbee.
Yes, if you look closely enough you can see a tick floating in the watermelon juice. Yes, this little sucker decided that my skirt was a good place to crawl across and paid the ultimate price - death by sugar (sound like me huh?). According to Woody (our next door neighbour) the ticks are running right now but shouldn't be as prevalent in a month or two. So far I've pulled a total of nine ticks from us all (only two had latched on to Rudy, the others were dead or going to be dead when I finished with them).
The balloons started to blow up (there were about 30 of them blown up in the end) but the take off was cancelled due to the breeze picking up. Who knew what was so pleasant for us sitting on the ground would be so yukky for them to take off?
We left soon after this as it was 7.30pm and the girls were getting bushed. It still took us 40 minutes to walk back through the festival and carpark to get to the car. That was so frustrating as we live quite close to the back entrance to the amphitheatre but that was only for staff and entertainers to use. Not thrilled. We could have been home in 10 minutes from where we were sitting. Oh well.
So, the next weekend we headed here to Landrum, SC. Now I didn't take any piccies of the town or the pub and it was quite cool in a small town main street kind of way. My hands were full of lamps (yes, I'm into brass lamps at the moment - but that's for another post) and other assorted pretties that we had bought. Between that and holding a child's hand to cross the road meant no piccies. Sorry, you'll just have to visit and insist that we take you there. I was disappointed that the Amish shops were closed so I do need to get back there to check them out.
Anyway, after lunch we decided to hit the oldest covered bridge in SC.
So cute and iconic huh!
Yes, the puppies Lolly and Py came too. They come with us everywhere and usually end up in my bag within 10 minutes.
Posing with Dad.
Yes, posing again.
My turn to pose with the kids.
In the water underneath the bridge. Quite cool at first but lovely once you got used to it. Not sure if I could go swimming in it though. Kendall had no qualms about going in and was quite happy to slip and slide on the rocks finding it hilarious each time. In fact she was a real giggling gertie that day.
Syd joined Storm and Kendall walking through the water too. But she wasn't as amped about the slipping and sliding.
It was a really nice way to spend the day. We're really happy p here. It's lovely to get back to seasons and greenery. We've missed green so much as between the rocks of Vegas and the dryness of Portland there really wasn't much green. Yes, the house is bigger than what we need but it's nice to have the space and who knows? Having two teenage girls in the house may warrant such space. We'll see. There's lots to do within a four-five hour drive and it's mostly stuff that we enjoy. I'm not a beachy chickee anymore but it's nice to be able to drive there in 3 hours. I enjoy being outdoors but not when it's stinking hot so here is a nice compromise for me. I cannot wait to see the seasons unfold (well maybe not winter but I'll accept it as the other three seasons should be beautiful!).
I'm also really enjoying being able to get into the garden again. Currently we have planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers (capsicum)s, squash, zucchini, herbs, strawberries (even though I have wild ones growing!) and watermelon. I have prepping to start from seeds with pumpkin, peas, brussel sprouts, more types of squash, arugula, beans, broccoli and carrots. I've been looking for the heirloom varieties and am desperately hoping that because something is purple (ie. the purple carrots, tomatoes and beans) that Sydney will eat them. Kendall? No problems with any of them. Am loving having this space and looking forward to a bumper crop so I can start canning/jarring - yes, I want to can/jar my produce. Time consuming but good nonetheless.
Anyway, enough ranting from me and I look forward to the next day trip tomorrow and will get pics up as soon as I can. Woo hoo!
