Solstice Weekend

It is so nice to get out of town every now and then and leave all your responsibilities behind. Especially when it involves heading up into the hills and seeing friends that you haven't seen in years!

Last time we saw Sarah and Drew was 2.5 years ago when they were hosting their annual oh so fun Louisiana/Appalachian-style bash. Now they are pregnant and due in October! Last time we saw Laura and Derren, they were pregnant and now Cyrus is 18 months old. It was so awesome to see how different Alder and Cyrus are - 6 months makes a huge difference at this age. Cyrus is running about and signing like mad. It is such an inspiration to keep up/step up our signing with Alder with the hope that he too will be able to communicate like this in just a few months. We didn't get any photos of him actually signing, but this shot shows how expressive and cute he is!

Thanks for letting Alder play in your sandbox and for teaching him how to play frisbee golf.


Alder had a blast sliding down the slide and got a bit frustrated when he couldn't climb back up.

He was actually pretty fussy the whole weekend...he better cut some molars here soon or we will be worried he is just getting to be a big fuss pot! So Alder's first experience with kid tv/dvd was actually quite helpful. They chilled for about 20 min and watched kids singing some songs... baa baa black sheep, wheels on the bus, etc... getting them relaxed and ready for bed....isn't it amazing/scary how that screen sucks them in.

We spent the weekend completely relaxing and eating wonderful, decadent food prepared by our host. The best part was sharing in great conversations about times past, present and future with truly great people! Thank you sooooo much for a great time. Sorry no pics of us big kids, but we had our blast too. The plan was to spend the day at the solstice fest in Blacksburg, but we, perfectly contented hanging out around the house and yard, didn't make it out beyond a nice walk to play in a creek.

I was inspired by all of Laura's great cooking this weekend and decided to make one of our favorites for dinner tonight: veggie pot pie. I never use tarragon in anything else, but I should b/c it is sooo yummy. I would like to post the recipe but it is kinda long. Maybe I can scan it in...anyone interested?

We also wanted to post a pic of the garden as it appears now. We actually pulled up much of the lettuce seen here b/c it was bolting. We erected some cattle fencing for the tomatoes to grow up. Basil and chard make up most of the front bed now.