House Rearrangement

With all the roommate gone, we have rearranged the house to make it all ours! We moved the bedroom downstairs (cooler in the summer) and we each have our own closet---fancy shmancy! So now the upstairs is all guest room with it's own bathroom....any takers?!

Sunday Drive

On Sunday Pat and I soaked up our day off together with a great drive through the countryside.
We drove on the parkway up to Boone. We visited the Earth Fare in Boone, just to make sure it wasn't laid out better than the one here!











We saw one of the original General Stores. Passed through Valle Crucis and by a lovely Bed & Breakfast on the way to Beech Mountain which had great views....maybe a little bit like Bogus Basin.









Then we stopped in Burnsville, which has a very cute town square with a view of the mountains. Named after sailor, soldier, statesman, Otway Burns.
























Finally, we had a Bavarian feast at a tiny restaurant that I've passed a million times and was so excited to try. I'm not sure it lived up all our palates' dreams, but it was a great way to end our day together.

St. Patty's Weekend with Friends from the Ranch

To celebrate the Irish Holiday, we had three friends into town that we worked with on the ranch this summer. Anne-Marie came from Florida and picked up Jason from Mississippi along the way, while John joined us from Pittsburgh. It was so great to see all their faces again. We hit some downtown Irish establishments one night and then hung out at a condo that John's family friends had in town. One night we all prepared tapas, that tastiest, Pat's, is shown below. We caught up with each other and had fun playing catch phrase.


John and Jason are both going back to the ranch this summer and Anne-Marie is going back to Stanley to work at a local spa there. I'm a little jealous that they get to be in the Sawtooths again, but as Pat says, we can't recreate the same magical summer, let's keep our eyes open for a different adventure. It was great fun to see them all and I feel certain our paths will keep crossing.

Niece Zoe!

Zoe's birthday was in February- she's 2, but acts more like her 4-year old sister Grace. So how does an only child have a niece? Well, I also have a second mom, Marge, who has been my mom's friend since 4th grade, and two sisters, Marge's two daughters, Betsy & Jessica. Jessica and her husband Marc have Grace & Zoe and live right around the corner from Pat & I. Betsy and her husband, Rob, have Ben, who just turned 3 this weekend. So I get to be an aunt to all three kids. See flow chart below...

Marge (married to Lee)--friends with ---------Stephanie

Marge's daughters:

Jessica (married to Marc) & Betsy (married to Rob)

Jess's daughters: Grace (4) & Zoe (2)

Betsy's son: Ben (3)