Smith Mountain Lake

This past weekend we explored a new part of Virginia - Smith Mountain Lake. We have wanted to try to meet Paul and Jodi here for quite some time, and finally we picked a weekend to go. We had a beautiful rental house with views of the mountain and lake and the water was very clear and refreshing!

John is taking in the view

Mountain View

One of the things this location is known for is the film, What about Bob was shot at a home on this lake.
We enjoyed the paddle boat, floating around on the water, a pontoon ride & just relaxing without any of the responsibilities of home...ahh!

There was even a "doggy dock" to enter the water

Bailey could even "swim" (but mostly relaxed)

Mom, Dad, Elise and Maggie paddling

We anchored to swim & John and Elise found this lean-to & played Cap'n Hook

Even Maggie likes to float!

Beautiful evening by the lake..Elise was posing for us.

Fun in the sun.

This was the place to be - near water. The temps this past weekend were in the upper 90's with very high humidity. Thanks for meeting us for a long weekend, Paul, Jodi & Bailey. We'll have to do it again!

11 Years

John and I celebrated our 11th Anniversary on July 17. The past decade has just flown by, and I am so grateful to have such a wonderful man to share my life with. We drove to Dobson, NC and visited the Shelton Vineyard. We also went to Mt. Airy, NC the hometown of Andy Griffith & had lunch at Snappy's. As you walk down the main street they have the theme song (whistling) for the Andy Griffith show looping again and again. I think if I worked on their main street, the repetition of that tune would drive me crazy.

Snappy's Lunch

Yummy Dinner at the Harvest Grill

We toured the winery & sampled a few of their estate wines, and our favorite was the Riesling. We had a wonderful dinner at the little restaurant on the vineyard & then enjoyed a summer outdoor concert there as well. The weather was raining off and on throughout the day, but it cleared in time for the outdoor concert.

Shelton Vineyard

Beautiful views along the Blue Ridge Parkway

It was such a nice getaway, and we are so grateful to have each other! Love you, John.

A note from the Editor

I'm sorry about my long break in updating this blog for many of you regular readers! It's been a busy few months here, and so I've just managed to recap May, June & fill you in on our lives so far in July. Please keep reading since I've just put up many new posts.

Spontaneous Weekend Get away

Last week on Thursday, Jodi called and asked if we wanted to meet her half-way off I-81 in the mountains. Well, we looked into some options, and found that many places required a 2-night minimum, so we looked at options throughout the day on Friday, and then decided to stay at the General Lee cabin and left Friday night around 6pm to head to Lexington, VA.




Beautiful mountain views. The air was such a welcome relief from the humidity in the Piedmont.

Virginia Military Institute. Very pretty campus. Stonewall Jackson was once a member of the faculty.

The city of Lexington is very hilly. In fact, once the town was beginning to see more trade, they were having trouble getting the horses and carts up and down the steep terrain, and so they began the process of digging out the hills to make them less steep. Since there is also a lot of limestone in the area, they would often run into rocks too large to move, and so they just built around them. On many of the buildings you can see where the original street level was - much higher than today.

We had just been reading a book about climbing trees. I told Elise that when I was little, I would climb in the apple trees in our backyard. She wanted desperately to try her hand at climbing as well, and while waiting for our carriage ride in Lexington, we found the perfect tree for her to try. After she straddled this branch, she was done. Maybe that's good for me - no more climbing in her future?

We took a scenic drive around the country side and followed a creek. The water was so clear. It was just beautiful to be outside in nature.
"Who is your favorite aunt?" said Jodi as she took off her shoes and waded in the creek with Elise.

We had a huge jacuzzi in our bathroom, and warm, fuzzy robes. Elise tried out the much-too-large robe after her bath.
We also took a short hike to explore the natural bridge. It's just a beautiful area, and was surveyed by George Washington when he was a surveyor in his 20's.
Perhaps it was the vivid color setting on my camera...but isn't the green grass in this picture just stunning?

Near the Natural Bridge is another not so natural landscape. This is Foam Henge. It is an exact replica of Stone Henge in the English countryside. Pretty funny - so we stopped to take a look.
I'm probably incriminating my daughter by posting this picture - but here she is with Bailey & a chuck of styrofoam. Hmm, where did she get that?
What a fun, last minute weekend get-away. We enjoyed it so much that we're planning to meet Paul and Jodi again in 2 weeks (probably at another location along I-81). See you soon!

July 4th Celebration

Since the 4th of July landed on a Sunday this year - it felt a little different than others. My mom and I had volunteered to help teach Sunday school, and so we taught in the morning, then came home to have a wonderful brunch - waffles, fruit, sausage & bacon. That evening, we met up with my parents and Curt to head out for fireworks. How many men does it take to load the car? Evidentally 3. :') 
We staked out our spot on the Buster Boyd bridge at Lake Wylie & it was great!

"Mama, it's taking so long for the fireworks to start!"
Sparkler fun! The fireworks were excellent! Elise said, I'm only a little bit scared - but she really enjoyed them. The next morning she asked, can we go swimming and watch fireworks again? 

Celebrating our 3 year old Princess

Here are a few pictures capturing our backyard princess!

Recap of June

The month of June was full! This is why it's taken me until July to finally update our blog! We had a house-full with the Brandenburg clan coming to Charlotte to spend a week & celebrate Elise's 3rd birthday. Bruce & Marnee, Sara, Ethan, Ellie, Elise & I had a fun day at Carowinds where we got to cool off a bit from the hot, hot, humid Carolina weather. Unfortunately, it was an exceptionally hot week (more like August) while all our northern family came for a visit, but we tried our best to stay cool.
The rest of the family came on Friday, 6/11 - Steve, Ben & Toni & Paul & Jodi.


On Friday, June 11th - we celebrated Elise's actual birthday by starting the day out with Triple chocolate chunk muffins & fruit, yum.

Look who is 3! We planned a princess party for Saturday, the 12th, but we let Elise open a few gifts on her actual birthday & one of her presents was heeled, princess dress-up shoes. It was so funny to watch her walk her first few steps in them...but it didn't take long before she was a pro!


The morning of her party, Grandma June came over to give her a special "princess gift" It was a new dress to match her shoes to wear. What fun! So, she got ready for her big day...

All ready for the party. Cousin Ethan was all smiles.
This is too funny! We kept this door poster up for a week after her party.As the princesses (friends) all arrived, they came to put on a a princess dress to get ready for the "Ball." We had dresses, shoes & accessories for them to choose from.
Next, after each princess was dressed, they could get sparkles in their hair, jewel stick-on earrings, pretty flower nail stickers, and some sparkle eye-shadow & lip gloss. Jodi and Toni were great helpers to get the fair maidens ready!
We had a craft time where everyone could put together a tiara frame with their picture to take home. John took pictures of each one as they arrived, then printed out a picture for them to use in their frames.


My friend & neighbor, Heather came and did a little dance time for the girls. She was awesome! All the girls loved it. Elise told me that she wanted a hula dance, so Heather even incorporated hula into the princess "ball."
All the princesses went on a princess parade...too cute.

Make a wish! Elise was so lucky to have so many friends and family to come and celebrate with her! Happy birthday, sweet girl. 
We even had "castles" set up in the backyard for the princesses to eat under. Thanks to all the guys who helped create the flags and turrets!

The Brandenburg family has not been all together for 5 years, so we took the opportunity to take a few family pictures. Here are a few poses. John might cringe at my very basic attempt to "enhance" these photos, so I will take full credit for all the editing.


Cousins and Bailey. It was such a hot day, and we all wanted to get inside, but we managed to take some pics.

After the party weekend, most of us (we missed you Paul & Jodi) went down to Charleston to spend a few days at the beach. It was Steve & Sara's first trip & we tried to hit as many highlights as possible so they could get the Charleston experience. We enjoyed the great beach at Isle of Palms, a carriage ride through historic Charleston, the market, and so many great places to eat.


Joggling on the joggling board.
My cousin, Robbe, was back in Charlotte for work, and we were able to get together for an evening. Elise just loves spending time with him. She wanted to sit by him for dinner, sit on his lap & was sad to see him go. Come and visit again, soon!

June is a great month for birthdays, and we were able to celebrate with Ali as she turned 4! She had a fairy gymnastics party!
During the month of June when we weren't hosting, spending time with family or friends, or attending a party, we were busy working! My custom sewing business has been very steady. I had 6 clients I was working on simultaneously, and so every day I was multi-tasking to keep up with my projects, be a mom & just keep the household running. I just love it! I have done so many Roman shades, drapery panels and pillows & it has been wonderful to see each job completed. John also has been working on a big website project for a client - so we have had to keep the midnight oil burning, so to speak, just to stay on top of everything. Sorry for the delay in my blogging - I have just had to prioritize & am now getting back to this!