2014 Vacation - Vintage Buildings

Found this saved as a draft.  It's been sitting here since 2014.  Our vacation that spring was south to the Gulf Coast, then east to Daytona Beach.  These are some of the wondrous and varied houses and buildings that caught my eye.

Young men

 

I'm going to have to quit calling Jack and Joey, 'the boys'. 

They are half grown. 

Adolescents.

Young men. 

13 and 15 years. 

Striplings.

 







 

 

 

 

Owen will be 7 in October.  He'll be pre-teen too, before we know it! 

 

 

 

And all three are smart, athletic and darn good looking! 

 



  

Birthdays

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These beautiful girls keep having birthdays. I want it to stop!  I want to hold these girls still. For now . . . and mostly forever.

What unique looks and personalities!  What minds, imagination and creativity.  They just never fail to amaze me.  And so much more to come!


 

 

♡♡♡♡♡

Morghan Grace. 

You have the cutest little baby face.

Gracie Pie. Mime.

Grown up beauty.

How did we get here?

Morghan Frey

 ***** 17 *****

Almost senior. 

Prom goer.

College prospect.

She will go away from us and spread her wings. 

She will learn things that we don't know. She will meet people and make friends we don't know. She will find a job and learn a career we don't know. She will have adventures, trials, scares and triumphs we won't know. 

But the fun and successes, wins and milestones are hers, ahead . . . and hers for the taking!

That I'm not ready is of no consequence.

Her future is a snowball rolling down hill.

And I am excited for her!

I am looking forward to the book! And to the movie! And then the sequel. Can't wait to see how it turns out!

and I love her to the moon and back.

Morghan Grace

Sent from my U.S. Cellular® Smartphone

Spring

 

We had an easy winter, low snow amounts and no sub zero temps. Then spring came early. The ornamental trees have been gorgeous including our redbud and the two pink crabapples.  All the variety of hostas are poking their fingers up through the dirt or are already at full mast. 

We have had two days of good rain and right now I am just crazy about the yard.

Earlier the tulips were stunning and the lilacs tho not overabundent, what is there, smells heavenly.

 

Now we will look forward to iris, peonies and all the rest.

Our growing Family

Our Vega grows and learns something new every day She is sweet and happy . . . And steals hearts as babies do.  She is learning to adore her big Sister just as Audri dotes on her. Our two new little Hof's are settling in and doing fine in Craig and Traci's loving, consistent, safe care. We are making Vivienne and Owen's acquaintance.  Owen and Bella are great buddies. They play and plan and plot !! and are busy almost every moment. Vivienne is eating well,  growing and sleeps well at night. She will out grow her early evening fussy time soon. She smiles and coos. We will love these two well, as long as we are able.

Almost home, last day of driving

 

 

 

 

We saw fields and fields and fields full of sunflowers in

North and South Dakota. 

The flowers were so full of seeds the blossoms

all hung their pretty heads.

 

 

Missouri River and big sky in South Dakota. 

 

We had 14 great days on our Road Trip. 

We only had one bad spell when I was mad

and whiney when I realized we had to go home.

Himself just rode it out until I worked it out

of my system and then we pulled together

again and drove it on home.

 

15 Days

5500 miles

11 States and 2 Canadian Provences

 

Iowa

Nebraska

Wyoming

Utah

Nevada

California

Oregon

Washington

British Columbia

Alberta

Montana

North Dakota

South Dakota

Home

 

Montana to North Dakota . . . and a Black Hole. I have lost a day.

Yellowstone River in North Dakota

 

A sad old farmhouse. 

 

 Give me a home where the buffalo roam (or used to) in Montana.

 

A forgotten old church just inside western North Dakota. 

A pretty sunset in Huron, South Dakota.

I missed writing about one day but at this point, I can't seem to go back and sort it all out so I will leave it as is.  I will have a miscellaneous post or two so as to pick up some of the pretty places we visited but that didn't make the daily cut.

Montana, Day 12

Wow, we went through all kinds of weather today . . . but just a little of it was sunny weather.  We started off early with a side trip into Glacier National Park.  Himself always loves it when we get into a National Park free because he is a card-carrying member of the senior citizen National Park crew.  In July and August there was a great, rapid forest fire in the park.   We drove in a ways knowing we would hav to turn around but what remains after a forest fire is always an eye opener for us.  Today, there was enough snow in the mountains to close the park roads above 14 miles.

 

 

From Glacier we went east on Montana highway 2.  We went from mountain driving, to ranch land, to grass land.  We had lots of rain in the morning and Montana still wants rain and snow to resolve the dryness so we couldn't complain about all the rain.  Um, snow, not so much!  just kidding

 

Cows were free ranging for a hundred miles, I think. 

We didn't see many right out by the road but we saw some. 

Found this little church in a little town of Starr School, Montana.  We think this town is on an Indian Reservation.  In addition to this church and a small town, there were two large buildings (unused now) that must have been school buildings a few years back.

Tonight we are put up in Havre, Montana and tomorrow night we will stay in Sidney, Montana on the east line of Montana.  Tomorrow we plunge into North Dakota.  We are getting closer to home each day.

 

Today we were in Indian territory. We bought hamburgers from young Native Americans in a Burger Nation.  We saw signs for Indian reservations and casinos.  And we saw this tepee! 

British Columbia, west, Day 11

Today was not quite 'leisurely' but there were no dates or time frames except a late check in time at a little B&B in Grand Forks, British Columbia Canada.  We enjoyed our seven-hour drive. 

 

We would drive up the mountains, zig zag around curves and over hill and dale, then plunge back down into a valley to find vegetable and fruit market, wineries and vineyads.

 

 

An old school bus.

 

A lake in a valley.

 

An old farmstead; the house is gone. 

 

We had a picnic lunch along a mountain stream and stopped at a vegetable stand so I could buy tomatoes and cucumbers.  I could have bought apples, pears, melons, grapes, jellies, honey, celery, herbs -- you name it!  all grown locally.