our holiday weekend

I can't believe how quickly the long weekend came and went. I'm sitting at my desk wondering how on earth it's already Tuesday! June is only a few days away now, and I'm in full on Summer preparedness mode. Visiting friends and family in Virginia proved to be the perfect retreat for us to kick-off the warmer months, and looking over the sparse imagery I have from the weekend I know it was a good time. We ate too much, laughed too much, and just generally enjoyed our first trip back to Roanoke. Nothing too out of the ordinary really.

We split our time between Ryan's family and our friends in Roanoke, and my Mom's out on the lake. Though the weather was a little unseasonably chilly it was still nice to sit in lawn chairs and look out over the glassy surface of the water. I think the thing that impressed me the most was how good everything smelled. I'm not saying Philly is stinking (yes I am), but man did the air smell good in the country! I think we already have a deeper appreciation for where we came from. What did you do over the weekend? big kiss, bekuh

Family Weekend: A Birds' Eye View

This past weekend my Dad and my grandparents drove down from Ohio to visit Ryan and I as a celebratory visit for our one year wedding anniversary and my birthday. Since moving to Virginia over a decade ago, this has been a yearly tradition that I just can't seem to live without. It's hard living so far away from family you care so deeply for. These visits are treasured moments I hold close in the months I go without seeing them.

We drove up along the Blue Ridge Parkway taking in a couple of the lookout views, and all the changing leaves. In all the years they've been visiting we've never done this. It was breathtaking. After driving around a little we headed to the Roanoke Star, the local tourist destination. It's the largest manmade star in the US (or so it says). It was fun showing them Roanoke from a bird's eye view and trying to locate all the parts of town we visited throughout the day.

We left the star a little sooner than I'd planned, because there was wedding about to start, and headed back down the mountain to a hot soup lunch and sleepy conversation. I am so thankful that I have family willing to go out of their way to celebrate milestones with me, and drive all that way for a single day of fun. I miss them already. big kiss, bekuh

Our Happy Little Neighborhood

I've mentioned about a half million times how much I love our neighborhood and it just recently hit me that I've never actually shared photos of Grandin with you on Secondhand Sundays. This can not be born, and so today I'm sharing with you all of the amazing bits of where we live.

Grandin is a small, distinct area right outside of downtown Roanoke (a borough if you will), and it seems almost untouched by time. Grandin saw it's heyday in the earlier parts of the 20th century and has kept it's midcentury charm with old signs, original businesses, and a community driven to maintain it's historical past. From a rickety old grocery store that my Papaw remembers shopping at, to the Grandin Theatre, a small independent movie theatre in the heart of Grandin, this place has charm for days. The longer I live here the harder it is to justify ever leaving.

When I was a little girl I lived in a neighborhood very similar to Grandin; where neighbors shared sugar, and all the modern conveniences were just a block away. When we moved south it was one of the things I missed the most about living in Ohio, and I dreamt that one day I would live in the city again. I've finally found my oasis a place where I have both the convenience of the city, and the slow pace of home life.

It's all the little things that make me love Grandin, like a mini outdoor amphitheater next to the Baptist church, a mosaic just because it looks pretty, the community market on saturdays, locally owned restaurants, and the theatre. There are restaurants, and boutiques, and doctors, and salons, and they're situated in old brick buildings and homes. Grandin has everything that a 1950s sitcom would find necessary to sustain a perfect home. Sometimes it feels surreal living here.

Once you turn right onto Memorial the businesses quickly give way, and for a brief moment you're introduced to bigger lawns and a road that leads to the Greenway, but the Greenway is for another day. Just over the Memorial bridge you drive 2 miles and you're in the heart of the city. I love our little neighborhood and can't imagine living anywhere else. big kiss, bekuh

Evening walks with our happy family

 Recently our little family has started taking evening walks together and they have become the delight of my life. I love watching the sun slowly set with Ryan and Nellie, they're my favorite part of this world.

 We're lucky to live so close to a giant grassy park where Nellie can frolic and play and Ryan and I can pause in awe of the neighborhood we live in. It is absolutely the most perfect place.

 Nellie was so silly in the grass, she would stop and roll in the freshly mown lawn every couple of feet and had me in stitches over her funny belly dance. When she'd get up she'd be covered in pollen and sneezing. So precious. big kiss, bekuh

Nellie's First Hike

It's time to talk about our little girl once again, Nellie. I promise this is not a new trend on the blog, merely a coincidence of timing. We celebrated a major milestone with our little one last weekend; we took her on her first hike (with us anyway). We decided to start small and work our way up to bigger hikes so we could see how she did scaling rocks. She rocked it of course, and was a complete doll the rest of the day.

We decided to drive a little further out than usual to hike and ended up near Paint Bank, VA where there's a wilderness road. At the end of the road is a trail that leads to the magnificent hanging rock which shows off the beautiful blue ridge mountains in a practically untouched way. Nellie loved it when we got to the cliff side because she could feel the breeze at her face and see the whole world below her.

Ryan and I were a little nervous to let her off the leash because our Nellie is a daredevil, and the rocks were steep. We did manage to pin her leash down long enough to snap a couple of pictures of us, including some instax to add to our album.

I can't wait to take Nellie hiking again, and again, and again. It's such a relief that she likes it as much as we do. Now we need to try out camping. Wish us luck. big kiss,bekuh

Pack a Parkway Picnic

Recently, Ryan and I took an afternoon to spend just the two of us. We packed a picnic and headed up on the parkway. There is nothing so beautiful as the parkway in the Fall and I relished getting to spend a little time with Ryan enjoying the colorful foliage and yummy warm food. We made creamy potato soup, warmed a loaf of italian bread and brought a cozy army blanket to sit on. 

I think we will be doing a lot more outside in the next couple of weeks before the weather gets too cold. I know I'll be walking a lot in between now and Thanksgiving, gathering inspiration for our Thanksgiving centerpiece. big kiss, bekuh

The Outdoor Circus

Recently while I was home and we had an Outdoor Circus, just the name makes it sound like the best time ever. The festival highlighted some pretty awesome outdoor gear and demonstrations for people interested in all the wild, wonderful, outdoors that surround our region. Along with all the outdoor goodies they had music. Ryan and a group of his Music Lab students planned and ran sound for all of the acts involved in the festival. Everything got kicked off on Friday and went through until Sunday afternoon.

It was a lot of work and a lot of fun and Ryan was incredible. He worked so hard to put a good show together and it came off so well! His brother played in the afternoon and sounded great with his new band; and our good friends from Greensboro, the Old One Two were the mainliners. Of course I bought a t-shirt and kept warm with copious amounts of hot tea. big kiss, bekuh

Greek Festival

Ryan and I love food, have you noticed? So when there are food festivals in our hometown we get a little excited, so far this year indian, bbq and greek. In the middle of September for the last 5 years there's been a Greek Festival held at the Greek Orthodox church, and though I haven't gone every year it's one of my favorites to attend!

We went with a few of our favorite people: Sam, Shelley and their three gorgeous children. We ate kabobs, spanakopita and drank greek beer. It was a great afternoon, even with a little bit of Fall chill in the air. big kiss, bekuh 

The valley where I lay my head

I love the valley where I live. Roanoke is so beautiful and the fact that this great little city is nestled within the Blue Ridge Mountains only adds to its charm. I get the best of two worlds; city life and country living. All three of these pictures were shot on cloudy days and the views are amazing! Why do we think rain= gloom?

I want to do a better job of sharing local haunts, happenings and hilarity on Secondhand Sundays; because where I spend my days deserves the attention. big kiss, bekuh