Now that I've finally rested (and visited with church and extended family, gone kneeboarding, studied a LOT for the Bible Bee, and generally gotten back into everyday life) I'm ready to continue with pictures from the last week of our trip.
Friday (August 8) was our nothing-much day. We had planned to go to the beach, but since we already had that experience in Washington, we opted for a day around the rental house. Daddy rode the bus to his conference and the rest of us hung out at what we were beginning to call "home", B and B Orchards.
After a leisurely breakfast (and when I say leisurely, I mean that we older ones spent a good hour sitting around the table--we do this at home frequently and we had missed it on our trip) Mommy and the boys went apple-picking. "Our" house was on forty acres and the owners told us we were welcome to anything that was in season, from the herbs to the fresh produce to the apples.
George loves picking and eating apples...
...and William likes little holes and hideouts. A multipurpose tree-- how great is that?!
Thomas and Samuel, the monkeys of the family
James and William look like they're posing for a cd album cover, "Two Boys and an Apple" or some other such song. Hey, that sounds like a top hit! Or maybe not. I'm not a singer--I'm a writer--so y'all will just have to bear with me. :)
Interesting story behind this picture: When we were all talking about what we wanted to do on our trip, Samuel announced that he wanted to see a topiary garden. After searching the web, we couldn't find any that cost less than a small fortune for us to tour. Samuel graciously chose something else, and we moved on to other things.
Fast forward to Thursday morning. Our landlady came by to show us around and tell us about some of the area attractions. After she had given us the general idea of Hubbard and its surroundings, Mommy asked her if there were any topiary gardens in the area. Our landlady looked puzzled--I guess we don't really look like the topiary kind of family--but replied that there was a nursery about ten miles from us with some sort of fancy bushes in front of it.
And that's how we ended up in front of Bountiful Farms nursery, a real live (albeit small) topiary garden!
Samuel was thrilled to jump rope with the "people" in the garden.
My favorite part was the house; I wish we had had something like this when I was younger! (Anna, I know you are going to read this and say, "You're STILL young, Joy" but you've got to admit it, I would have enjoyed this house more ten years ago).
Tennis--us against the bushes. They're bigger, but we're a little bit more agile. :) Go team!
Samuel with his favorite "person", the lawn care guy. He and George came away with dreams of filling our front yard with people, but I'm not sure what their Southern garden great-grandmother will say to that. For that matter, I'm not sure what I would say about it either!
When we got back to the house, we all relaxed, read, studied, and I blogged (I think I blogged eight days of the trip in four physical days; I feel like I've been on a blogging marathon :) ).
We also did loads of loads of laundry. Both machines were running nonstop all day; we hadn't washed since the Wards' and you should have seen our piles of dirty laundry. No, you shouldn't have either. It's a sight best left to the imagination.
When she wasn't doing laundry, Mommy took the boys to the park. They've become quite the experts on playgrounds this trip; I think they could write a book called "Playgrounds of America". Maybe they would pay me to edit it for them (I'll work for dark chocolate, the darker the better).
Thomas and Samuel on the twisty thing. I'm sure it has a proper name, but I've never encountered it. :) Twisty thing is good enough for me.
Twice the slides, twice the boys, twice the fun
But the REAL fun was the sprinkler! Water-based playgrounds seem to be very popular out here, and I can understand why--they look really fun!
George and John must not have been as enthusiastic about getting wet. Or maybe they just wanted to catch up on some "guy talk".
But Samuel definitely got wet...
...and Thomas
...and William
After the boys dried off (a little) they picked up Daddy at the bus stop and brought him home to a good ol' Southern meal of poppyseed chicken, fried green beans (fresh from the garden out back!), baked sweet potatoes, and rolls. It was good to be "home" again.
Up next: nine children, two parents, and one big city.
Posted by Joy
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