5 Fact Friday

HELLO blog world! I am still alive. Actually I'm very alive! Things have been great lately! I have had absolutely no desire to blog though. I guess I'm just going through that kind of phase in my life. =) But I'm glad this little thing is still around so I can record my thoughts when I want/need to!

1. The biggest great thing lately is that Collin and I recently got a puppy! She is a Pekepoo pup that we've named Shelley. She is 4 months old today, actually. It's been a BIG adjustment adding a puppy to our family but she's so sweet that it makes up for the lack of sleep and accidents.

For size comparison... She only weighs 4.6lbs. And Seabass is three times her size!

This picture really shows you her coloring, white with tan spots and tan ears! She looks like a seashell!

Compared to our friend Megan's greyhound. Also, photo credit for this goes to Megan

2. This morning while taking Shelley out to the bathroom before leaving for work, we were coming back inside and she started running for the door so I had to run too. However, I somehow twisted my ankle and ended up with a nasty scrape from the sidewalk on the side of my foot. Oh my goodness it hurts so bad. But my dear, sweet husband cleaned and bandaged me up real good. I love that man!

3. I am counting down the hours until 4:00 this afternoon. That's when our VACATION begins! Oh I am so excited for it. Wanna know where we're going? NO WHERE! Sure it would be nice to go to the beach or the mountains or somewhere fun and exciting, but we decided to stay home and have a staycation to save on money. We have some fun things planned such as going to DC two different days to explore and have fun! I can't wait!!

4. I found an article from the Huffington Post on Facebook this morning. People that don't know me REALLY well may not realize it, but I am an introvert and this describes me practically to a tee. Sure, I'm a bubbly, social person but the first paragraphs of the article explain just how it is than I am an introvert.

5. Our county fair is coming up in a couple weeks and I'm really excited! I'm planning to enter a few photos again this year and Collin is even planning to enter some himself. This is one of the ones he plans to enter. I'm jealous I couldn't take it myself since I was driving, but I did ask him to take it while we were stuck in traffic since I saw the beauty. =)

I hope you guys have a great weekend! I am so, so happy that this weekend is the beginning of vacation! I can't wait to have a nice relaxing 9 days with my husband doing whatever we please! Until the next time I blog, have fun my friends!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

This past weekend Collin and I went camping in Fredericksburg, VA. We had a delightful weekend! It got to be really chilly at night (down to the low 40's!!) so sleeping in a tent was not necessarily the most fun, but the rest of the weekend was great!! And we made the best of the chilly nights. We spent so much time outside in nature this weekend and we were up close and personal with the cicadas! They were everywhere and so loud. We loved it!! On Sunday one even landed on my foot and wouldn't move! It just stayed there until we physically had to pick it off. =)

Hope you had a lovely Memorial Day weekend! One of the neat things we did was visit a Civil War battlefield. It was a sort of tribute to those soldiers that fought and gave their lives for our country.

Cindy

There's Beauty Everywhere!

Today I'm going to share the last of my photos from our trip to Front Royal. On Saturday afternoon after we were done in Luray Caverns, Collin and I decided to trek up to Stephen's City to play some frisbee golf at a park we found. We only played 6 holes because the gnats were HORRIBLE! But anyway, where we parked the car there was a little memorial type area with lots of flowers including some gorgeous sunflowers! I just had to take some pictures of the beautiful blooming sunflowers!


They were actually pretty tall. I made Collin (who's 6'2") stand next to them for comparison!






This one is for sure my favorite!

I love that no matter where you go there is always beauty somewhere! It's so neat to be able to find it and capture the beauty with my camera. =)

Cindy

Going Underground!

While on our camping trip over Labor Day weekend we decided to make the short journey to Luray, VA to explore Luray Caverns. I had been to the caverns when I was about 13 with my family when we were camping in Luray; but Collin had never been and quite frankly I didn't really remember too much nor did I appreciate it the way I do now! It was quite a sight! So spectacular and my pictures don't do it near justice. If you ever get the opportunity to visit the Luray Caverns, or any caverns really, do it! I don't think you will be disappointed one bit!

This was a relatively shallow pool of water, however it looks immensely deep and actually doesn't even look like water because of the clear reflection of the stalactites.




We were told that this looked like a big Shaggy dog. Collin said it looked like an AT-AT from Star Wars...






If you look closely enough at this picture you'll see a device about in the middle that releases a small mallet/hammer that makes the stone reverberate. A man named Leland Sprinkle discovered the tones of hundreds of stalactites and put these hammers on them with mini speakers and when you push a button the stones play "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" by Martin Luther. It was incredible to say the least. My husband stood with his mouth open the whole time just completely enthralled! I was too. =)


The organ was there just for a comparison. No sound comes from it when you are listening to the Great Stalacpipe Organ.




This was a wishing well. People could throw their coins into it and their money was donated to charity. The money gave it very interesting colors.

Fried eggs!

What a neat little adventure we were able to go on together! I love exploring with Collin and I love being with him when he gets to experience things for the first time. It's so wonderful!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

Sorry this post is so late in getting posted today. I had these pictures that I wanted to share with you all but I didn't have a moment at my computer to actually go through them and upload them until now!

Anyway, today I'm sharing with you a few landscape shots from our trip to Front Royal over Labor Day weekend. The Blue Ridge Mountains are just stunning and it was so nice seeing both the fluffy white clouds in a sunny sky over them one day and big grey rain clouds the next. What a delight! I hope you'll enjoy the view as much as we did!

I'll be back tomorrow to share some photos of Luray Caverns with you guys! It was such a stunning place it was hard to only pick a few photos to share!

Cindy

Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend Collin and I went camping in Front Royal, VA. We packed up the tent and all our other gear Friday afternoon and headed on our way. We had a great time just being together and exploring! I'd been to Front Royal a few times before but it was Collin's first. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! We relaxed, did some shopping, ate at Cracker Barrel three times, visited Luray Caverns, frisbee golfed a little bit, saw a movie in a cute downtown theater, and just all out enjoyed being together for a WHOLE weekend! I took lots of pictures of the Caverns and the pretty Blue Ridge Mountains with my big girl camera but I have yet to go through them so today I'll share a few Instagram snapshots from our trip.

There wasn't too much rush hour traffic in the direction we were going, however, about 30 mins from the campground we got stuck in traffic due to an accident. We were barely moving for an hour!!

The AMAZING Luray Caverns!

Enjoying a nice frisbee golf course. I only wish the bugs weren't so bad. They were literally ALL over us and completely in our faces. I wouldn't even open my mouth to talk for fear of accidentally eating one. I just kept saying "mmhm", "uh eh" and grunting/groaning to Collin's questions and comments. lol We only played six holes because of that but it was a neat course from what we did play.

The clouds were just so beautiful over the mountains. There were LOTS of clouds!

I'll be back later this week with some more photos to share of the Caverns and the mountains. It was a delightful weekend and I'm so glad we got to get away. We hadn't taken a trip since our anniversary in April so it was much needed! I LOVE being able to spend alone time with Collin like that. With him working every Saturday it's really hard to have a full weekend where the two of us get to spend time with each other. I treasure these little trips. The only downside, it was quite humid and I don't do well when it's really hot/humid out. But I survived! And even though it rained a little bit it wasn't bad at all. Our tent didn't leak and we were able to enjoy ourselves despite all that!

I hope you had a great Labor Day Weekend yourselves! I hope it was fun and relaxing and that you sent summer off with a bang!

Cindy