Over 7,500 miles in 1 month, part 3

We headed from California back to Ogden, UT to spend an evening of sushi and comedy with our friends. The next day we headed to Utah Valley and spent a couple of days visiting with Phil's family and mom for a bit on Saturday. We also stopped in and saw my Aunt Carol and Uncle Dennis to thank her for the beautiful quilt she and my mom had made for us.



Then we visited some friends in Salt Lake City.  We were lucky enough to get a tour of the beautifully renovated Marriott Library where I worked for many years.



We also spent a day snowboarding at Snowbird.  We had a beautiful, bluebird day to enjoy some turns on the mountain.



After that we started working our way back home to Asheville.  We were able to meet up with some friends for dinner in Boulder on our way through Colorado.

As always, traveling and seeing new places and old friends is amazing.  But we sure were happy when we got home to our little farmhouse!

Over 7,500 miles in 1 month, part 2

While in the Pacific Northwest, we had amazingly beautiful cool weather. Our friends were kind enough to show us around the Olympic Peninsula. We went mountain biking in the mountains, hiking along the Hoh River Valley and along the coast.  It was awesome.  In the picture above you can see how green it is even at the beginning of winter!



After spending a week there, we went to Portland, Oregon.  Malia's sister and husband live there.  We rode our bikes down to the speedway for the light festival in 20 degree weather.  The ride itself was a lot of fun, the lights were so-so.  Malia's sister and husband bundled their young daughter up and loaded her into their cargo bike...he owns the company metrofiets.  The bikes are sweet.  We checked out the neighborhood's old school that was closed back in the 50s or early 60s and it has since been remodeled into a hotel that had a public bath and restaurants that was open to the neighborhood residents.  I thought it was such an awesome concept!  (Instead of tearing down an old building to build a new one!)

The next day we headed down to Crescent City, CA to check out northern California and the famed Redwood trees.  We took Maddy for a walk in the Prairie Creek State Park.  It was so amazing to walk in the forest with such massive trees.



We also took Maddy to an awesome beach, where they allowed the dogs to roam and play with each other.  It was a great way to stretch Maddy's legs after hanging out in the backseat of the car for SO many miles!

Over 7,500 miles in 1 month, part 1

When we began our trip, we didn't quite realize how many miles we would cover, but in the end we figured it was over 7,500 miles. We thought it might be Roja's third and last cross-country trip, but she proved to be quite the champion car and is still rallying around!

We made it to Richfield in time for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with my family.  The next day we went for a hike with everyone who wanted to go up a canyon behind Spencer's house.

We also spent some time playing Rock Band with the kids and Mat really honed his rockstar personality!



Then we headed back to Ogden to pick up Maddy from our friends who were willing to watch her.  We all hopped in the car for a leg of the trip took us to Seattle, WA.  We camped in a small state park in Oregon where we were the only people staying for the night!

road trip anticipation...

Tomorrow morning we begin our journey out to Utah for Thanksgiving. We love to travel and this is no exception because this is just the beginning of several weeks of exploring the west. The past several months we've been tossing around many ideas and options. All we know that we are doing, so far, is going to see my family to spend Thanksgiving weekend with them. Then we are heading up to Bend, OR to hopefully do some mountain biking, if the weather cooperates and then on up to Seattle to take advantage of the early snow they are having with some snowboarding adventures. Yay!

Our car is all packed with our bikes inside and a spot for Maddy to lay down and be comfy for the trip across the country.

Florida...here I come!

I'm going to Florida for probably the shortest trip ever. I am flying into the Orlando airport on Friday afternoon in order to hop in a car the next day to drive back to Asheville! Mat's co-worker is coming back early for a job interview which means he would have been driving back the 12 hours by himself. So, thanks to Allegiant Air and their $50 tickets I am gonna go on a road trip with Mat before our big road trip out west! And when I say before, I mean one day before!

4 weeks down, 2 to go

Hard to believe, but it's been over 4 weeks since Mat headed down to Florida for some extra work. I've been staying busy up here and can hardly believe that we have 2 weeks until we are heading out to Utah. Yay! We are looking forward to the travels. Check out flickr, if you haven't been there for awhile as Mat has been taking some amazing pictures down in Florida. Twelve more days until Mat comes home. It's almost like the countdown for Christmas!

ahhh...lovely ride

This picture is of Maddy and I at the top of our climb, now we just have downhill to go.  Yay!  We couldn't stay inside even though the house needs to be cleaned and papers need to be organized, it was just too beautiful outside.  So we went for a ride out at Bent Creek and joined many others in the fabulous weather. (note: all our leaves have dropped, so we are entering stick season, not the most attractive way to see the trees, but it allows for awesome long distance views that you only see in the winter around here!)

It was a quick, fun ride back down to the trailhead.  Since I was riding by myself, I decided not to go on this one trail with a lot of whoop-de-doos just cuz' I've gotten too much air before and messed up on the landing, so I didn't want to chance.  I did come across a log that I'd been eyeing for a while.  Usually it is kind of wet and slippery looking, but yesterday, it was dry and looked like I could attempt.

So I tried, and got up on it, surprised myself, so I hopped off.  It didn't seem too bad, so I tried it again and rode it.  Yay for my balance, then at the end there was a rock placed to help with the dismount, but I didn't realize it was there, so I wasn't lined up correctly for it and I went off the side and must have turned my handlebars.  Because next thing I know, I am kneeling on the ground with the handlebar wrapped around my knee.  All I could think was, "oh no, I sure hope I didn't do anything serious, cuz it will take at least 6 weeks to heal and Mat and I are going on a road trip in 2 weeks in search of mountain bike trails!!!"  But I was able to get up and ride my bike out.  So nothing was broken, I just have some attractive bruising and swelling.



I don't know if you can see or not, but on the right side there is some swelling and then on the inside of my leg is an attractive bruise where it was jammed against the top bar.  But, hopefully, no long lasting issues.  I still have a slight limp, but I think it just has to do with the internal bruising, thankfully!

Dad's birthday

Dad would be 64, I know this because every time his birthday comes around, all I have to do is add 30 to what I am going to be turning. (I hate to think how many years I've been doing that because that makes me old.)  I always loved that I was dad's late 30th birthday present!  I loved that we share the same birth month.



Some of my best memories of dad are:  my wedding day, his helping me when I bought my first truck, going bike riding out in southern Utah with the family on our new bikes, camping in Waterton and hiking, his dutch oven cooking, driving straight through the night to Canada to visit the cousins, watching him hold the new babies in the family, his sitting on the couch and listening to me play the piano and always telling me how nice it was (even though it was mostly pounding or playing wrong notes as I practiced for piano lessons) and his reading books to us on Sunday afternoons while laying on the floor and he eventually would fall asleep.

While he's no longer here to celebrate his birthday, I still get to be thankful for his birth.

bottle opening workout anyone?

For dinner tonight I made up taco salad...one of my favorite easy meals to make. Or at least easy until I tried to open a new bottle of salsa. I don't know what I did before Mat, I guess I had stronger hand/wrist muscles because I sure couldn't open the jar tonight. I tapped it on the counter, ran it under warm water in the sink. Tried as hard as I could to open the bottle and when grimacing as hard as I could and a whole lot of muscle the bottle opened...and out came the salsa down the kitchen wall and counter and onto the floor.

Anyone know of a good workout routine to get these hands/wrists into shape? I still have four more weeks to go!

two weeks down, four more to go...

so, Mat has been down in Florida for a couple weeks now. I've been staying busy between work, volunteering at the yoga center, playing with Maddy and enjoying the beautiful fall weather.





Note the nice new flagging that is out for Maddy.  I had to get the fence fixed, because she realized it wasn't on and she could leave the yard, so I was starting to find her regularly down at our compost pile eating.  :-(  So, I spent a day trying to fix the fence and the light wouldn't turn on at the transmitter, so I had Ron come over and he got it all fixed up within 15-20 minutes.  Then I put the flagging up so Maddy would know to not go beyond the flags when she hears the beeping of her collar.  Yay!  I can now let Maddy out and not have to worry if she's running into the road.



Went for a beautiful fall bike ride at Bent Creek.  Perfect weather and the perfect way to wear out some energetic dogs!!!!  This weekend, I also put together some new pictures to hang up and I've rearranged the bedroom.  We'll see what else I'll decide to do on my weekends while Mat is gone.

magnificient sunset at Devil's Courthouse

Yesterday evening after work I met Mat at the French Broad Overlook and hopped in with him and Madera for a drive down to Devil's Courthouse. We enjoyed some cheese and crackers and watched the sun set. It was amazingly beautiful with some clouds and fog that came in to make interesting light.  For such a quick walk to the top (paved most of the way) we were a bit surprised to not share the view with others.  It was a lovely bonus to have the summit all to ourselves.

(I'm enjoying the view.  Below is Mat practicing his meditation/yoga moves!)

Crabtree Falls in the rain

The other Saturday, we were looking for a hike to do in the rain. Since it was also very foggy, we figured a hike in the woods would be best and not go for a summit hike. We ended up at Crabtree Falls. On our way up there, we came across a BMW convertible that had pulled off to put up their convertible top and the grass was so slick with rain and that it pulled them too far off and into a point that they could not get back on the parkway. We let the campground kiosk know so they could call it in to get a tow truck out to help the people. After that we really enjoyed our walk in the woods and the falls were very beautiful with lots of water pouring off of it.

We did not see a single person on our way to the falls or the whole time we were exploring the falls vicinity and then on the hike back out we saw about 10 people who were also braving the rain for the hike.  It was a truly tranquil experience to go for a walk outside in the rain to beautiful waterfall!

a hard day at work!

On a hike from Beetree Gap to Bull Gap along the Mountains to Sea Trail.  We had a day of beautiful weather, which was greatly appreciated. It seemed like it had been raining for days.  Mat was looking for exotic plants, I was looking for visitors.  We both accomplished our goals!

Mat's studying the map to see what we are looking at off in the distance.  This is a great viewing rock on the the trail just before Lane Pinnacle.

a day at work...

On my last rove day, I decided to hike from Glassmine Falls Overlook to the Greybeard Mtn Overlook on the mountains to sea trail. It was a beautiful day.

AND I passed through a few heath balds that had tons of blueberries waiting for me to pick them!  I was able to get enough that I made a cheesecake this weekend and put the blueberries on top.  It was delicious to have fresh blueberries.

The mountain ash berries are beautiful right now.  I'm excited for fall to come and for the trees to start changing color!!  It is such a beautiful time of the year to live where there are deciduous trees!!!  If anyone wants to come visit, this is a perfect time for it through October.

Scoville Reunion 2009 - Phoenix

Ahh, the reason for the gathering!  Thanks, Sarah, for completing your P.A. program so that we could all journey to Phoenix in August for a family reunion!   It was fun to get to watch Sarah receive her diploma and luckily the speakers did not talk forever, they really kept it to the point and short.

It was a beautiful weekend to get to spend time with the family.  It was much too quick, but is any vacation really long enough?

We enjoyed swimming in the pool and watching all the little cousins play together.  Mat and I also really enjoyed watching some home videos that mom so kindly brought down with her for our viewing pleasure.  Mat's favorite one is of Phil filming the Christmas tree.  I don't think I have a favorite, they were all so good.  Although, I am amazed that dad could sit so close to the piano and listen to Rachel practice the piano!  I really hope we can find a way to change them to cd.  :)

tubing the laurel creek

Last weekend we tubed the Laurel Creek with Jess and Eric. It was tons of fun. The water was a perfect temperature and there were enough rapids to keep us entertained and to waterlog the old camera we brought along.   :-)  The water was lower than the weekend we came up with the idea, but it was still a lot of fun. We didn't make it all the way to the French Broad River because the sun was disappearing, but we probably made it three-fourths of the way and then walked the rest the way out to the car. All in all, a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Three Year Anniversary

We went camping last weekend to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. We had beautiful weather and a beautiful camping spot.  We went on some lovely walks to a couple of waterfalls.





Madera, of course, had a lot of fun swimming around!

catching up...

We are being overrun with veggies from our garden...we love it! We can't miss a day of going out to the garden and picking the new stuff otherwise we end up with enormous zuchinis and yellow squash. Which are not as tasty. Mat's been busy chopping them up and putting them in our freezer. I've cut down our basil bushes and made up 4 batches of pesto to freeze and I still have basil leaves left to either dry or make more pesto!  We have started making lots of salsa with our tomatoes and our banana peppers.  We are also dehydrating our tomatoes and then we are going to freeze them.  We are stoked that the manure investment seems to be paying off in our garden this year...oh yeah, and the rain definitely helps!

At the end of June, we went to Roan Mountain to check out the flame azalea and rhododendron blooms.  We were a little late.  But we had a great time watching the sun set and eating cheese and crackers!

We did see a bunch of beautiful and rare gray's lilies.

A couple of days later at work, I found out that if we'd only gone into the actual state park we would have seen a ton or the rhododendron and flame azaleas blooming!  A visitor was telling me how on Friday (we went on Saturday) they'd gone to Roan Mountain and it was so beautiful and they showed me some pictures otherwise I wouldn't have believed them.  And then they told me that it was up the road from where we went...we never even thought of going there.  We like our jaunt up on the Tennessee/NC border!  Next time, we'll have to do both!

Last weekend, we went biking down the Laurel Creek trail and enjoyed swimming in the Laurel River and jumping off rocks!  We chose a nice spot to have lunch where there were some waterfalls and cascades and we could basically sit right on a rock in the river.  It was sweet!  When we finished up lunch we saw a family of four tubing through the rapids above us and we actually thought the cascades/waterfall that we were at were pretty big, so we waved to the family and the dad checked it out and picked a route and he floated on down it and then the mom floated and she only lost her hat, and then the boy went.  He looked about 10 years old!  The little girl didn't go instead she through sticks for Maddy to get!  When the dad offered us his tube, we couldn't say no.  So we both got to float the rapid section...it was awesome.  So now, we are hoping next weekend will be HOT and we are gonna tube the whole length.  Yippee!  We are searching for tubes with handles...

Roan Mountain Trip

So, we decided a little more than a week ago, that we should go check out the rhododendron blooming at Roan Mountain. It was the weekend of the rhododendron festival, so we thought they probably were blooming like we have seen in the past and are so beautiful.

Not the best way to spend the 4th of July...

On Thursday we were planning to go either backpacking with some friends, canoe down a river, or to go mountain biking on both Friday and Saturday and then check out our co-worker's band play at the Barnardsville community celebration. That sounds like a good time, right?

Somehow, between Thursday and Friday morning we decided that maybe we should just quick fix the leak on our back porch, which we knew required taking the old shingles off and putting on a new roof.

Good times, eh?  How do you like the 1x4's underneath the roof?

By the time we finished pulling off all of the shingles and getting all the nails out, it was time to call it a day.  We had Mat's family over to grill out to help reduce the amount of zuchini and yellow squash that we've picked from our garden.

Definitely one of the highlights of the weekend!

The next day we were at it bright and early...but not too early, since we do have neighbors.  We started at 8 a.m. and by mid-afternoon when our neighbor Brian & Kim called, we were only too grateful that they came over and brought us fruit bars and cold drinks!  They supplied us with a much needed break and entertainment.  AND then Brian stayed and helped with the roofing project!  We owe them big time!  Especially since his wife went into labor Sunday morning.  Mat's dad came over too and really helped us out.  (All on the 4th of July).   Aren't you glad that you don't live near us?

About 7:30 p.m. we were finished and we were able to make it out to Barnardsville to hear our co-worker's band play at their 4th of July celebration and then watch the fireworks.   Which were actually pretty amazing!

I don't think I would recommend to anyone getting into a roofing project on a holiday weekend.  It wasn't really the most festive way to spend the weekend!  But it is done now and we don't have to worry about that project any longer.  Phew.

fun at work!

Last Thursday, while driving home from my campfire program, this was the wonderful view I enjoyed:



Then on Friday, I worked up at the C.G. visitor center where we get to have a one hour rove/hike.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day and the catawba rhodendron were blooming along with some flame azalea.



The trail was even beautiful with the blooms along the forest floor.



Sometimes, I just can't believe that this is my job!  I sure am lucky!

rainy spring/summer and work

Our garden is loving all the rain it has been getting this year! We've been enjoying peas, broccoli, squash and cucumbers from it all ready. Luckily, we started the zuchini a few weeks after the yellow squash...we are all ready having to give away about 3-4 squash a day and if we had zuchini on top of that people might not really appreciate it!

Yesterday afternoon, it downpoured rain for about 15-20 minutes and there were gusts of wind that were so strong I was kind of worried some of the trees were gonna blow down! When I wandered around to tell people about my campfire program, I was only able to find about 8 people at their campsites so I was afraid that there wouldn't be anyone at the program. But luckily, I had a good crowd show up who was really fun.

There was one person there with a large camera who kept standing up and taking photos from different angles, too bad he didn't come talk to me afterwards and I could have asked him to email me some pics of myself and I would have been able to post them!!

sunny weekend!

This past weekend we attended a friend's wedding.  It was located about an hour away from us in the woods.  It was very beautiful with a creek running right by the camping area and the reception area.  We walked up a bit to where the wedding ceremony was and it was this open field area with beautiful views up to the ridge tops.  The ceremony was very nice and the bride and groom were happy

Then we met some biking friends for a nice bike ride with many creek crossings!

wildflower hike in the rain

Last weekend, we went on a beautiful hike in the rain.  We explored and wandered up a creek for a lovely afternoon.  We saw so many different flowers and it was cool to id  the flowers that we did not know.

Mat figuring out what this is growing on the rock in a stream.

Foamflower

Mayapple

Wild Stonecrop

Umbrella Leaf (check out how big the leaf is!)

Violet

I am still so amazed at how green everything is out here.  The rain has been very helpful this spring and it feels almost tropical at the moment!