Other activities...

The first picture I had to post because my phone doesn't get great reception down there in Loa, so on one of our outings to the post office and the grocery store, we stopped in the church parking lot so I could use the wi-fi and check my emails and messages. And of course Thursday is "hair" day and go out to eat day (well, we ate out more than once, but Thursday was with Aunt Lew) so we had to take pictures after the aunties got their "doos." We made great progress on the basement and even got Durran to bring us a truck to put garbage in for the dump! Yes, we about filled up a truck! It was great! Of course, nothing could have her name on it anywhere since it was going to the public dump. Heaven forbid. And we got the mud room completely emptied except for some lawn chairs that she wanted to clean up or something, all the bins and boxes put away! In some of the stuff we went through we found one of her square dancing dresses. So cute! I feel like we made really good progress in her basement. A truckload for the dump, her car trunk and my car trunk filled up for DI (my back seat too) and it was really looking great down there. We organized the closet and left several boxes of things for her to sort through at her convenience (lots of paper work and magazines, all OLD but she HAS to go through them and make sure they get shredded since her name is on them). We left several things on the bed down there for her to sort through too. A lot of clothes. I have to snicker a little because she won't get rid of clothes, but she wears the same few things all the time and will NEVER wear all the clothes she is holding back. Hopefully she will eventually let them go. We need to show her the Marie Kondo way...maybe next year. Ha. It was a fun week just being with the Auntie and I love being out on the X/ Ranch. It is so peaceful and beautiful out there. We went up and took a tour of Durran and Teresa's house that they are having built. It is in the painting stages and all the closet doors are set throughout the whole main room for painting. It is going to be a huge and lovely house. We also drove by Bob and Janeen's "Big house" they are building in Bicknell right next to Aunt Lew's old house (which used to be Grandpa and Grandpa Brown's house). Laura and Micheal live there now. So Dr. Bob's house is 3 levels and looks so out of place in Bicknell, but they can fly in anytime they want and have a place to hang out. Yes, he has a private plane too and flies right into Bicknell. It will be fun to see that house when it is finished.  What a great week in Loa! Can't wait to do it again! It is now tradition!

More treasures...

After a day or two of organizing holiday stuff and blankets and crochet projects, we went down to the lower realm to look for some things and organize a bit down there as well. We looked in her cedar chest and found this crocheted apron and then a darling small crocheted apron that Grandma Ellett crocheted for her when she was a little girl. How cute is that!? Also a little crocheted dress.  I don't remember who made it or who it was for. I just loved seeing these antique things! We made good headway and started a DI pile! She agreed to send a "few" things there as we worked on organizing the basement bedroom. We stacked holiday bins and even moved some things down out of her mudroom. We felt like we made pretty good progress! I don't think of it as work, I find these kinds of project very fun! Auntie Bev doesn't think they are that fun, but she is always happy when we get finished and things look so much nicer. 

My Now Annual Loa visit...

Last year I went to spend a week with Aunt Beverly (and to visit Aunt Lew too) and help her with some projects. It was so fun I decided to do it again this year! She puts up with me for a whole week can you believe it? I have so much fun and I LOVE helping her with projects. Our first project this time was to clean out and organize (mostly organize - she doesn't get rid of much I tell ya) the two cupboards up above her couch in the TV room. We pulled everything out, repackaged, labeled, and organized most of it back in there! We found some really fun OLD things! Like these Sears and Roebuck advertisements, old tins with various items in them (crocheting and sewing things), Grandpa Brown's straw hats, and Great Grandma Ellett's felt hat with flowers (I will find the picture of her wearing it) and some other hats that I believe were hers. Grandma Brown didn't wear hats. There was also an old box (that held the hats) that was an apple box sent from Hancock! In 1958! That is where Uncle Roger and Aunt Adona lived and had the Park-N-Dine restaurant. AND, the postage on the box was stamps of Monticello! How timely that all was since I had just been there. I cut the stamps off and kept them (with permission of course!). I also tripped a little coming down the step stool and caught myself landing on the bottom rung. It put a doozy of a bruise on my foot! And Auntie Bev snuck a picture of me on my hands and knees up in that closet pulling stuff out, but it is basically a butt shot and I said, "You did NOT just take a picture of my butt!" She laughed good about that and so then I posed for her to get a GOOD shot. I did crawl up in there and pull everything out. We organized it good. And there are some ancient crochet projects in there that she swears she might get them out and work on them this winter (ha!) so we packed them back in there. We took out holiday stuff and put them in bins to go to the basement and made the cupboards look so pretty. I can't believe we didn't take before and after pictures! So that's how our project week started on Monday! 

Wildflowers...

Last night for family night we took Joel and Kristen up to Albion Meadows for the wildflower hike. It didn't disappoint. I think we were a little later in the season and didn't see as many as we did last year, but it was still very pretty! Joel and Kristen went on ahead and made it to the lake, we stayed behind and waited for them. We weren't ready to hike that far. Anyway, it was pretty, it was fun, the weather was great, and as always, I was with my favorite hiking buddy. Love him! 

 There, you can see us (shadows) and Joel and Kristen are the little specks going up the trail.

I Heart Virginia...

And just like that our vacation was over! Too fast! We absolutely loved being here and our host and hostess were wonderful! Craig and Diana fed us well! They are both excellent cooks. They also took us out to eat. Spoiled us rotten! Auntie looks great for 89! It is sad to see her with the dementia so bad, and Diana does an excellent job caring for her. She seemed to recognize me and gave me a hug every morning (she was surprised every day to see me there). Our drive back to the airport was so green and beautiful. The trees looked like broccoli! Diana let me borrow some old photgraphs (loose pages from an old album) and negatives that I couldn't wait to get home and scan! The TSA pulled me over and had me open my bag and the lady said to the man who was running the machine, "They are old photos!" Apparently they couldn't tell what was registering in their xray machine. It was funny. I was excited to scan them all and found some real treasures! I also took a few picture of things on Diana's walls. The article about the Park-N-Dine (I waitressed there for a few months for my uncle) and it's amazing history and amazing owners (Uncle Roger and Auntie Adona). Also a cute picture of Diana and Aaron when he was a baby, an old fashioned picture. And a picture of my Grandpa and Grandma Brown that I have never seen. It's in a frame on Auntie's wall. And then I had to take a picture of her Hershey Pie plate on display in her kitchen. We went to Hershey, PA many moons ago with Auntie. That brought back fun memories. Now we are home reliving our wonderful but too short of vacation! 

 Look at this old picture of my grandpa and grandma, and some of their kids in the background on the porch! And also this darling one of my mom on the left, Aunt Lew in the middle and Aunt Evelyn on the right. Never was these before!

 Adona and Lew on a school day...And Adona modeling!

I have never seen this picture of my grandpa and grandma either. Lovely. Wish I could scan a good copy of it!

A Dream Come True!

One item on my bucket list that I have dreamed of doing for a very long time is to see Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. It is so wonderful that Diana lives not far from it! She made my dream come true! She took Dave and I there on the 13th of July. Since we came all this way, we made it worth the trip and bought the ticket that takes you to all 3 floors. Totally worth it! I LOVED seeing everything! I have loved history and historic places for about as long as I can remember. Being in places where history happened or where historic people lived, takes me back in time and lets me see how things were. I enjoy looking at the past and trying to imagine living like they did. Monticello is Italian for "Little Mountain." Jefferson spent a lot of time in Paris and after he had started designing Monticello he came home from Paris and made changes copying the French style of things. The estate was being built and changed for over 40 years! The shuttle took us to the back of the estate. Beautiful! Our guide was very knowledgeable and told us a lot of fascinating things. I wish I could remember them all! Pictures are only allowed on the grounds and in one room. Guess I will have to buy a book with the pictures! 

 The Dome room is where they let you take pictures. Fascinating to hear how Jefferson designed everything and what an amazing feat it was to build this dome and it's windows. 

 At the back of the room is an opening into a little attic type space that his granddaughters played in and called it the "Cuddy" after a ship. 

 This is the front of Monticello. 

 Our wonderful host Diana!

 I have yet to understand what these little cubbies are under the house. Not a tunnel, doesn't go through anywhere. More research is needed! There were no guides on the grounds to answer questions.

 Self-explanatory!

 This is Mulberry Row...the houses for the slaves. A few foundations are left and this chimney.

 The Jefferson Cemetery...we couldn't go in, but it was fun to see as much as we could through the fence. I LOVE cemeteries!

 We spent such a lovely morning here. I loved every minute of it. I think Dave and Diana enjoyed it too. The rooms were colorful and full of great items. It made imagining their lifetimes and living styles more real. It is an amazing home with wonderful designs and inventions. The galley underneath the home where all the meals were made was interesting too. And of course they have just recently unearthed a part of the house that is supposed to be Sally Hemmings quarters. It had been covered up and restrooms put above it for tourists. Not sure how they came across that now. More research needed! Monticello.org has a virtual tour of the home and is fun to look at and reminisce our time there. I had gotten on there before we went on this trip and it made me even more excited to go! Thank you Diana for taking us and Dave for buying the better tickets so I could have this dream come true! What a fun day! We stopped at a cute restaurant on the way home and I had a delicious chicken pot pie soup! I need to learn to make this!