A Cowboy morning

One morning while Matt & Chris were here, 

we decided to take a road trip adventure.

Z & Matt donned their hats

& we set off to the West to see what we could see!

Fortune quickly showed her face.

Pretty soon the straight roads of the valley floor

gave way to the rolling hills. These winding mountain

lanes offered us vistas that we couldn't refuse.

Z perfected his cowboy pose.

Matt & Chris wondered what we would find beyond these hills.

A horse stared at us.

Romance movie cover shot.

Everything was so green & flowers blanketed huge swaths of the hills.

Our curvy, rolling trail.

Finally Matt couldn't contain himself any longer.

Yeehaw! Westward Ho!

Welcome to Cali!

Our friends Matt & Chris

just came to visit us for a week,

so these next several posts will be photos

from their visit.

 First, shots from around Bako, including

antiquing & a hockey game!

To see any of these photos full size, 

visit my Flickr page. 

There's a link on the side bar or go here:

flickr.com/photos/quaidie

Birthday Blast

A couple of weeks ago I celebrated my birthday.

We really didn't have any major plans

Z took me out to dinner the night before my big day, 

gave me a new pair of Toms shoes, 

& then surprised me with a set of 3 pasta attachments

for my Kitchen Aid.

The reason we didn't make any big plans

for my actual birthday is that we were already

committed to working at a fundraiser for

an organization with which Z is involved.

The event? Oh, it was a clay shoot.

I am not a gun person by any stretch,

but the event did raise quite

a bit of money for a very good cause, 

and it was a really interesting and new experience, for sure.

It was a cloudy day, but the landscape was

scenic & peaceful,

 at least until the shooting began.

We were both cold & tired after the morning's events, 

but finding this lovely package in the mail

from friends Matt & Chris was the best surprise!

I decided that I couldn't wait to try my hand

at pasta making, so I took a trip

to Trader Joe's (of course)

to pick up the necessary ingredients

& a bottle of wine.

At the check out, the cashier found out it was

my birthday & gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers!

It was definitely a birthday of firsts, 

but a very good day, indeed.

(oh & the pasta was divine!)

A few things...

Please forgive me for not posting as much lately!

First, I hit my limit for uploading photos

on Blogger,

a pretty big problem for a photo-based blog.

So I will now be hosting my photos on a Flickr

account. For you, this means that not only will

you get to see pics on here, but you

can also visit my Flickr page to

see other photos, too!

Second, the reason I haven't posted as much

is because Z & I have been extremely busy

since we returned from NC.

As we head toward Easter, 

there are more & more church events, meetings, etc.

We also just had our dear friends visit us in Cali 

for a week, so I was spending time catching up

with them and having lots of adventures

instead of surfing the interwebs.

Which is good news for you guys, since you know

I took TONS of photos to share!

I am working on some awesome posts and

will get them up as soon as I can sort through

all the photos!

Kerri!!

My BFF since 4th grade 

brought her sweet little guy to 

my folks' new place while we were in NC.

Typical.

Love them so much!

I only wish we could have had

boatloads more time to hang out :(

A brief Clemson respite.

In the midst of our crazy/busy week in NC, 

Z & I decided to take a mini vacation

from our vacation

& visit Clemson for a day.

Fun Fact:

Z proposed to me in the bank parking

lot that's just up those stairs behind us.

It was very romantic.

Ahh. Spring.

We mostly just met up with our

dear PC to have some lunch & catch up

while walking around campus.

Z reminisces about his engineering nerd days.

The stadium was open, 

so we were pilgrims to Howard's Rock.

Quick stop at the ice cream/coffee shop

to do some sermonating.

Then we felt very old as we attended

Lutheran Campus Ministry

where we used to spend every Wednesday 

evening during college.

We spent the night & awoke early to

eat at the fantastic bakery in Pendleton.

We picked up a delicious baguette, snapped

a few photos after breakfast & 

drove north, our mini vacation come to a close.

NC trip: Family

Since the majority of our family

live in NC, our visits there are packed

with seeing lots of relatives.

This visit was extra special because 

we got to meet our new niece, Cyprus, 

who was just 2 weeks old when we got there.

Here she is rocking the new dress I made her :)

Granma & G-pa came down the mountain to see us, too!

G-pa of course had plenty of stories & jokes to tell.

So special to visit with G-ma & see her with

one of her great-granddaughters.

Mamaw & our nephew reading his new book!

Baby Cyprus visited Z's house & family, too.

Z's beautiful aunt getting some cuddle time.

Z's mama hosted a delicious dinner for both our 

families. We had a great time!

Mason putting on the saddle so he can ride.

Mother - Son time makes me happy.

We absolutely loved getting to see so much

of our family, but wish we had had a little more

time to see the ones we missed.