Meet the Meadows!: April 2009

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Moki Update

Moki was particularly funny today, so we took some photos. She has found a new favorite sleeping position...

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Today officially marks one year of extremely happy marriage! We already did our big celebration with our trip to Charleston, but we still celebrated again today as well. We didn't really start documenting with photos until later in the day, but we'll get to that.

Plans for today included traveling to Berry (where we fell in love of course!) and a picnic. The weather forcast told us this was a bad idea, so opted for antiquing in Decatur instead.

Today's activities included:

Eating gluten-free cranberry-pomegranate muffins
Visiting Kudzu Antique Market (and somehow buying nothing)
Visiting Avondale Estates Antiques (and buying VHS copies of Mr. Holland's Opus and Ghost)
Eating next to the lake in Avondale Estates with our windows rolled down (as close as we could get to a picnic in soggy grass)
Perusing Walmart
Making Moki a new treat jar
Napping
Making a fabulous pizza
Eating a fabulous pizza
Breaking out the wedding cake
And now, updating the blog

All in all, it has been a fun day. And to really tell the story, here are some photos:

Moki scratching ferociously to obtain a treat

Notice Moki in the right bottom corner. She knows where the treats be.

Modeling the pizza dough

Check out the Meadows Veggie X-travaganza Pizza
(named by Duncan)

Finished product... twas amazing.

The beautiful top of our wedding cake, exactly one year old. This was one of my favorite parts of the wedding (other than Duncan being my husband, of course)

So, we took a bite....

IT WAS DISGUSTING!
"Are we gonna die?"
Please note, I am not in the photo because I'm somewhere else in the kitchen spitting out the bite of icing I just stuck in my mouth.

The fate of the cake was not good... sorry wedding cake. Glad the marriage is doing better than you were after a year.

Happy One Year Anniversary to Us!

And thanks to all of you for your love and support!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Charleston Day 2.5 and the Return

So here we are at home, and trying to fight the laziness and actually post the last pics of the trip. Whitney twisted my arm and got me to post this time-- she fought my defiance with accusations of laziness. I agreed.

Anyway, here you go, in no particular order:

One last view of the plantation garden, to highlight how beautiful the day was. But it was dang cold.

A peacock. Whitney hadn't seen one since she was a child, so it was one of the final things we had to seek out before we left to make our trip complete.

(She was also surprised to find out that they sound like horribly screeching, dying cats when they call. Who knew!)

Just some peacocks being peacocks. Another fact that surprised Whitney (but not Duncan, who had the privilege of growing up with SOLELY the educational shows of PBS as a child) is that these things can roost in tall trees. And they breathe fire.

A pig. They're fat. And yes, they DO smell, a lot, especially on a windy day. Like today.

Me: stumbling out the hotel room door, bags and other luggage draped across every limb, on my way to the car.

Whitney: A BALD EAGEL! DUNCAN, TEH BALD EEGLR! I"M SO EXCITED I CAN"T EVEN SPELL RIGHT!

Me: Sigh...

The bald eagle was the other bird Whitney was really excited to find. We went for a walk the night before, and Whitney swore she saw a bald eagle, but we couldn't verify it. But this morning, as we left the room to take some luggage to the car, at that MOMENT, as if by divine providence, there was the eagle, soaring overhead, cawing "Whitney! I didn't forget, here I am! Revel in my glory!" And she did, and it was wonderful.

A smiling alligator. They can hold their breath for an hour, can go a year without eating, and shed teeth by the thousands over their lifetimes, which rival ours in length.

Yes, PBS again. Just kidding, we had an awesome tour guide.

Moments later, the bird was swept, tweeting in terror, into the gusting vortex.

The beauty of the evening walk by the lake.

Hope you enjoyed following our trip as much as we enjoyed being there!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Charleston: Day 2

Starting out the day, not sure what we were going to do as there was a tornado watch and weather.com predicted thunder storms all day.

We decided to go on an alligator tour as the guide promised she would also talk about birds...

Look closely in the background to the right, there is an alligator there. We were assured the birds know the gators are more likely to hunt at night, so this bird was not in great danger.

Duncan's camera had this cool effect with a certain lens. We liked the way it framed the sheep, but later decided it looked like we were hunting them. You be the judge.

Another cool bird trying to dry off as he fished.

Beautiful Spanish moss blowing in the wind.

They were posing for us.

RAIN?!? What rain?? It ended up being a beautiful day!

Obligatory kiss-photo. We are celebrating one year of marriage after all!

This gator was sunbathing, so...

Duncan risked his life to get that photo! (Okay, maybe he's not that close, but it was still a bit scary!)

This is the famous Middleton Oak. It's more than 1,000 years old (and sadly suffered some damage last April). You can see how HUGE the trunk is!

A little more perspective!

Duncan's favorite: a goat!

Duncan took this awesome photo. If you closely, there is fish in the bird's beak!!

Duncan just has a way with cats. I told him that he must omit an odor that attract them. this cat literally climbed up his leg to be in his lap. Jealous? Yes, yes I was.

We saw two of these snakes in close proximity.

I made a game out of taking photos of Duncan taking photos of scary animals.

Today has been wonderful! And we're not even done! Thought you'd enjoy seeing some of things we encountered though! We're headed home tomorrow. While our stay has been brief, it's been fabulous and we would definitely recommend this place to anyone!