Community...the power

Friends this will be a quick post and without the typical pictorial elaboration but this weekend we have enjoyed "Community" here in our new neighborhood this weekend.  Much credit goes to Walter Henegar of Atlanta Westside for helping us understand and embrace the concept of Community.  We have only been in the car twice which is a lovely change of pace vs a former life in a state south of here :)

Friday night we witnessed some local football action walking to our neighbor Patrick Henry High for the game.  The kids enjoyed it and despite the two point loss we had a fun time remembering what the Friday night game is like. 

Saturday morning we biked down to "The Village" for the weekly farmers market and to the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-Op to pick up some local goodness(don't get me wrong I still had to make our weekly Kroger run for the preservative laden non-local foods).  Saturday evening we were able to walk to dinner with some lovely neighbors at Local Roots and enjoy adult time developing new friendships.

Sunday is always a nice time with our church family and we are excited to see the band growing: Ed is 1 of 6 guys on stage vs 3 now!  This evening we were able to bike to our home group gathering via the Roanoke Greenway in about 5 minutes time.  Ed has been getting a workout pulling the kids in the trailer and they are getting used to "weekend commute" via bike!  We are excited to see what our week brings as Ed is planning a mountain bike ride, a guys brewing group(aka Monday Night Brewing for those that know that story) and a potential date night potluck Thursday. 

So we are moving on....moving deeper into home here in the Roanoke Valley.  I trust you have had a moment or two of such joys this weekend yourself. 

Fall is Here!

Its been cool here this weekend and we have been meaning to give camping a try.  Given the age of little brother and that we haven't ever taken C camping we decided to test drive our adventure in our backyard.  The backyard is one of the main reasons we bought our house so why not utilize it right? Oh yes and I have mentioned Ed's love of fire and his firepit acquired in July(everyone needs a campfire then right?)  So after about 45 mins of locating where our camping equipment had landed in the course of the move we headed outside. 

C was mainly excited about marshmallows but once we cut them off from the sugar high they got excited about the tent and we decided to give sleeping a try.  Something about being inside a tent hyped up little brother; after we read a long story and all tried laying down he started rolling around the tent causing a ruckus; pulling hair, biting, annoying little brother stuff!  So we kicked him out of the tent and back to his crib.  If we didn't have to be in the tent together there is no need to right?? 



Keeping this guy out of the fire was a job for an octopus....needed a few more hands.

Given we had 1 kid inside 1 adult had to sleep inside; so that left C and Mama to do a little girl bonding.  I was exhausted from the week so C and I were snug in our sleeping bags snoozing in the cool VA air by 9:30pm.  It was actually nice but I was missing my memory foam so when C awoke at 1am asking for a kleenex I used the opportunity to ask her if she wanted to go inside to her bed.  She agreed with me and off we went. 

Conclusion:  we could do this in "real time" but we may need to get little brother his own tent !!

On some other news we are updating some other overused equipment at our home.  Ed's gas grill has been faithfully serving us for the past 11 years.  We have even replaced some of the critical parts about half way through its life but the spare parts have been end of life'd(spare parts industry speak) so we knew we would have to upgrade soon.  We are a heavy grilling family and Ed is really good at it: we grill at least 2x per week year round.

Old grill guts...its a wonder we haven't gotten sick

New grill guts

Recall our post about Ed not wanting to spend money? The Lawnmower Well we are doing it again; we bought a new floormodel grill(3 burner with a side burner) on end of clearance discount($100) at Wal-Mart last night.  Ed brought it home today and we haven't given it a go yet. Wish us luck!

Our final fall fun look of the weekend is our littlest Hokie...he yells "Go, Go, Go" at the TV when football is on.

Let the Memories Begin

So I have to admit I was very skeptical of Disney before we went.  I thought it would be crazy crowded, mediocre, over priced and under-whelming for the adults.  Boy was I surprised.  Not only did the kids have fun but Ed and I did too.  I was very very impressed with the entire Disney operation.  Every single employee(called cast-members) were totally engaged in their jobs and were genuinely interested in you having an incredible experience.  When I say every employee I mean that; even the food service people were over the top interested in your vacation.  You would think it would get annoying but for the $ you pay to get into their parks I at least felt I was getting some value for my dollar.  I guess my Disney park expectations were of some apathetic teen-agers running rides and a few characters walking around who let you hug them...aka King's Island or Six Flags.  Like I said I was impressed. 

Autographs....we took our copy of "Beauty and the Beast"

When we first walked in the door at Magic Kingdom it began raining so we headed straight to get our "Mouse Ears" on.  B actually wore his for quite a while and C wouldn't take hers off the entire day....I am serious.  Even when it got steamy hot out in the afternoon C was still sporting her Disney spirit.

After we were decorated and sugar'd up we went to meet the Princesses and Mickey Mouse.  Now this is the big moment C was excited about.  If you know C you know that she is shy at first but once she comes out of her shell she is not a shy kid at all. She was tentative with Sleeping Beauty(Princess Aurora) then by the time we met the third princess Cinderella she was exuberant about the experience.  Brother got into the scene too; he knows a pretty lady when he sees one!

Mickey Mouse was another story for our family.  Our kids are big Mickey Mouse fans, especially B.  One of his favorite phrases is from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse "Oh Toodles".  We thought B would make a beeline to Mickey but he started screaming the minute he saw Mickey and barely warmed up by the time we left to give Mickey a "high five".  C liked Mickey as much as the princesses and almost knocked him over giving him a hug.

There was lots more we enjoyed at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom; C dressed up as a character each day and the cast members treated her in character the entire time.  Two days was enough of the intense pace and stimulation of the parks and we were glad to head to the beach to relax a little.  While at the beach we got to celebrate my birthday, unfortunately it included a trip to Urgent Care for B due to swimmers ear.  Our hotel in Orlando had a sweet pool that we thoroughly enjoyed our first night in Orlando but apparently B took some of the pool along with him!

Sunset on our first night in Clear water.

Playing in the sand despite feeling bad :(

Disney is exhausting for a little mouseketeer!

The Beauty of Virginia

Friends, the Gloria family opinion on US states is that Virginia is God's country and Oregon is a close second. We are constantly reminded of the beauty and wonder of God's creation living here in Roanoke. Last night Ed and I had the chance to re- visit one of our favorite places we hadn't gotten to yet since we've been back; Valhalla Wines.

Not only does this vineyard grow their grapes on site, they have a really cool wine cave AND gorgeous views of the Roanoke Valley from their tasting room. Oh I guess I should comment on the wine, it is awesome as well; they are going for quality vs having a tourist destination(which seems common around here but fun!) The key here is this lovely place is 10 maybe 15 minutes from our house!  Come and visit we'll take you there.

Last night I tried to capture the beauty of the location on my camera of choice....the iPhone camera...not exactly high quality equipment but it is always at hand and that is enough for me!

This morning we were greeted by some lovely water lilies in our unintentionally thriving water garden. Honestly all we do is feed the fish. I am sure if we actually try to maintain this awesome pond we will kill the lilies and the fish.   Note the trimmed boxwoods, new mulch and fresh pea gravel in this pic, we had to hire someone to help us get this landscape under control.  We were told there are somwhere between 100-110 boxwoods on this property.  That is more than Ed and I can keep up with in addition to our two kids, 1 dog, 11 goldfish and 2 careers :)