summer recap

The summer is almost over and the girls will be back in school in a few weeks.  However, they've stayed plenty busy with camps nearly every week...because I still have to (& want to) work in the summer.  But we've managed to squeeze in a few fun outings...here's a brief recap:

there's an old NASCAR track just north of Raleigh that is now a park (Occoneechee Speedway)...pretty neat to see what remains of the old dirt track

 

there was a little workout station in the middle of the track

and a dance floor??

the original grandstands are still there

reproduction of the concession stands ("boo" to the Pepsi sign...unfortunately, NC is Pepsi country)

cool old aerial photo of the track back in the 60's

early morning trek down to the Sandhills Gamelands

pitcher plant bog!

cool legume, Orbexilum pedunculatum (or Sampson's snakeroot to non-plant nerds)

We also took our "annual" trip (we hadn't been down there in nearly 3 years!) down to Ponte Vedra Beach, FL with Will's family.  I was lazy and didn't take my camera on the beach so no beach pictures (sorry!), but we all had a great time, and the girls really liked playing with their cousin Gage and building sand castles.  And Lilly was brave enough to go out in the ocean with Will a few times (Maggie...not really a fan of the ocean yet).  We even had a visit from a lost gopher tortoise.  And as usual, I spent some time hunting for shark's teeth...and I even trained Lilly to find them!

I think my tooth count for this trip was ~ 230...including one of the biggest ones I've found (definitely in my top 5)

world's oldest living longleaf pine

My friend Katie (from our Ichauway days) has recently moved to Raleigh for a post-doc with the US Forest Service.  Two weekends ago, Will was out of town for a "boys' weekend" with some buddies, so Katie, the girls, and I headed down to Southern Pines to spend a "girls' day" in the sandhills.  We went to Weymouth Woods Preserve and the Boyd Tract (part of Weymouth Woods).  It was a beautiful day, and within 5 minutes of arriving / setting up our picnic lunch we were greeted by a red-cockaded woodpecker working on his / her cavity in a tree very close to us (and we heard probably 3 or 4 more during our afternoon hike).

We also saw the oldest living longleaf pine in the world - it has been dated to be 460+ years old!!  It was both awe-inspiring and sad at the same time b/c it is on a tract of old-growth longleaf that has been fire suppressed for decades, but I'm sure was incredibly gorgeous way back when.

red-cockaded woodpecker working on his home

 

Maggie had the camera for awhile

Lilly, our fearless leader, checking the trail map

grassleaf roseling, Callisia graminea (aka. Cuthbertia graminea)

 

we saw tons of these beautiful black and blue damselflies

New Jersey tea, Ceanothus americanus, in flower

world's oldest living longleaf pine (Maggie didn't want to stand next to it)

top of the world's oldest living longleaf pine

catch-up

Yes, I know it's been a long time since I last posted.  I won't make lame excuses, and because so much time has gone by, there is no way I can even attempt to catch-up in photos.  So I've posted some of the "highlights" since last August, and I'll try to be better about keeping this blog updated in the future.  :-)

last fall we took a trip to the Outer Banks with my parents

Will and I climbed the Bodie Island lighthouse with Maggie (Lilly was not tall enough to climb, so she had to stay at the bottom w/ Grandmama and Granddad)

we went on a few canoe trips here in central NC...

we took a trip to Helen, GA last October for a Summer family reunion

4 generations of the Summer family

Lilly's 3rd birthday last October...

gummy candy kits from Uncle Chris at Christmas last year...

snow...

more snow!!

more snow!!

our snowman

in January we took a trip to visit family, including my grandfather in west TN

we went on lots of hikes...

and several camping trips...

we have adopted 2 new beagles, Dan (on the left, he's 2 years old) and Dolly (on the right, she's 3 years old)

and Maggie just "graduated" from preschool last week...hard to believe she will start kindergarten in the fall!!

Manatees

Here's a video of the manatees we saw at Ichetucknee Springs.

backlog of pictures

Well, life has gotten really busy lately.  Because I just didn't have enough to do already (i.e. I'm crazy!), I've started working a 2nd part-time job...so in addition to my job at the N.C. Botanical Garden (which I love!), I am now also delivering produce boxes for a local CSA.  And now I've fallen WAAAY behind in my blog posts.  I have a TON of pictures to post, so I'll try to catch up in a series of posts. 

This first post is from a road trip we took back in April to visit our old stomping ground in southwest Georgia (Ichauway...the ecological research station where I worked after college and in grad school, and also where Will and I met).  It was an awesome trip and we had so much fun seeing our old "home" (I can't believe it has been 8 years since we moved away!!) and visiting with old friends.

on the first day of our trip, we drove down to Cordele, GA and camped at Georgia Veteran's State Park...the girls enjoyed seeing these big planes and tanks they had on display

 

the lab building at Ichauway

beautiful native azalea outside the lab

the girls with a familiar friend, Emily (who they met last summer on our Mentone, AL trip)

wagon ride

the "Big House"

did I mention how much I miss this place???

hunting dog cemetary

Ariana and Jamie in the herp lab

future scientists

Roger and Chelsea's little boy, Michael

Maggie loved all of the "dress-up" stuff in the kid's tent

looking back I wish I had taken more pictures of our friends!

Roger and Chelsea's little girl, Adelaide

after the Ichauway reunion, we camped out in Newton with some old friends (yes, there's now a campground in Newton!) and then drove down to Tallahassee the next day to visit Will's cousin, Clay...the weather was rainy but we managed to get out briefly after dinner to let the kids stretch their legs...this is the only picture I have that isn't blurry of the girls with their cousin Conner

after spending the night in Tallahassee, we drove over to our favorite spot to paddle in north Florida, Ichetucknee Springs...we were so excited to share this place with the girls, and it did not disappoint us!!

sooo pretty!!  I think my exact words when we got on the river were "that's it, we're moving back here!!"

got Cheetos?

the highlight of the trip, seeing a manatee family up close and personal!!!

the manatees were amazing (here's the mama and baby)...we took a video that I'll post later

so many turtles!

daddy manatee

how amazing is this water??  this makes paddling in eastern NC seem just plain boring!  :-)

 

after an exciting afternoon on the Ichetucknee, we piled back into the car and headed over to Little Talbot Island State Park, north of Jacksonville while the girls both took a much-needed nap

the dunes at Little Talbot Island

our campsite in the maritime forest at Little Talbot Island State Park

the next morning back on the beach

 

a rare photo of me and the girls

a crab that Lilly almost stepped on

 

Maggie drew Rapunzel in the sand

 

It was such a fun trip, and the girls did absolutely amazing in the car for that long.  Maggie loves road trips (and camping too!) more than just about anything else, so we knew she was going to have fun.  And Lilly just feeds off of Maggie's mood, so she was happy pretty much the whole time as well.  We are so lucky!