home again

we just got home from a long trip out east. we spent a few days on my parent’s farmette, enjoying hiking in the woods, learning woodworking techniques with my dad (i made him teach me how to do things using only the tools i own at my house for the first project. for the second project, we used the tools he has that make life easier. now i know what to add to my wishlist for next year!), eating yummy things and just enjoying being all together, just our little family. here are a few of my favorite photos from that part of the trip:

my dad discovered these two trees in the woods shortly before our visit and took us out to see them. they have naturally grown together like that. what you can’t quite see in this picture is how loooooong that horizontal branch is!

i must be a city girl if i’m taking pictures of fungus, right?

one of mom’s chickens. love the black and white feathers.

hay for the sheep.

this little birdy was right outside mom’s window, on the birdfeeder. this photo might have been taken by mr. happy stuff. we were both shooting these pictures and i don’t want to take credit away from him, but i just can’t remember who got what.

tiny fingers and a row of yummy peas. fun practicing fine motor skills!

for the last few days, we drove a few more hours farther east to spend time with mr. h-s’s siblings.  here are a few photos of friends and family there:

okay, this may not be my most artsy photo ever, but my little nephew couldn’t help himself from crawling up on top of these fun big presents to unwrap them.  then, he realized that crawling on top was way more fun than unwrapping them anyway!  eventually, we convinced him to open them.

my sister got me an orchid for christmas (here’s hoping i can keep it alive for at least two weeks!), so i took advantage of the excellent lighting at my sister-in-law’s house to get some great shots.  you know, to preserve it at least in photographs….

my other little nephew came over for some pictures and a little more visiting.  this isn’t his most smiley picture, but look at those big blue eyes!  (he was also the one picking up peas in the photo above.)

this is the daughter of a dear friend who also came over to visit that same morning.  again, no smile here, but i love the lighting.

we had a great time with everyone and spent lots of time relaxing.  there was at least one full day of doing pretty much absolutely nothing.  after my crazy busy last semester, that was bliss.