The Homestead Resort Lifestyle : The Wheeler’s

Last Friday we took the day to accompany our Pastor’s family over to Hot Springs Virginia, for a little outing.  It was an hour and a half drive over the mountains and I slept most of the way, but when I felt the car stopping frequently I sat up.  In front was the cutest little town I’ve EVER seen.  It was almost like a storybook picture.  Not kidding.  To our left was a gigantic red building.  I turned to V with huge eyes and said “I hope that’s where we’re headed!”  He nodded in agreement.

To our surprise we slowly drove around to the parking and believe it or not, the huge red building WAS exactly where we were headed.  Driving up to it is not something I can explain in words, one must see it for themselves and experience the amazingness on their own.  But maybe THIS will cure some of that curiosity. ;)

So in other words, we had the time of our lives with this family!

Cuteness overload! :)

These two are so cute! :D

The hotel had beautiful hallways that we took advantage of.

Sadie the Lady doing her thing ;)

Maureen and her daughters are SO close to each other its inspiring!

This is where I had to use V’s camera because my camera had a little malfunctioning issues.

We are so blessed to have friends like these :)

Visiting my sister

I could barely open my eyes yesterday morning.  My alarm didn’t let me down and went off at precisely 7:00 am.  I hate to admit it, but that’s very early for me.  I wanted to pull the covers over my head and keep sleeping.  It was a cold morning and I certainly didn’t feel like driving a whole hour while my eyes wanted rest.  But I dragged myself out of bed somehow and got ready.

I arrived at a white, semi-tall apartment building.  Walked three flights of stairs and was greeted by a sleepy sister, which made me want to jump in bed that much more.  I fought my urge to sleep and drank the offered coffee.  A few minutes later we left to explore the city.

We found an adorable book store and decided it was absolutely appropriate to snap a few pictures.

Found an adorable book about doggies…

And there was Subie modeling like never before. :)

Hope everyone is having a blessed week!

Travel : The hands that tell a million stories…

God willing my grandmother is going to be 95 this October.  The things that she has gone through and the things that she has done in her life were hard and painful.  She had nine kids all of whom she raised on her own, while her alcoholic husband drank their money away in the times of war.  She did everything herself with no one helping her, and having only God to believe in that someday all of this will all be done and she will finally rest.  Her kids called her an angel because she didn’t complain when life gave her thorns, instead she thanked God for that as well.

Her stories were long and filled with so much sadness that tears were streaming down our faces while Grandma Polly told us of her past.  She didn’t exaggerate.  I felt so ashamed of my lack of patience, listening to her stories. She had so much patience with the people who acted with evil towards her, and she showed them love.  She didn’t hesitate to do good to her enemies and didn’t wait for good in return.  No one knows why God chose this difficult path for her, but she really is blessed and loved with all her kids, grandkids, great grandkids, and great great grandkids around today.

She was so happy that we came to visit and decided to take a few pictures not knowing when the next time could be.

Happy Tuesday!

Travel : Asheville NC : S&V + Botanical Gardens

Oh Asheville, you have stolen my heart!  I’m absolutely in awe of your beauty!  The way you love to care for the Earth.  And how absolutely kind you have been to us every visit!  Of course I love being there because of more important reasons such as visiting my family, but I really do adore the city itself!  They have outdoor festivals for being GREEN, now that’s my kind of city!  It is the number one city in the US that placed in being the most GREEN!  The recycling and caring for the Earth type of GREEN!  Just so we’re on the same page here.

On our second day there we woke up early and started the day off by visiting my 94-year-old Granny.  She was such a trooper.  We took a few pictures with her (for much-needed memory), looked through a ton of albums with her, and listened to her childhood, youth, and young marriage memories.  She remembers everything so well!  Every face in the album she named by name and last name.  Her stories made us laugh, think, and cry!  But that’s for another blog post. ;)

So after spending half the day with Granny and wearing her out, we left as and let her rest.  The next stop on our to-do list for the day was going to a local park.  I remembered about Botanical Gardens, a park that we visited a few years ago with my sisters.  Vitaliy has never been there so the experience was much more enjoyable.  We walked around the beautiful park for around two hours not being able to resist taking a few pictures of each other!  That’s what happens when we both take a day off with our cameras.  We definitely needed a day off just to ourselves, and we had a great time.  We hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed taking them for you! ;)

The gift shop in the park had this amazing texture that I fell head over heals in love with!

How could I resist?

The trees have began to bloom.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

Friends are like flowers…  Not sure how.

Remember those days when carving your names in a tree was cool?

Tiny flowers are the best ;)

My overly-handsom hubby! :)

Can’t you feel the love?

Liked the color combination…

Found this to be the funniest name…  The Virginia Creeper in North Carolina… How ironic.

Subie would not have liked that!

The tree that Jesus’s thorn crown was made of…  The picture shows only the freshly sprouted thorns, but as they grow they harden and become as sharp as needles.

I absolutely LOVE this next one!

I forget what was so funny but I’m sure it was hysterical by the way I was laughing.

Blue and brown go extremely well together don’t you think?

Happy Monday Everyone!

Travel : A six hour road trip to the beloved Asheville

I always enjoy going over to our neighboring state NC to visit the family!  But on weekends such as this one I wished the trip could wait due to so much going on here.  But once planned, you should carry it out!

I meant to blog these cell phone pictures yesterday after we arrived, but we only had time left to converse with the cousins.  And I wouldn’t trade that for anything!  Family is always first!   Then today I realized since I do iPhone Friday, and these pictures are off of the iPhone, and today is Friday, it’ll fit the blog post better if I post them today! ;) So enjoy the road trip snapshots and have an amazing weekend!

Subie did NOT want us to go.  She was whining and crying her little eyes out.  Oh by the way, have I mentioned she got her fur chopped off?

The Sun that afternoon when we left. ;)

I started out the road trip by driving…  Vitaliy kept on tuning =/

Our first rest area ;)

The strange statue at the rest area…

Relaxing!

Yep!  It’s nice that VA finally changed their speed limit from 65 to 70!

My iPhone GPS showing the trip we need to make…  The green symbolizing our starting point and the red the finishing point.  The blue is our WRX. ;)

The rest area that we stopped by to switch places one last time had this cute sitting picnic area ;)

Yes!  We still love to hold hands!

A book that should have been finished a long time ago was finally finished on this road trip!  Amazing book, if you ever get the chance find it and read it!

As you can tell I’m absolutely obsessed with the Sun!

One of the chapters! So informational!

And that’s how our road trip went!

Have a great weekend guys!