it's been almost two weeks without blogging.  between starting an awesome new job and having a 7 year old computer that doesn't want to work it just hasn't happened.  but the fun continues regardless of the online documentation!

last weekend we headed west to the shenandoah mountains for some car camping and hiking with our friends jenn and mark (and their new fur child, yalla!).  car camping is the best kind of camping because when the bears come, you can get in the car. 

thankfully no bears came to eat us in the night, and there were no rattlesnakes like last time.

 we arrived, had lunch, and went straight off for a lovely hike along a river

 ^^belle can't resist a swim^^

 ^^lots of rain and extreme humidity left the trails damp and mushrooms were growing everywhere. it was almost tropical^^

 after the hike we set up camp and started the fire.  bella is very scared of fires after our house caught fire a couple of years ago.  she won't even be in the kitchen while we're cooking!  so campfires are not her favorite thing.

 ^^me trying to condition bella to associate fire with momma love^^

 ^^my conditioning doesn't work, she just wants to get away... so her dad comforts her :) ^^

 ^^yalla! belle and bella love their new cousin!^^

 ^^their new cousin loves to eat sticks^^

 ^^my favorite picture from the weekend, a visit from a beautiful butterfly^^

we had a relaxing afternoon and a delicious grilled dinner.

^^the campfire made some cool lighting for my cool love^^

the most interesting part of our camping trip was sunday morning when i was woken by the sound of bella leaving the tent.  as i climbed out to get her, wondering how she had opened the zipper, i heard eric ask where belle was.  belle was GONE!!  so at the bright and early hour of 6am, we were yelling for our missing daughter.  then in the distance we heard the faint jingle of her collar and she eventually appeared out of the woods.  she ran directly into our tent, with muddy feet, and proceeded to puke all over eric's new sleeping bag.  and i think it was deer poop.

seems like she had herself a nice little morning stroll before any of the humans got up.  it was terrifying for a few minutes, until she came back and then it was hilarious... and also disgusting.

one great thing about getting up early is getting to see the beautiful morning in the meadow!

a nice part of driving out to the mountains is going through all the little towns along the way.  there are so many cute shops and of course i just continue to buy plants and more plants.  our newest addition is this medley of california succulents.

p.s. happy 3-day-weekend friday!

we spent last weekend in the city celebrating cara (one of my best friends) and anthony's brooklyn wedding.  it felt like we were only in new york for five minutes, but we were still able to see some friends and have a great time.

hello new york!

 we spent the day west of the park with eric's friend john and his girlfriend.  it was a beautiful day and we had just enough time for lunch and some sightseeing before heading to brooklyn.

cara looked so beautiful and the wedding was perfect.  i couldn't stop taking her picture!

 ^^i very much enjoyed the ice sculpture and the light box dancing... and the karaoke!^^

 ^^cara's best friends^^

such a happy celebration, exactly what a wedding should be!

amarillo was on our route from texas to colorado which meant that i got to check something off of my list that's been on it for quite some time: cadillac ranch! oh boy this was exciting. 

cadillac ranch is an art installation in a huge cow pasture right on i-40.  it's made up of a bunch of half-buried cadillacs that are spray-painted in wild colors by visitors.  it's fun and easy to visit and it's just one more thing to love about texas.

well in less than one month's time, eric and i will have been to more places than two people should be.  here's a map of the last 25 days.

monkey mia, perth, auckland, san fran, dallas, denver, chicago, dc, and now nyc!  once we arrived back in dallas it was time to begin our long road trip to complete the road trip circle.  back in march we started in dc and have finally arrived back home.

the drive from texas to colorado looks like this:

 lots of wind turbines and oil rigs...

 and can someone tell me if there's anything classier than take-out olive garden and sharing a corona familiar on a hotel room bed?  it was a highlight.

 yay colorado!

 ^^"mom, did we move to colorado?"^^
the drive from colorado to chicago was pretty much this the entire way:

 luckily we got to stop in chicago to visit our friend lady the beautiful dachshund :)

 back on the road the girls took turns driving.  with eleven states under our belts, we made it home!
neither of us are particularly talented at taking pictures of state welcome signs... we missed indiana, maryland, and virginia, but we tried.

^^night time driving entertainment^^