And Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm sure it's obvious - I'm stressed. I wish I were as jolly as a jar of Lebedik Lollies. But my nails are nubbins. That hasn't happened for years.

Last week included 3 family portrait sessions, a headshot session with an opera singer from Boston, and shooting an Upsherin ceremony - today I completed one major exam for school, tomorrow we travel to Ohio for an epic family Thanksgiving, next week brother and sister come to camp out in our living room while I work on a Descartes term paper, all while continuing normal work hours and a regular school load don't even get me started about all those handmade Christmas presents I was going to make. I know better than to complain - almost everything in my life is there because of my choosing but have I mentioned before I'm a complainer by nature? So complain I do. And Zeb just makes me tacos and cleans the bathroom and I'll shut up now and eat tacos and maybe be back next week to complain some more.

So overdue there's no point in even apologizing, here are some pics from our trip to the Appalachian Mountains a while ago.

Most of you have seen these on Facebook already, but Dad never remembers to check Facebook, so here you go Dad!

Bev and Randy graciously invited us to crash their family getaway, and since the boy and I have been trying to do a cabin in the mountains type trip ever since we moved here were were thrilled to get a chance to tag along.

The cabin was right off the Blue Ridge Parkway, not another house in sight, and was infested with ladybugs. Of all the bugs to be infested with we figured ladybugs were pretty darn charming.

The food and drink were incredible. We had steak, seafood linguine, gourmet cheeses with salami and olives, wine that cost more than our usual $7/bottle, and huge cowboy breakfasts including Irish Coffee with Jameson's.

Bev and Axon make quite a team in the kitchen. And in general.

We hiked the Appalachian Trail. Since some of you (ahem, Mr. and Mrs. London-Gray) have hiked the whole AT I'm not going specify the exact distance we hiked, but let's just say it was enough to tick it off my list of life goals.

These beauties had me dreaming, again, of joining our local mycological association. What say you, Ax? This spring?

See, it wasn't just a random path in the woods. It was the AT for real.

I took a lot of pictures of him. Because he melts me with that look.

Fall is his color.

The view from my seat on the porch.

I took a lot of pictures of him too. Because all of a sudden he became comfortable with a camera right in his face and he gave me lots of cute poses.

I find these weeds beautiful. Someday maybe I'll do a series on beautiful weeds.

Next post maybe I'll catch up on the last month and a half. Maybe not.