Christmas will happen even in the middle of construction chaos....

I am determined to create a Christmas card out of our home even if we are missing an entire 2 rooms in our house currently and everything is covered in drywall dust.  

Pete was wonderful in helping me put up our outside lights 4 times.. YES 4 times!!  They had to be just 'right'..a touch of color, a touch of white lights, not too much..but just enough pizzazz.  What a wonderfully patient husband I have.  The end result... MARrrrVElous, if I may say so myself (again.. minus all of the construction going on inside and out).    :-)

Our  Christmas deer that I am enthralled with this year and so it turns out, so are our neighbors.  We have gotten lots of compliments and one threatened deernap.  

"YES Virginia there is a Santa Claus..."

While I wrapped.. Pete cooked dinner on an old grill we found in our backyard.  Don't worry we used pots and aluminum foil.. we just needed the heat since.. Yep you guessed it.. no kitchen.

All ready for Christmas!! 

Oh..and right.. the turkeys.. gotta love the turkeys (in our yard as I was posting this). 
 

Work work work

Our new house was completely covered in ivy and overgrown bushes that had to GO.  You could barely see out of the front windows so first things first.. 'they have to go'

Pete working hard, "Overgrown bushes be gone..."

And...after a lot of work, cuts, scrapes and thorns they were gone...

The neighborhood turkeys seem to love our yard, they come around for a visit every few days.  Pete and I are still astonished at how 'tame' they are.  

You never know what you have until it's gone........

Our old kitchen, very small and very outdated, complete w/a door to the back patio that you couldn't open at the same time that you opened the fridge:

Our now completely gutted kitchen.   The old kitchen door mentioned above has been taken out and covered to make more room on the back wall: 

Below is the wall and built in bookshelves that used to be in our living room.  We have now had this wall completely removed and in it's place will be an island creating a very open living space.

 The windows in the dining area (to the left and back from the bookshelves) will be removed and french doors w/side lights will go in it's place creating a wall of windows and lots of light.  This will open out to our back yard patio. 

What we see now in our living room, a wall of plastic...This 'zip wall'  complete w/a huge zipper to enter/exit out of , is to keep the dust and debris out of our living room, it works well.  At night the animals who can't help but be super curious go crashing through it.  Greta has this SuperMan move that she does w/her legs fully extended out behind her as she dives through and kicks her feet hitting the plastic.  The only thing we can figure is that she likes the noise it makes.  Go figure....

A day high up on Max Patch.

While Stephen was visiting Asheville we went on a hike up to Max Patch to fly kites and take in the beautiful mountain scenery. 

The guys getting ready to fly kites.

Overlooking the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. 

Jen flying the small box kite. 

Stephen flying his kite we brought him back from OR. 

Silly times. 

Flying the large stunt kite and playing frisbee. 

Summer Outdoor Retailers Market - Utah

The Summer Outdoor Retailers Market takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah twice a year and is a very busy time for everyone who works in the Outdoor Industry.  This is the largest show that retailers come to when they want to see the latest, greatest outdoor products to purchase for their stores.  Pete is extremely busy during this time of  the year getting ENO ready for this big show.  Alas, it  is always worth the stress and ENO was once again a big hit with the new products this year.

Pete getting the ENO booth ready for the big show. 

Jen sitting in an ENO  hammock in the ENO booth during the show, checking emails.  

Pete giving a new product a test run during the show inside the ENO booth.

During the end of show days the guitars and drums come out for some down time before we all head out to dinner with clients or our hotel rooms until the next day. 

Protect our Arctic Refuge

Part 2 of Jen's Fl trip...the Beach

After Aunt Kathy and Alana left, Stephen, Mom and myself left for Cape San Blas.  This is my mom's favorite beach b/c of it's complete natural state (well for the most part).  Cape San Blas is located in a state park which encompasses much of a Peninsula off of the Panhandle.  I can definitely see why this is her favorite.. it is BEAUTIFUL!!!  Crystal clear, aqua water, white sandy beaches and no crowds.  Paradise quite possibly. 

We stayed in Apalachicola for the night at the River Inn located, well right on a river which went out to the Gulf.  

 

Out for dinner..

Our view from our front balcony and our friends who greeted us as we awoke for our 'beach day'.  

Woohooo.. the beach!! It was a beautiful day!  

Part 1 of Jen's FL trip.. Dixon girl's family get together

I drove back down to Florida w/my Mom for an all girls family reunion at her place on the Suwannee River.   We kayaked down the Withlacoochee River, sat in the hot tub out on my Mom's deck and drank wine, played games and had lots of girl talk.

My mom's sweet Nelson..

Since some of the family couldn't come, the reunion was a lot smaller then it was originally supposed to be so Stephen hung out w/us for some of the fun times.

In this family we LOVE playing games...and it gets very competitive...

 

Nolichucky River Rafting

My mom came up to Asheville for a little visit.  Loving paddling like she does, we came up w/the plan to take her out on one of our rivers.  I wanted to show her how we do it up here, rapids and all.  The Nolichucky w/it's deep gorge like setting in the midst of the beautiful Apalachian mountains seemed like the perfect fit.   Since she has never done anything like this before and being a river w/class II-V rapids (large rapids) we felt like a professionally guided trip would be the best thing to do.  We decided to do an all day trip, 6hours w/ a short stop in the middle for a lunch break on the beach.  It rained for most of the day but that just made the trip feel more 'real'...more of an adventure.   I almost tumbled out a few times, Pete saved a guy from falling out and Mom was tossed around a good bit, but hey.. just a normal day out on the rapids.  Good times were had by all!! 

Our beach lunch break...and our river guide sitting next to Mom..