Southern Pines Top 10

Despite the fact that I haven't blogged for over a month, we are alive and well! We miss all of our wonderful NC friends so much! Please email me for our new contact info: Marisagrimmius@yahoo.com. It has been a very busy month for us. We moved across country, traveled to Oregon for a vacation with Shan's family, and once we got back to our new house, we had my sister and her four children with us for a week. It has been a great time for the kids, but we are still trying to get things organized and settled. I've decided that I'm waning on the moving thing. 11 times in 11 years is a little excessive, don't you think? I have so many (like hundreds) of pictures from our adventures that I am overwhelmed in trying to blog them. So I decided I will do first things first....

Our top ten things we already miss about SP.

The things we will never forget:

1. Real Rainstorms. The kind that drench you if you are running from the driveway into the house. The lightning bolts that light up the entire sky and the kind of booming thunder that shakes the house.

It is this kind of storm that makes #2 possible:

2. Trees, glorious trees. We counted over 60 trees in our yard and most of them were huge. Emma became a little climber and developed a particular fondness of the Crepe Myrtle tree in front. (A little FYI: We now have one little miserly tree in front and it can't even hold Emma's tiny weight.)

3. Downtown Southern Pines. I could have included 50 pictures of all the cool places to shop. Antiques, book stores, and baby boutiques all mixed in together. I really love how downtown Southern Pines brings people together... families and friends browsing, biking, and sitting. The train station was darling and the regular trains that would blow on through were always an exciting thing to watch.
4. The Ice Cream Parlor. This one is also downtown, but we loved the ice cream so much, we had to give it a number all it's own. We stopped here after soccer games and school programs and simply for fun on Saturday afternoons. Once, Emma and Madeline had their picture taken for the newspaper while eating ice cream on a bench outside the parlor. 5. Equestrian beauty. The horses, and well kept white-fenced fields are so charming. We will especially miss the Christmas carriage parade with horses and carriages decked out with poinsettias, bells, and furs. Gorgeous.

6. Wildlife. This was Emma's favorite thing, for sure. We had cardinals, and blue jays, and robins and finches. We had way too many squirrels! We had a constant barrage of bunnies and deer who loved my garden. We saw turtles laying eggs in the neighbors grass, snakes, wolves, and even a mischevious fox. The kids loved to catch fireflies and it was so magical to sit outside after dusk and watch them light up like thousands of twinking lights suspended in mid-air. Add to that three kids fresh out of a bath and in their pajamas, hopping around trying to catch them... they looked just like garden fairies.

We also had constant entertainment from the little chameleon lizards that lived in our window boxes and on the sides of the house. The day we loaded up the Penske, the door was open almost all day and one must have slipped inside because the next day, we went back to get the last of the refrigerator items, and found one all alone on the hardwood floor. Emma caught it and let the poor thing go "back to his family."

7. Our lake and our neighborhood. We had such good times on the fishing boat, and even caught a few fish. We kayaked on it a few times, and had a neighborhood bbq there once, but mostly, we just walked down to it for evening walks, to throw rocks and see the geese.

Our neighborhood was quiet and peaceful and made me happy everytime I turned into our street. I miss my walks and waving to my sweet neighbors. We miss you Ms. Mary and Mr. Jere and Ms. Lin and her golden retrievers.8. Southern Pines Park. Our favorite place to play and socialize after school and during summer months. 9. Golf. It is Shan's favorite thing in the world and it does make for beautiful scenery. I think Moore County has almost 60 golf courses. And a lot of old people to go with it. Maybe we'll be those people in 30 years...

Pinehurst No. 2

10. People. I saved the best for last. The people we loved in NC are a part of our lives forever. There are so many that I can hardly count them all, and I certainly don't have pictures of everyone, but I think you know who you are. We love you.Jenn Cain and I.

Ft. Bragg women- as tough as they get.

Pinehurst ladies at a Time-Out for Women.