Jumping to the Present(s)–Carrie’s Baby Shower

Saturday April 23, 2016                                                                              Most Recent Posts:
Reistertown, Maryland                                                                                 I Get to do a Volksmarch
                                                                                                                   Wet to Dry Trail

 

 

 

Those of you who haven’t tired of following me know that I am chronically behind in my blogging.  SO I’ve decided to jump up to the present since I want Carrie’s Baby Shower to be posted in close to real time.   After this I’ll return to finishing up our winter in Florida.

We have returned to Charlottesville to await the birth of our granddaughter just in time to attend a shower that Carrie’s friend Jess is hosting at the home of her in-laws, the Iwanowskis. 

The shower is on Saturday and when we arrive on Friday we can see that the time is growing near for the birth.  Carrie looks great.  We pose for a picture together while we wait for Matthew to get home from work.  Lucky Carrie telecommutes.

Matthew arrives home from work and they take us out for dinner to their favorite Friday night spot where their very favorite waitress, Jen, grants our every wish including fabulous desserts.  Sorry no pictures of that, too busy eating.

  They have been spending Friday nights at Jen’s table for so long that when they ask for the check, she comes back with it and with a baby gift.   Amazing!  Have you ever had a waitress buy you a gift?

Back at the house there have been several gifts arrive from friends who are unable to attend the shower tomorrow.  It’s like Christmas.   First she opens two perfect gifts from a close friend of mine Laurie who has known Carrie for years.  She sends Gentle Giraffe and what we called a Johnny jump up but is now called an exersaucer.  I love the little Giraffe who is so soft and cuddly I want to take him home and have him lull me to sleep with the gentle sounds coming from a speaker you can turn on and off inside him.  The jump up was probably Carrie’s favorite pastime when she was tiny.  Not sure if Laurie knew this or if she’s just a seer which is actually very possible.

  

 

 

Next are Jen’s gifts, really darling clothes for a baby girl.  They turn out to be the only dresses given at the shower although Carrie’s cousin Carmen who has two little girls, sends a bag of baby clothes with her MIL Carrie’s Aunt Robin.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  The shower is tomorrow.

 

This one is just too cute!

 

 

 

On Saturday we arrive at the Iwanowski home to find all the elves that Jessica, Carrie’s friend who orchestrated the shower, has enlisted to help with the set up including one of Matthew’s cousins, another Jen, who is a pastry chef and has brought SEVENTY cupcakes.

I now realize that absolutely every family must have a pastry chef among the relatives. 

 

 

Elves in the background of Joan’s kitchen.  Carrie with her Aunt Carol.

 

Kate and her mother Pam look pretty serious as they approach the delicious platter of fruit.  The food for the brunch is delicious.  I’m sorry I didn’t take other pictures of it.  I guess I was too busy putting food on my plate to think of getting any pictures.

 

 

 

I finally remember to stop eating and take a picture of the table of people around me.  Carrie’s Aunt Carol, Carrie and her friends.  To Carrie’s left is  Kate a friend since the 4th grade, Jessica whom she met when she moved to Maryland and Eleanor a college friend.   Those of you who follow along regularly might recognize most of these people from the wedding last year.

 

 

 

There are other tables of guests enjoying the food.  From the left is Matthew’s Aunt Nancy,  Matthew’s cousin Jen, the pastry chef,  Iwanowski family friends Karen King, her daughter Blair and her daughter in law Eileen who has a new baby herself.

 

Even more  folks are in various spots all around.  In the back here is Carrie’s fantastic mother in law Joan who has offered up her house and kitchen for this party,  her daughter Diana and one of Carrie and Matthew’s good friends Anna who also has a young baby.

 

 

Jess and Eleanor

 

 

After the delicious brunch, we take up pen and paper to create a bingo game.  Just fill in the squares with things you think Carrie will receive today.  First one to bingo wins a prize.

Kate, Anna and Eleanor are working on their Bingo sheets.  Well sort of.

 

 

Time to head over to the gifts.  The Mommy to Be looks pretty happy about it all.

 

And why wouldn’t she be.  Look at the generosity of her friends and family.

 

When she opens two “loveys” in a row everyone tells her she’ll need to have more than one to keep them from being loved to death.  At this point Matthew’s Aunt Nancy goes upstairs and brings down Matthew’s lovey, a bear she swears he took to college with him. Teddy has had multiple operations to the point where only his head is original.  Everyone is in stitches.

 

 

Carrie reads the card from a surprise gift.

 

She is amazed to find that my wonderful friend Nancy Mills has sent a beautiful crocheted blanket hand made for Celia by Nancy’s 93 year old mother,Elsie Watson, whose picture Nancy included but you unfortunately can’t see very well in this picture of Carrie explaining the story.

 

 

 

The blanket is absolutely beautiful and SO soft.

 

Carrie’s Aunt Robin is carefully checking Carrie’s bingo list for her.

 

 

This mother to be really is  being SHOWERED by her family and friends.

 

And none more so than her wonderful Mother-in-law Joan who watches from just beyond the circle.

 

 

 

My very good friend Pam, also Kate’s mother,  is an expert on children’s books and has given Carrie a box full of books as well as a wonderful fleece blanket that she made for Celia.   This little girl is going to be wrapped in love all the time.

 

 

The Iwanowski and the King families have been friends for a very long time.  It is traditional in August for both families to spend some weeks in Corolla NC at the beach.  Karen King has made sure Celia will have a great little swim suit and sun wrap.  So cute!

 

 

Too soon it’s all over and I’m taking a final round of pictures.

Love this one of Jessica and Carrie.  Jessica is an all star planner.  She planned and carried out the perfect bridal shower for Carrie at the farm last year,  she was her matron of honor and made sure Carrie’s special day went off without a hitch and now she has just pulled off a fabulous baby shower.   Everyone should be lucky enough to have such a talented and giving friend.

 

Two of Carrie’s three best friends from elementary school drove the horrific route from Charlottesville through the rain and 6 accidents on the DC beltway to be here with Carrie today.  Kate is on the left and Allegra on the right.  Only Emma, who is a doctor in Chicago, could not be here.  We missed her.  But these three make great trio!  Carrie is lucky to still have wonderful long term friends in her life.  They are the LSW, the Attorney and the MD.  All they need is a CPA and I think they’d have most possible problems covered.  

It’s a fun note that Allegra is an OB/GYN and Carrie has relied a lot on her for advice and recommendations.  Sure helps to have soneone on the inside.  Allegra came with her mother, my friend Lynne who somehow managed to avoid being in any of my pictures.   How did you do that Lynne?

 

 

 

And here is Matthew, her very best friend who has been entertaining his father-in-law and Carrie’s Uncles all afternoon with some help from his dad and his uncle John.  

It won’t be long until Carrie and Matthew will be a family of three.  May they always be as happy as they are right now.

 

I Get to do a Volksmarch

Sunday April 3, 2016                                                                      Most Recent Posts:
Wekiwa Springs State Park                                                             Wet to Dry Trail
Apopka, Florida                                                                              Early Morning Kayak Up the Rock Spring Run

 

 

As you can see from this map, there are a lot of trails at Wekiwa Springs State Park.  At least two are shared with mountain bikers and/or horses but not the one I’m hiking today.

 

I had never heard of a volksmarch until I read about it on Susan’s blog.  She does a lot of them and they always seem to have interesting things to see or experience whether they are in a natural area or through a town. 

Volksmarch is German for People’s Walk and that’s what they are.  A volksmarch is a non-competitive walk. Volksmarch walks are open to the public to come and enjoy. They are not charity fundraising walks, but walks held for the purpose of getting people out walking.  A great idea. 

There are clubs that sponsor walks and create routes all over the country.  You can find out all about it from the American Volkssport Association.  Just click the link Clubs at the top to find out if there is a club or an outing in your area.

So when I saw that one of the hikes here in Wekiwa Springs was called the Volksmarch, I knew this was my chance to do one.  Pretty sure I’ll have the trail all to myself early on a Sunday morning.

At Wekiwa this hike is 5.3 miles long and blazed orange.  It follows parts of several other trails so it’s best to have a map of the park trails with you when you set out.

Both on the park’s blazes and on this map, the orange has faded a bit as has another trail blazed in red so they are a bit difficult to tell apart.  But the numbers on the map make it easy to see that this trail starts at #1 at the spring, goes through 2-10 and then changes to 29 down to 24 and back to 2 and 1.  A lolipop trail or in this case more like a balloon losing its air.

 

Because I have walked from #1 to #3 several times now going to and from the campground (those little circles at the bottom of the map)  to the springs, I start out at number 3 shortening my walk by about a mile. 

I start out early in the morning.  No one else around.  The beginning of the trail has been burned fairly recently but the grasses are coming back as the trail leads me into the long leaf pine habitat.  Wish my legs were as long as my shadow makes them look

 

 

 

 

 

You really have to get close up to see the beauty in some of the little gems.

 

 

 

When I first start out, I can see a lake in the far distance but as my path wanders, it disappears from sight. I keep looking off to my left to see it but I don’t.  When I’m sure I must be near I start looking for paths off to the left.  I find one that is very faint and take it.  REWARD!

 

 

 

Double reward!  Waterfowl!!   I hide in the bushes which makes it difficult to get good pictures of them.  But I know if I make any sound, they will all be gone in an instant.

 

 

There are a pair of woodstorks but I am not able to get them both in the same picture since I am so far away.  First woodstorks I’ve seen in a long time.

 

 

But the best of the bunch was this pair.  She’s quacking, he’s busy.

 

She keeps quacking, he looks up to see what’s going on.

 

She keeps quacking, he gives her a look.

 

She cuts the quacking down.

She cuts the quacking out.  I guess he told her and back to business he goes.

 

Common morhens, with the candy corn beak, are often seen with american coots.  Check out the foot on the woodstork.  Nice pink.

 

 

A snowy egret flies in and shares the space with the woodstork, no problem.

 

I love the snowy’s golden slippers.

 

Wish I could have gotten a picture of the head of this white ibis directly behind the glossy ibis.

 

I spend a lot of time in my hidden location watching them fish and preen and fly or swim here and there.  I love that everybody gets along really well here.  Snowy egret with common morhen.

 

 

But I haven’t had breakfast yet and I have quite a way to go so reluctantly with a last look at the lake, I return to the trail.

 

Can you see the trail in the above picture or the one below taken as I head back toward the main orange blazed volksmarch trail?

Good thing I’m not doing this hike with a group who would blaze a much more obvious trail here with their many feet. And most likely they’d never want to wait as long as I always want to stay.

Back on the clearly marked orange/white trail I soon come to my first fork.

 

The park has placed a map here.  And luckily too since the one they give you at the ranger station is so small in order to have all the trails on it that you can barely see what trail goes where with all the colors.

 

But their numbering system really helps although based on how the numbers are done, I’d say this was fairly recent.

 

So here I am at 10 and it’s clear from the map that I want to go right to keep following orange although as you can see, you have to look further ahead to be certain that those red triangles which look orange are not actually where you want to go.

 

 

Really not sure how my eyes picked up this fellow on the ground since he blends in totally with his surroundings.

 

This swallowtail was much easier to spot although he too was down near the ground.

 

 

Looks like my friend here also likes blueberries.  I’m too early for them obviously but he’s doing his part to make sure there are berries probably in late May or early June.

 

There’s no map at this intersection but it’s the 4 way I was told by the previous map to expect at marker 30.  At this point the trail markers change to orange and blue.  I left the white main trail behind at the last fork.

 

 

 

 

I stop for a picture of me on this day doing this hike and having a wonderful time.

 

The blue trail heads off in a different direction and orange joins yellow now.

 

Things get a bit narrow in the palmettos.

 

Sometimes really narrow.  I wonder how many people actually do this volksmarch?  It’s a really great trail.

 

 

More beauty to come for those who walk this trail some days from now.

 

 

I’m nearing the campground when I stop for a little communion with a junior long leaf pine tree.

 

 

I’m holding a bundle of its leaves so you can see just how long these needles are even on the juveniles.  The natives and many people still use them for making woven baskets.  If you ever see any, they are beautiful.

 

Back in the campground, just beyond our picnic table I find this fellow I’ve been searching for all day.  He’s a long leave pine habitat mammal, the Sherman’s fox squirrel.  You can tell him easily by his VERY long tail.  Like the pine needles it is longer than your usual squirrel

 

His little face is different too.  What fun to find him in my own back yard after I’ve walked over 5 miles hoping to spot him.