charlesbreland.com

lillis absolutely loves to get out of the city and into the mountains. she has a particular affinity for dahlonega. it’s probably where she will go for her next wedding to a taller, more handsome guy. her father is a big fan of getting out of doors as well, and they both love fall leaves. so, whenever he comes to town, they like to try and get up to blue ridge or dahlonega. the fact that lillis was 8 months pregnant was not going to stop her. so we set off for a short hike.

here bear is doing some major league sniffing against a beautiful backdrop

here’s lillis, looking ever so pregnant just 6 weeks shy of her due date.

and here bear and i stop for a minute so mommy can shoot a picture

this was the view from the overlook. no brilliant fall color (odd since we were a week into october) but still beautiful

afterwards we came back home for a lovely dinner. we chose not to go for formal dress. you can see that lillis can’t get quite as close to the table as she used to : )

realized i never got around to posting anything from the penn state game, so here goes…..

so, jason and brian headed up to tuscaloosa where they met up with kent and patrick (owner of the bama cruiser). they headed up to dc (which i flew into) and picked up me, jeremy, and my buddy jeff there. we then headed northward and into big 10 country.

the floodwaters were high in PA as we came cruising in. here, their random statue of liberty in the middle of a river is almost swamped by the muddy, brown water.

a key feature of the rv is the ability to have a good time while you’re travelling. for us, that involved a 4-some at Augusta National.

when we rolled into state college, beaver stadium welcomed us like a friend. like a friend who was going to be so nice as to let us have free reign of their house. : )

i think we managed to work bacon into every meal. this is me grilling some breakfast

WOW. i totally forgot about that 78/79 sugar bowl game. i really thought penn state had won that one.

prior to the game kent already had his game face on. this is a look that says, i’m gonna appear on the tv broadcast tonight.

here we are just prior to heading in. the tide is ready to roll

the penn state band lines up in significantly more elaborate formations than does their offense.

here we are with the game firmly in hand. jeff had been intrigued by the number of digits on the nittany lion’s hands. apparently different lion schools have different numbers of “pads” on their paws. anyway, every time we heard the lion “roar” we gave the 5 clawed lion salute. abc appreciated it.

jeremy and me after the games’s end

kent and our gracious captain of the ss bama. the baddest rv in the land. drive safely fans!

we shot out to breckenridge for a quick weekend trip with lil’s family. 2.5 days was kind of short, but we got to do lots of fun stuff, and Lil finally got to see the little nephew (Graeme) who she had been dying to see (and Facebook stalking) for 6 months.

Jonathon had been a rafting guide with Noah’s Ark out there, and took us out on his river. It was a blast, although the water was freezing. I learned that lesson pretty well about 2 seconds after this picture. : )

lots of pretty flowers outside our house. the house was just above the topmost lodge on the mountain there. there were beautiful views all around. bright sun, lots of flowers, but snowcapped mountains standing behind. just gorgeous.

here is lil with graeme (in his chariot) and nola. we were out for a morning walk

one of the aforementioned gorgeous views.

and another. this is the house that was next door to us (at sunset)

graeme and i are both very handsome, we both have awesome shades, and both of our favorite parts about biking Vail Pass was that we started at the top and so i think i pedalled about 12 times during the 13 mile bike ride.

here are lil and i right before we set out

and here’s the whole group a few miles in.

ok, some pictures of the subject of lil’s adoration.

this was his first time having solid foods. he did not find it to be a pleasant experience

luckily, with nola’s help, they found an easy method of cleaning him : )

here are lil and her dad

and here are my two girls after a short hike to a waterfall

this is lil’s whole family just before we pulled out of breck

and one of me and the princess.

having only been to breck in the winter before, i was very impressed with summer there. just gorgeous, and the town is really neat and has so much going on. it wouldn’t be a bad place to spend a month : ) there’s a bunch more pics here if you care. thanks!