my new friend heathcliff....and other new friends

for the last little while i've been praying for snow (in my heart...if i were to actually pray for it out loud, i think i might get shanked).  columbus finally has some snow in the forecast--for saturday.  we'll be in washington on saturday.  where it's going to be like 57 degrees.  i know, that probably sounds great to most people, but you can't ski if there's no snow.  plus santa's sleigh can't land on the roof if there's no snow.  

but, we got to drive to the snow for thanksgiving!  we took a little road trip to virginia to visit the foxley family, brennan's cousins.  the foxleys live in a little town just outside of DC called rixeyville, va.  they didn't have goats, but they did have chickens and cats and two australian shepherd/border collie puppies.  i had a crush on this kid in high school who had an australian shepherd and after i met his dog i decided that was my favorite dog (not just cause i had a crush on the boy, cause those dogs are dang cute), so i was more than excited about these puppies.  anyway, the foxleys are such awesome people and made us feel so welcome and at home.  it was a full house with derek and misty, 5 of their kids, 2 spouses, 3 grandkids, plus the two of us.  it was noisy and crazy and i loved it.  it was almost like being in utah with the wall clan (they haven't reached our level of loud yet.  i don't know that that's actually possible).  we had a blast getting to know them.  they took us on a little hike in the appalachians  - which in all honesty we weren't totally prepared for...we didn't know there was going to be snow, but i was more than thrilled.  everything was white and frozen and beautiful.   

see what i mean?  breathtaking.

we fit in the hollow of a tree.  i felt like mother earth made this home just for me.

on our way home we saw a bear off the side of the road and the sky was on fire.

that persian on the right is my new best friend heathcliff.
oh man, i fell in love with that cat and almost convinced brennan to let me take him home.
 he doesn't like to be held, but he loves to be petted and he has the most adorable squishy face.  man, i really need a pet.

we also got to spend saturday exploring the nations capitol.  and ate at cafe rio.  #seriouslysoblessed.

the washington monument is very photogenic. so is the sky.  in the bottom right, they're both the same picture.  now you see it, now you don't! the top left is the smithsonian castle.  brennan wants to live in a castle style house.  that's not my style, but if it can look like the smithsonian one, i'll take it.

one of the highlights of d.c. was the panda bears at the zoo.  we didn't actually go to the zoo, we just wandered into this random exhibit in the smithsonian castle and they had a live panda cam.  we got to watch the pandas eat dinner for like ten minutes.  

yes, this year was probably my favorite thanksgiving to date.