on finding inspiration

So far, I am finding my new locale a bit, ummmm, uninspiring. Denver is a really cool place to live and I knew I was spoiled having everything close by, but I'm little homesick for the awesomeness of Denver right now. Although there are cool things to do here, the phrase "it's only an hour or two away" is getting a bit old. I can't drive over an hour to everything. Ya know? Even just Target is five times farther from home than I'm used to, ha!

So Casey the other day said to me, "Well, babe, you just gotta find inspiration in the everyday." He totally said it with purposeful cheeseyness, but I decided he was right. He's so wise ;)

So today I just grabbed my camera and went looking. These are some things that are beautiful to me right now. Some inside our home...

 And then I went outside and found Layla (who just started riding with no training wheels yesterday)!

 This little tree is in our front yard. It's fun to watch the trees change a little each day.

 And this is up the hill in our back yard! It really is beautiful when you narrow in and don't just take in the whole wall of trees ;)

I am feeling better about things now, so you see? It worked ;)  

We do love how many neighborhood kids there are to play with here. It's so different from what we're used to, but it's awesome. Living on post, there are no fences and no crazy drivers and little parks on every street so the kids all just play and play and the moms just send each others' kids home at 6. Quite a lovely little system we have going here. 

Some other things we've noticed about Virginia: 

• They really love the Redskins. We seriously do not get why everyone here loves a team from the furthest away state possible. They even have a whole isle at Target where they sell Redskins stuff. What??? EDIT: I am now aware that the Redskins are from D.C., which obviously makes a lot more sense, ha! In my defense, it was Casey who was sure they were from Washington state and being the dude, he should know football better than me. (Wait, the Redskins do play football, right??) 
• Retail and Food service workers are generally much friendlier! In Denver, they're faster ... but here, they're nicer. 
• They think 80 degrees is a nice cool Fall day. Haha! 
• There is nothing like moving to the South to remind someone from Colorado (proudly the fittest state in the nation) that not everyone knows what gluten is. And not everyone will get that a bunless burger is not that weird. 

I'm happy to say, having a blog sort of forces me to look at things differently--if it weren't for my wanting to post something here almost daily, I think I'd not even bother looking for the beauty around me when I'm feeling isolated and uninspired. So thanks! :)