This is what we love most about Hunting Island:  empty beaches and zero development.  If you live close by and haven’t been, it’s a great beach spot.  It is a campground without any restaurants or high rise condos on the beach.  Just you, your tent, and a lot of open sand.  (Hopefully the sand stays out of the tent, but not likely.)

The campsites themselves (well, most of them) are in the forest by the beach.  The evergreen trees are tall and beautiful.  I loved to wake up and see this out the roof of my tent.

The deers were not afraid of people, to say the least.  Ruby managed to get a kiss from several deer.  We caught this moment on camera.

Oh yeah, camping and beaching it at 8 months pregnant.

Ruby thought the tidal pools were the best part of the beach.  She spent hours swimming in and running through these pools.  Here she is with Kevin, lounging in the pool.

These pictures are the final hour or so of labor.  The midwife arrived about five minutes before Banyan was born and I moved to the tub (actually, it was a kiddie pool…)

Banyan being weighed by the midwives.

He was a little guy– 6 pounds 4 ounces–but long, 21 inches.

Banyan got to get to know his papa while I soaked in the bathtub for a few minutes.

The first moments of squirming around outside of the womb.

I love the sight of diapers drying on the line.  Yep, the baby’s definitely here!

Here is Ruby getting a peacock on her hand.  She was thrilled to have this done and could not wait for Julie to get here to begin.

Ruby’s finished peacock.  After the henna paste was applied, Julie wrapped Ruby’s hand so the henna had time to dye her hand without getting messed up.  Ruby begged to take off the wrap, so she could see the peacock.  She waited not-so-patiently for five whole hours!

Scott’s mandala and ring.  (Scott dislocated his finger at work and now his wedding band doesn’t fit.  So he decided to have one put on in henna as a stand in.)

My finished belly!  Julie is amazing, isn’t she?  It looks so beautiful.  It will be funny to see how it changes as the baby grows.  And especially what it will look like after the baby is born (if the henna lasts that long)!

This pregnancy has been as hard as my last one and we are both looking forward the day when I return to feeling normal.  Hyperemesis gravidarum is not a well known illness (visit www.helpher.org for more information) and it has been hard to navigate nine months of extreme nauseous while trying to take care of another child.  Ruby has been wonderful, as has the support of all of our friends and family.  We would not have made it this far without all of you.  And here we are at the very end.  We’ll keep everyone posted on the birth of the babe as soon as we are able.  In the meantime, here are some photos of the growing belly.

Here’s a few final pictures from our time on Mountain Farm.  Goodness, do we miss it there.

Milking the goats was the best part of my day while working on the farm.  I loved connecting with the “ladies” and getting some darn good milk out of it!  Ruby frequently joined us in the milking room and “helped” us to milk.  The goats made her nervous at first, but she soon learned to enjoy her time in the milking parlor as much as we did.

I love this picture.  It cracks me up.

Ruby and I spent one morning make homemade playdough.  We dyed the dough with beet and carrot juice.  Fun, fun.

We moved away from the farm and into the city in October.  We now live in a great little area of Asheville that puts us within walking distance of the grocery store, local ice cream parlor, local bakery, and the farmer’s market.  Although we miss living rurally, we are enjoying the opportunity to reconnect with friends and the activities going on in the city.

Just down the road from our house is a wonderful state park, Bent Creek.  We spend a lot of time there, hiking and exploring.  There is also a lake that is great for swimming in the summer.

Ruby and Scott have found a common interest in mushroom hunting.  On this particular day, we were searching for turkey tails to make into tea.  Ruby has a great eye for finding turkey tails and quickly filled her pockets with them.

Meaghann, a great friend of our family, works with horses at a rehab center.  She has given Ruby several horseback riding lessons.  Ruby was a little nervous around the horses at first, but after a few visits she was excited to get up on a horse and riding.  This is a picture of Ruby on Rainbow.

Much to my dismay, Ruby has turned into a pink and glitter-loving kind of girl.  Here she is decked out in all her favorite, most girliest gear.  Who did she get this girliness from?

Ruby and her bestest bud, Milla, had a Valentine’s Day cupcake and tea party.  Here they are icing the yummy cupcakes that they made.

]]> http://lanemillsspicerack.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/fallwinter-2009/feed/ 0 Lane-Mills Family DSC_0408 DSC_0415 DSC_0414 DSC_0369 IMG_1041 DSC_0540 DSC_0528 IMG_1049 IMG_1069 IMG_1077 http://lanemillsspicerack.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/big-sur/ http://lanemillsspicerack.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/big-sur/#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 00:51:26 +0000 naturebabyonline http://lanemillsspicerack.wordpress.com/?p=62 ]]> We spent our honeymoon in Big Sur, CA.  It was phenomenal…and hard to leave.  It was great to spend a whole week in such a small area–we really got to explore.  We spent the first few nights at Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn, an old inn with quite a legend behind it.  It was just our style–VERY rustic (no TVs or telephones…a fire to keep us warm…and the electricity was turned off at 10pm and we could use lanterns).  It was great to detach from the world and spend a few nights under massive redwoods.

I mean, doesn’t it look like little woodland gnomes might live here?

The Big Sur coast is truly incredible.  Having gorgeous coast right next to lush, thick woods was a beautiful contrast.

Almost everyday we visited this restaurant, watched the ocean and sky, sipped our favorite drinks, and read good books.

We also spent a day at the Esalen Institute.  (The picture above is not of us, but you get the idea.) We wanted to stay longer but they kicked us out…literally.  There’s no way to easily describe Esalen.  Here’s what their website has to say (www.esalen.org):

Esalen is a non-profit organization that has been devoted to the exploration of human potential since the 1960′s. Historical luminaries like Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Joan Baez, and countless others have gathered here to develop revolutionary ideas, transformative practices, and innovative art forms. Today Esalen is a retreat center where people live and work in a communal setting. Residents and guests participate in an incredible variety of alternative education and personal growth programs in subjects ranging from meditation to massage, yoga, psychology, ecology, spirituality, art, music, and much more.

Esalen Institute, renowned for its healing natural hot springs, has long been recognized as a world leader in alternative and experiential education. Dramatically situated on the Big Sur cliffs over the Pacific Ocean, the sacred beauty of the land—clear air, pulsing sea, garden path and waterfall, steaming mineral water bubbling up from deep within the earth—is itself transformative. Now in its fifth decade, Esalen offers more than 500 public workshops and seminars a year, accenting personal growth and social change, in areas traditionally neglected by mainstream institutions. A non-profit educational foundation, Esalen is also known for its research initiatives, invitational conferences, residential work-study programs, and long-term internships. Part pioneering lab and college for alternative practices, magical restorative retreat, and creative think-tank for the emerging world culture, Esalen is dedicated to exploring work in the humanities and sciences that furthers the full realization of the human potential.

Scott and I both received Esalen massages–by far the best massage I’ve ever had.  It didn’t hurt that we got to soak in the mineral baths for an hour before.  Or that our massages took place in open air, above the crashing waves of the Pacific Coast.   We would both love to go back for a longer stay at some point.

We spent the second half of our honeymoon backpacking in the Big Sur wilderness.  Here’s our honeymoon suite:

We hiked 10 miles down to Sykes Hot Springs.  After quite a long hike, the natural hot springs were a great spot to relax.

Here’s Scott bathing in on of the four tubs that had been made to hold larger amounts of the oh-so-good-and-warm-water.  I think we could have easily spent the entire week here and been happy.

First, the wedding.  We’ve posted a few pics, but here are a few more.  The wedding was beautiful and perfect in every way.  Can you believe that we’ll have been married a year the last day of May?!?

Ruby, our beautiful flower girl, dropping the wildflower petals in front of the alter.  When she realized she dumped them in one pile, she proceeded to put them back in the basket and start over again.

We will give you a brief overview of our time on the farm.  We miss being there already–the goats, the quiet, the farm life.  Here’s how we spent our three months there…

Ruby, of course, loved life as a farm girl.  She frequently helped us with the milking and gathering of eggs.  Her favorite farm chore was bottle-feeding the kids (baby goats, that is).  It was hard to get her to leave the kid barn once we were inside.  The kid she is happily loving on in this picture was the first to be born after we arrived.  We were lucky enough to see the mama goat in labor and the kids shortly after birth.

Our first real day of work on the farm had us gathering hay bales for the farm animals.  The three of us piled into the large Ford truck.  Ruby loved being able to sit in the front seat and begged to ride in the truck almost every day after this.  I drove the truck down the rows of bales and Scott lifted them into the truck.  (I picked the right job.)

Ruby had her 3rd birthday on the farm.  We had a messy party–a swimming pool full of flour and decorate-your-own cookies with icing and sprinkles.  The pool full of flour was a total hit–kids were covered in flour.  Good thing it didn’t rain–we would have had a yard full of bread dough!

Ruby was very excited that she could do yoga in the flour-filled pool.

Chores were both Scott and my favorite time of day.  Whether early in the morning or in the late evening, it was a time of quiet and beauty.  We would milk the goats, feed all the animals, collect eggs, and check on the life on the farm.

The quiet beauty of evening chores.

Ruby rescued a kitten at a park close by.  She and Scott came home from the park with this little ball of fur.  Ruby heard her meowing off in the distance, found her huddled under a tree, and annouced to Scott that she was supposed to take care of her.  How could we say no?  (I know, we’re softies.)  Ruby soon after named her “Mopa.”  The next day she said, “She has a last name too, you know.  It’s ‘Katari.’”  So we are happy to introduce Mopa Kitari.

We were married here at our new home in Celo, NC.  We kept the ceremony small with just our parents, brothers, and Ruby (of course!).  It was a beautiful ceremony.  Our close friend, Cat Matlock, was our officiant/reverend.  We were surrounded by the well-wishes of our friends through the beautiful flags that you see behind us.  Thanks everyone!

Ruby was our flower girl.  She loved getting dressed up and sprinkling flowers in front of the alter.  She had lots of practice before our wedding, being a flower girl in Kyle and Melissa’s wedding as well as Suzannah and Isaac’s wedding.  My mom made her the beautiful dress she is wearing.

Here we are, our first picture as married folks.  Notice the bare feet…yes, we were married in barefoot style.