The Grayson Highlands

Grayson Highlands from Brad Herring on Vimeo.

August in the Grayson Highlands of Virginia is about as good as it gets. The cool mountain breezes make it the perfect retreat from the hot dog days of summer in the Carolina lowlands. And to top it all off, the meadows are full of ripe huckleberries and blackberries to fill your bellies. But the berries are not the only thing that attracts us to these majestic highlands.

The meadows of the Grayson Highlands are located around 5,000 ft. elevation and are inhabited by wild ponies that are allowed to run free within the park boundaries. We hiked throughout the highlands for three days in search of these ponies until we finally came across this herd on our last day. They are obviously quite accustomed to hikers along the Appalachian Trail, and once this foal laid eyes on Maya, a friendship was struck. The two played and chased each other until the foal decided to accompany her mom down the trail and out of sight.



We moved on ourselves, imitating the ponies and picking berries until our bellies were full.

My Flowers are Dying

My Flowers are Dying from Brad Herring on Vimeo.
Maya sitting at the table explaining what is happening to the monkey grass flowers she picked for the table's center piece.

Zane-head Groupie

Maya has been waiting for over a year for this night to come, and when it finally did, she could hardly contain herself. It's as if, at the ripe age of 3, she's already become a Zane-head groupie! She has been dancing to the Dan Zanes and Friends DVD, and even playing her own renditions, ever since seeing them over a year ago at the Museum of Art.

The afternoon was incredibly hot and the crowd was full of other young Zane-heads who were ready to begin the dance party! We managed to find a spot front and center on the stage and enjoyed all of our favorite songs, including the one Maya requested most! The look on her face was priceless when they played "Jump Up" and from that point on her afternoon was complete!

Although she was a little too starstruck to pose, we finished the evening taking a few pictures with the band. She's already looking forward to seeing them next year...unless she quits homeschooling and follows them on tour!

Maya admiring Sonia De Los Santos

We're not sure whose hair is crazier??

Colin Brooks, Drummer

Breakfast of Champions

We should have suspected something was wrong with the oatmeal when Maya refused to eat it for breakfast. She usually devours her morning bowl of oats but for some reason today was different. Maybe her eyesight is better than ours?

As we were finishing our last spoonful we began noticing what all of the extra crunches were from. Initially, we thought they were seeds from the blueberries we dumped over our oats, but in fact they were mealworms!

You see, mealworms are what you get when you leave oats in your pantry for an extended period of time. Since we've been on our detox diet we had to replace our morning bowl of oats with a fruit smoothie. Maya doesn't eat that much so our recent bulk purchase of oats has lasted longer than normal. And, as we just found out, leaving oats around for more than a month can only lead to one thing...mealworms for breakfast! At least it helps our protein count for the day!