Kitchen Remodeling, Land of Waterfalls, and a visit to Katies

While I was away visiting my sister, Clay began putting our new kitchen vision into place. Although we are a little shaky on what that vision exactly is. We did decide eliminating part of the wall between the kitchen and dining room would make the space feel less cramped. I hate that Clay is working around so much stuff randomly floating between the two rooms. I plan to box up as much as possible, but our storage space in any other room is limited. Clay has to be able to access the upstairs and unfinished basement in order to redo some wiring, so piling up boxes in those spaces wouldn't be helpful. Our plan for the area in the above picture is to put in a pantry, then slide the refrigerator over next to it. So we will not be leaving the brick exposed, storage space trumps the more aesthetic idea!
The view from the kitchen into the dinning room. We hope to do a drop-leaf table in front of the window and an island/table with stools near the new big opening.
The view from the dinning room into the kitchen. We plan to keep the cabinets, but sand and paint them.
Our first baby bump picture taken at DuPont State Forest in Transylvania County, NC. This area is known as the Land of Waterfalls. Above and below is Triple Falls. We also hiked to Hooker Falls, which had an incredible swimming hole that we spent some time cooling off in.

This was a spur of the moment overnight trip. We were suppose to visit my friend Erin in Sewickley, PA. over the weekend, but had to cancel the trip. Clay had worked so hard all week and I didn't think either one of us needed to stay in the house and be overwhelmed with all the remodeling. Our favorite quick get away has been Asheville, NC. We stopped at the visitor center on the NC border to look for hotel discounts and discovered that there would be zero openings due to Bele Chere. I'm sure it is a fabulous festival but I didn't feel the need to walk the streets in mid 90 degree weather with 300,000 tourists. So we decided to go further south to Brevard, NC. We ran into the same problem there because of their summer music festivals. We finally found a reasonably priced hotel in Hendersonville, east of Brevard. We weren't disappointed, the town was full of great eateries, live music in the street, and great window shopping. We loved the surrounding mountains and landscape. It all added up to the perfect getaway.
Below are just a few pictures from my trip to Indiana to visit my sister Katie and her family. I traveled with my mom and my other sister Jennifer, plus her two children. Daniel loved the backyard pool. I can't get over how tall this rising second grader is!
Hannah and Rick Booth, with Rachel Brotherton. Hannah is very active in her local theatrical happenings. We all went to see her in the play, The King and I. I didn't get any pictures of her in her fancy, shiny costume. She was one of the many wives of the king of Siam. It is hard to see in this picture, but she dyed her normally very blond hair for the show.
Below is Molly, the Booth's family pet. She is super friendly and just loved having company to chase around the pool and take her on nightly walks in the neighborhood.