Bagging Peaks

I'm mostly recovered from our most recent adventure. Mostly.

We went peak bagging last Saturday. We hiked to the highest peak East of the Mississippi. Mt. Mitchell is in North Carolina and raises to a towering height of 6,684 feet.

I'll pause for a moment while all you people out West have a pompous chuckle.

Then I'll tell you that the hike we did was 12 miles round trip and had an elevation gain of 4,000 feet.

I'll also tell you that this is roughly the same distance and elevation as getting to the summit of Mt. Timpanogos (11,749 feet) in Utah.

I'll also tell you that we carried the kids to the top. I carried 35 pounds on my back.
I still have a few bruises from the pack. But it was awesome!!! The kids did great (all this adventure training they are getting is paying off). The weather could not have been more perfect. And it was so incredibly beautiful. The mountain laurels and rhododendrons were blooming and the views were gorgeous. Good times.

We were on the trail at 8 am. This is our "before" shot, when we were able to bend down like that without having our legs cramp up,

The views were so incredible. The weather was so clear, you could see for miles on the summit. Absolutely stunning.

The only problem was this view as well:
Yes, that's a parking lot. After hiking for 6 miles, straight uphill, we were joined at the summit by a bunch of people that drove to the top. And there's this too:
An awesome concrete lookout tower for all those people to get out of their cars and check out the view.

Does the fact that we could have driven to the top of the peak make bagging it less cool?

All I know is my legs are burning just thinking about that climb. Leah better not gain any weight before our next adventure.... :)

Memorial Day Weekend, part 2

Just a few more pictures of our fun weekend....

After our awesome bike ride, we drove south to Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina and cruised the Blue Ridge Parkway. For all you John Denver fans out there (hi Shannon), "Almost heaven, west virginia, blue ridge mountains, shenandoah river...country roads...."
Obviously North Carolina didn't rhyme.

This is us running around at Looking Glass Falls. And for all you climbing bums out there (hi Layne), this is spitting distance from the Looking Glass. It's huge granite.




However, this is the view we had of the Looking Glass (and surroundings) from the Blue Ridge Parkway:

It rained on us a bit and the fog was really thick every time we were at a spot with a big view. At least, I assume that there was a view. We kept saying to each other as we were driving around, "I bet this place is so pretty..." And it was. It's just that we couldn't see more than about 100 feet of it at a time.

And what Memorial Day would be complete without a 'sandwich fixins and carrot sticks' picnic? We drove through Great Smoky Mountain National Park on the way home and pulled out the grub. Check out Leah's cheesy grin. I love it.

So, that pretty much sums up what we did last weekend. And as I type this, we are (well, Keith is) loading bags in the car for another Card family adventure happening this weekend. I'm going to get pummeled from this one. I hope I'll be able to walk after we are done. Details to come....

Virginia Creeper Trail

Planning a trip over Memorial Day is a bit of a drag. All the campgrounds were full that I called and I spent nap time for almost an entire week planning how, when, and where. There was more than one time that I thought staying home was the better idea. I mean, we live on a lake! Staying home for a long weekend won't be bad. You know, we could....mow the lawn, do laundry, go grocery shopping... A change of scenery is always refreshing so we went ahead with the plans and got outta dodge.

Keith was home by noon on Friday so we loaded up the truck and drove. We were thinking how nice it was to be leaving town and not hit a wall of traffic like we always did in Philadelphia. We were able to just hit the road and fly. Our destination was the Virginia Creeper Trail, Damascus, VA.

We had heard about the Virginia Creeper Trail years ago. The guy we bought our tandem from raved about it, but from Philly, it was a 10+ hour drive with no traffic. Not happening back in the day. But now, that drive is more like 2.5. Almost close enough to do it every weekend.

The Creeper Trail is touted as "the most beautiful bike ride in the East." The bike path is a former railroad that winds 34 miles in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Being a rail trail, it's wide and flat and has a gentle grade and no sharp turns. So casual. The greatest part? It's ALL DOWNHILL.

We camped at the top of the trail in Whitetop, VA. The campground was actually a Christmas tree farm on the side of a mountain with some flat spots thrown in there for fun. Awesome. We woke up on Saturday morning, jumped on the bike and rode up the street to the old Whitetop train station. We were the first ones on the trail for the day.

We had planned to ride the full 34 miles and take a shuttle back to the top. But after we did the first 17 miles, we realized we had only pedaled about twice and decided we needed a workout. So instead of going down the remaining 17 miles, we turned around and rode back up. It was a steady grind back up the mountain, especially pulling the kids. But the incline is so slight, we never felt like we were trying to slog up Big Sur. In the end, we saved $30 bucks on the shuttle AND got a workout! Totally worth it.

The weather was perfect...

And the kids were happy....
The trail crosses loads of trestles and bridges. Bennett, of course, loves all things to do with trains so he LOVED all the bridges.


The trail also parallels this beautiful river. The kids liked throwing rocks in the water whenever we stopped.
A Christmas tree farm along the way. There were lots of tree farms. Makes me feel even better about being a FRESH tree buyer every year. Supporting the local farmers!
This caboose marks the halfway point on the trail and it's part of a fun park in the cute little town of Damascus, VA.

Bennett was in heaven with this toy. :)An ice cream mustache before we got back on the bike for the uphill.

Still smiling after a long day in the trailer!! These guys did awesome. Such good travel kids. Although, we feel strongly that they have their free agency in all our adventures. They can either be sad in the trailer, or happy in the trailer. See, it's all about free agency.
I don't know what's going on with Bennett's helmet in that shot. I think it's getting a little small for his noggin.


Fun, fun times. And that was only day one of our Memorial Day weekend! More to come.
We're such party animals. :)

Soccer

It's over!!! I'm not sure I'm meant to be a soccer mom. Our first soccer season was pretty painful. What we won't do for our kids, right? Ok, I'll admit, Bennett LOVED playing soccer. Except, there wasn't a lot of soccer actually being "played".

This pic was taken on his first game day. He was always so pumped up about going to soccer.


This pic was about 1 minute into his first game. You probably can't tell which one he is, but he is totally running after the ball. He's the one in the middle, sort of below the ref in the yellow shirt.
About 15 seconds after that pic was taken, he was running off the field in total frustration. He was crying and had the most hurt look in his eyes. "MOM!! They keep taking the ball away from me!!!" We had to pump him up and send him back into the game a LOT in the first quarter.

Finally, he figured out that "defending" the goal was a lot less frustrating.

He spent the rest of the game jumping over puddles.

He also spend a fair amount of time playing with the net. It didn't register that when he was playing in the net and the ball came to him, it was already a goal. Who cares?

At half time, the ref blew the whistle and set the ball in the center of the field. Then the kids ran off to get some snacks and a little pep talk from the coach. As he was at the sideline, Bennett looked up and realized that the ball was free! No one was there! It was all his!



I'm not quite sure, but I think he might have actually scored a goal there. During half time.
And that was basically how the season went. But he had fun and that was the whole point. He made some new friends and he thought he was the best soccer player EVER. Bennett is such an optimist, you can't really put him down. :)


Who cares about how many games they won (2) or lost (8). The best part about the season? The trophy. He's practically been sleeping with it. I could have bought one a month ago for 3 bucks and saved a whole bunch of Saturdays.

But who can argue with that face? What a champion.

SO. MUCH. FUN.

My brother Layne, his wife Jami, and their 3 kids came out for a visit last week. They DROVE from Utah. With three little kids in the backseat. Just to hang out with us. How lucky am I???

We had a blast and the week went by way too fast. Here's a quick recap of what we did while they were here:

Canoeing and rowing. Jumping off the rock. Laughing. Swimming in the lake. Rock climbing. Eating. Red River Gorge cabin. Putting kids to bed--lots and lots of effort involved. Hiking. Devil's armpit. Rain. Herding 5 kids around. Laughing. Lounging. Barbecuing. Getting pumped. Loving every minute.

Cute Cousins-Bennett and Trenton:

Getting psyched to climb our brains out:

Jami doing the HARDEST job. Kid duty. What a champ.

Keith pulls down hard:

Trenton the hard man. Totally takes after his dad.

Speaking of hard man, here he is. Layne in the skyline on Bare Metal Teen:

Bennett just being cute.

Did someone say cute?

Leah relaxing on the swing. The climb was so overhung, the rope made a nice clean swing for the kids. It was probably went 50 feet from one end to the other. They all loved it! (Don't worry, it was totally safe.)

Torrent Falls. This picture probably doesn't even show half of it. Gorgeous. And the rain all week helped. Our cabin was just downstream a bit.

Thanks for coming to visit Layne and Jami!!! Please come back soon.....

I've got skills.

**Warning--poop mentioned**

Leah just had a disgusting blow-out. You know, where the poop was running down her legs. As I took her upstairs, it also managed to drip down my arm and all over my jeans. SO GROSS.

I put her on her changing pad and after I got her diaper off, I realized I was out of wipes. In an effort to keep the poop from dripping onto everything else, I had Bennett run to the closet and find a new pack of wipes. What a good helper. He opened the wipes and handed me a fresh batch as I was quickly and frantically cleaning up the mess.

As I (gagging) put my mad skills to work, Bennett said, "Mom, you are a good poop cleaner!"

See, I've got skills. Add that to my list. And try not to be too jealous.

Eat Your Hearts Out!

Sorry kids, only Bennett and Leah get to call this rad rock chick "Mom."

Andrea pulls down hard in the Red River Gorge!



Neener Neener!!!!!

Happy mothers day!!!!

Easter

So, obviously, I'm still playing catch-up on my blogging. Easter is old news. The candy is long gone. The trees all have leaves. But the kids still look so cute in these pictures!

Are you kidding me? Do you not just want to pick her up and eat her?? Or at least wash the lunch off her face?



We had some friends over and had an egg hunt around our front yard. These two guys (Bennett and Reed) are the same age and have become such good friends.



Bennett tripped and spewed his eggs all over the ground.

Then it became a free-for-all.
Notice all the missionaries in the background? We had them over for dinner and made them hide all the eggs. You gotta make them earn their keep!