Big Boy Bennett turns FOUR!!!

Okay, so it was a couple weeks ago. June 30th, actually. But I already gave my excuses for being a lazy blogger so I don't need to go there again.

All I'm saying is HAPPY BIRTHDAY BENNETT!!!! He is stoked out of his mind to be four. It's so funny how a birthday is a totally life changing experience for a kid. So fun.

They day started out with Bennett's choice of breakfast on the traditional red plate. (Oh no! Waffles! I did NOT leave the room this time. Lesson learned.)




The rest of the morning was spent playing on his new slip and slide. SO FUN!!!


Keith took off work early and we went to the water park later. Bennett had a blast going on the big water slides and swimming around in the lazy river. Have I mentioned that Bennett has learned to swim??? Totally. Those lessons have paid off. :)

Then, a birthday party with a few of Bennett's friends. Complete with a pinata, even. Listen, I'm no Martha Stewart party planner. Don't judge, okay?



Then, the cake. Oh the cake. When I showed it to Bennett, he said "Wow, it's an H!"

Admittedly, I need to get some Martha Stewart party skills.



We LOVE this 4 year old kid!

Don't

Don't try to hurry through dinner in order to be somewhere on time.

Don't fix the quickest possible thing and pat yourself on the back for not letting them have cold cereal.

DON'T make waffles to save yourself a few minutes.

DO NOT get ready to go while the kids are eating.

Please, DO NOT leave anyone unattended where syrup is involved.

DON'T. Just don't.

Please trust me.

Hikin'

Another fun thing about Tahoe...hikes.

We went on a couple of really fun, beautiful hikes while we were there. We didn't summit any peaks due to snow conditions but we still had a blast. The kids are really good sports. They love being outside and they do well hanging out in the backpacks--mostly. There is usually at least one meltdown but we can wear them down pretty quick and offer yummy bribes to get back in the pack. It's a pretty good system. At least until Leah gets much heavier or I get waaaaay stronger. :)







And one more thing. Sunset....
I really miss a good Utah sunset. Sunsets around here are usually obscured by the trees. Nothing like a good sunset across the barren wasteland of the salt flats. That view helped ease the pain of the ride back to SLC to catch our flight home.

So, Tahoe anyone? We are already trying to figure out a way to go back soon!

I {heart} Lake Tahoe

I'll just say this...WOW.

Lake Tahoe was such a blast!!! After we left Keith's family party at Flaming Gorge, we drove to Lake Tahoe. We rented a house in Incline Village and were joined by all my family and our gaggle of kids. We totaled 14 adults and 16 kids. Sheesh!!! But we all had bedrooms (except Shannon and Dave, sorry guys--thanks for taking one for the team) so we had plenty of space to be together, and apart. Oh gosh, it was a dreamy 6 days.

Once again, I hardly pulled out the camera. Why, oh why????

The great thing about Lake Tahoe and my family is that there was something for EVERYONE. Bikes, hikes, rocks, beaches, shops, mountains, water....what else could you possibly want???

First off, biking. Mountain biking, road biking, and even an impossibly large amount of paved bike trails for my super hard core mom. Biking was pretty much a daily requirement for everyone. The crazy brothers got pummeled on some nutty trail ride every day. And the sisters got to go out for a few girls rides at night. Pretty much, the sisters rule. It was so much fun to hang out with them and enjoy breaking a sweat without the kids! Those girls are hard. :)

And then there was rock climbing. Oh man, was there ever rock climbing. People, this is the kind of rock climbing that you will dream about for weeks afterwards. WOW. Just wow. I only got to get out for one day with Keith (kids really are an anchor sometimes for things like that--but you know I love their little guts). We climbed in Lover's Leap and did the Corrugated Corner and Surrealistic Pillar. Super SUPER classic climbs. In fact, I rank them in the top three climbs I have ever done. But, funny thing, I can't really remember what other two I would put in the top three. It was just that good.

Nothing like a 4:30 am start to get things rolling. That's Keith Card style for ya. :)


A beautiful crack line. And some crazy exposure. Pulling out onto the arete on the 3rd pitch of the Surrealistic Pillar was crazy. Absolutely nothing but air underneath you. Kinda scary! But fun fun fun.

Amazing. So fun and so gorgeous. My fingers are dying to go back and climb that granite again!

Next up: hikes.

I'm back

Okay, I'm back. I took a long break from blogging. Sometimes typing is such a chore!! It's so much easier to sit at the computer and move my one finger and cruise the internet instead. How lazy. But I have soooo much to blog about. I may even try to do a post a day for a while. Who knows? Sounds like a lot of work. But maybe....just maybe....

I'm going to start my catching up by blogging about our FIRST family vacation last month. We flew to Utah and drove to Flaming Gorge for a couple days with Keith's family. It's the first time his brothers have been together since 2004. His brothers (he's one of 5 boys) are pretty spread out (New Jersey, Alaska, Utah, Kentucky, and parents in Wyoming) so it's tough finding time to get together. It only took about a year of planning but it finally came together.

And stupid me never pulled out the camera.

We have a couple really lame shots of us playing around at Flaming Gorge.




But we really had so much fun! We camped for 3 nights right by the Gorge and we spent a day out on the boats. On another day, we took rafts down the Green River. The weather guessers had been forecasting rain for the whole trip but it ended up being fantastic. Keith and I snuck in a 6 mile trail run--where I got sick in the middle and wanted to puke and die. I gotta remember about that whole altitude thing next time I go out West. Don't do that 24 hours after flying to the mountains.

I wish I had better pics of this fun trip! (Hint to family members that have better pictures....send me some.)

Next up on the blog...Lake Tahoe!!!

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. :)