A Snapshot (or 25)

Last week we had the most fantastic and wonderful and excellent surprise ever. EVER.

Well, maybe not EVER EVER....

I mean it wasn't that laundry now washes and dries and puts itself away. 

But it was pretty close.

My sister-in-law and 2 nieces came up to visit!!  Yep, the sister-in-law that was part of the team that saved my life back in 2010. She's pretty great.

And what is even more great is that she has 2 lovely little girls the same ages as Bitty Bean and Boy Bean!

We had some serious fun.

We played with My Little Ponies......

Poor Boy Bean.

He is the only boy on this side of the family.....
I'm hoping he'll just be able to communicate with women really, really well; but he might end up needing lots of therapy.

We encouraged the arts....

the "Arts" being piano playing - not topless dancing.

We had silly face breakfast time.....

And we went HIKING!!!

The Littlest pair walked as long as they could....

and then Boy Bean took a nice long nap in the stroller.  That boy can sleep anywhere!

The bigger-little-people had a blast exploring....

resting....

and sharing secrets.

We ran across (I.e. almost stepped on) a lovely poisonous snake!

Jumping Bean even got a turn in the back pack, as usual, she brought her own style to the ride.

I took pictures of my String Bean....but they all turned out blurry.

Her exciting moment in the hike was walking into an occupied spider web. She looked down and said "Hey Daddy! Check out the cool red shape on the spider's bum!"

Seriously.

Turned out it actually was a Black widow.

We roll with danger everywhere.....copperheads, black widows, and emotional meltdowns are just part of a normal day.

Keepin' it interesting,

~Whitney

Copyright 2011

Cabinning at Crabtree falls

Over the weekend of July 4th we took a family vacation to the Cabins at Crabtree Falls  between Charlottesville, and Lynchburg, Virginia - pretty much smack dab in the middle of wilderness.  We called what we did "cabinning" because although it was in the woods - we did have indoor plumbing, so we didn't think it right to call it camping.  
For this family with 3 city dwelling girls, it was as rustic as we'll be able to handle for a while!  (We stayed in Annie's Cabin and it was perfect!)  Our activities planned included swimming in the river, hiking to the top of Crabtree falls, roasting marshmallows, exploring, and just being together. 
 We did indeed hike most of the trail to the top of the falls - we made it 1.1 miles out of the 1.7. Canaan hiked almost the entire way!!!  Jonathan carried Lena in a backpack, I carried Taylor in a backpack (both were made for carrying children!), and Canaan carried lunch in a backpack.  She was such a trooper.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful...we took pictures - but they seem to have been eaten by the computer.
 However, the highlight of the hike for the girls (and I mean Canaan and Lena) was when they had to go to the bathroom.  They thoroughly enjoyed learning how to "go in the woods" and I think they determined to hold it until they could go outside the rest of the weekend!  They are now educated on the finer points of where to put your feet and how to go off the trail.
More on the rest of the experience later....It was full of excellent stories!

Copyright 2010