Memorial Day

We had a low key Memorial Day.  I taught BodyPump in the morning while TJ took Carol and Brena up to hike the Cascades.  They were successful this time - yay!  Then we went over to the Smithfield Plantation on the Virginia Tech Campus.  The kids have been to the plantation multiple times on school trips, but TJ and I have never gone.  Carol wanted to go to so we headed out.  It was a very cool place!  Learned a lot of history of the area I didn't know.  Bristol was a pain in the neck and TJ took her out not long after we had started the tour.  She just couldn't handle it.

 My cute girls!  And this is what Bristol does when you tell her to smile - haha!

One of my BodyPump class members told me this was her last day of BodyPump until September and wanted to get a picture together.  She hardly ever missed a class and she was always right on the front row smiling away at me.  I love teaching group fitness!  I love meeting new people and inspiring them to get fitter!  I will miss you Goral!

This is some yummy Indian chicken Goral brought to me a few weeks ago.  Another reason I love teaching group fitness - people bring me food :)

A hike, dinner and more geocaching

We tried to take Carol to hike the Cascades.  We tried to take her 2 years ago, but it was closed because of rain.  We got up there and there was a HUGE line of cars waiting to get in.  It would have been at least an hour of waiting in the car before we could park and go hike.  We decided to try it another time.  We went over to another smaller hiking place and did some geocaching.  We tried to get Bristol to stay in the backpack, but she was having none of it!  She wants to walk because she's a big girl!

 Waiting for the big kids and daddy to find the geocache in the woods.

After that hike and geocache, Carol wanted to take us to dinner.  We drove out to Floyd and went to Mickey G's, a great little Italian place.  We saw there were some more geocaches in the area and had to find some more!  This was the strangest one we have ever found.  It was a pill bottle attached to a (fake) bone!  Very cool :)

Fayettville, WV - coolest small town

Wow, it is NICE having TJ done with school!  We have been taking a few little day trips and today we decided to go to Fayettville, WV.  It was about an hour and 45 minute drive from our house.  I finished teaching pump, showered and we headed out.  It was hot!  We got to Fayettville and went over the New River Gorge bridge, heading for the National Park Service Welcome Center.  We saw a little bit of the museum, some amazing views and a little video on the area and the bridge.  The bridge is the longest steel arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere.  We couldn't really see the bridge as we drove over it and I wondered how we would be able to see it.  We talked to the park ranger at the center and she gave us some directions to a hike that would give us the best views.  We were a little worried with having a 2 year old and no back pack for her that this hike would be a disaster.  It was 1 1/2 miles in and 1 1/2 miles back - so 3 miles round trip....with a 2 year old...











(Pictures taken from the National Park Service welcome center of the New River, but you can't see the bridge from here.)




















We decided why not?!  We set out and luckily the trail was covered by lots of trees, so that really helped keeping it a little cooler.  Tyler and Brenalee did great and had a good time.  Bristol surprisingly did really well!  The only problem was she was slow!  She had to stop and pick up EVERYTHING.  All the rocks, caterpillars, leaves, etc....it took forever.  She wanted to walk the entire way.  Tj would pick her up every once in a while so we could cover some ground.

 The kids kept picking up all the caterpillars.

Bristol was funny with hers, I think it tickled her a little bit and she would shake it off, but she really wanted it on her arm.  Then it pooped on her and she will tell you all about the caterpillar pooping on her arm!

 This is what Bristol spent most the hike doing...squatting and picking things up - or digging in the dirt.

 The views at the end were awesome!  The park ranger warned us that there was no guard rails or anything at the end of the hike and to be careful, that was a little scary - it was a pretty good drop!

This picture and location also got us another geocache find!

 Just taking a quick break.

After the hike we went to the famous Pies & Pints for some famous pizza.  We were famished!  

On the drive home, none of the kids could keep their eyes open!  Awesome day trip - ready for another! 

Safari Zoo

Today we decided to go to the Safari Zoo for our day trip.  I finished teaching BodyPump, showered, and we were off.  It was about a 90 minute drive.  It was a perfect day with the sun shining and temperatures in the mid 70's.  We all got a free bucket of feed for being military, which was very nice.  There were two separate areas, the drive through zoo and the walk through zoo.  There was a peacock that Bristol loved.  It had it's wings all spread and was strutting it's stuff and making peacock noises.  Pretty soon Bristol was doing peacock noises back to it and they were having their own little conversation.   It was awesome.

 Pretty sure this was Bristol's favorite thing of the day - talking to the peacock.

 She wasn't as interested in the turtles.

 This tiger was too worn out to do anything.

 Bristol loved going in to see the birds.  Unfortunately, she stepped on one.  I don't think it died.

 The birds were very attracted to Brena.

Then we did the drive thru zoo.  A 3 mile loop and it was crazy.  We all were laughing hysterically at the crazy animals.  I lost my bucket to some animal.  The thing took it right out of my hands!

 These monkeys were hilarious to watch.

Super fun day!!

Easter Weekend

We enjoyed watching General Conference this past weekend.  Sunday we decided to go walk around the Duck Pond between sessions.  It was a beautiful sunny day - I am SO happy that it's finally starting to warm up!  The trees are blooming, the grass is getting green and everything is so beautiful!  

 How did these kids get so big?

 Trying to keep Bristol out of the pond was a chore.

 The ducks were hungry.  I was surprised since there was so many people there feeding them!

The is the spot of the Draper's Meadow massacre.  More can be read here about that and Mary Draper Ingles and her amazing story.  I read a book (Follow the River) about her and the massacre about 15 years ago, who knew I'd live less than a mile from the location of the massacre!  

 Brena found this big tree to climb.  Of course Bristol thought she should climb it too.

Tyler thought he'd help by putting Bristol up there.  

 She's a tree hugger :)

Beautiful Easter Sunday!