End of August and our anniversary 2019

David got me roses and I brought some to work and they were beautiful.

The World of Warcraft classic launched and I love it. David loves it too but is not playing it much because it has grabbed him and he has to fight to keep up his normal life. Its a time suck for me too but i am far less virtuous than he.

It makes my anxiety go away and that is worth a lot.

As long as I am still making dinners and playing with the kids I am going to keep on playing.

 

We are now a family with viking costumes. Each of us has at least 1 full set and I hope we will use them at an SCA event.

The garden is still going. Megan and mom had some good success with pumpkin seeds.

We had a great girls camp out.

We reserved a cabin nearby and split the cost and had a great time. This cabin was the most civilized by far of any we have tried so far. It had an indoor bathroom and a fridge.

Krishna had her first veggie dog.

We had rooms and beds for everyone.

Kiernan stayed over night on Friday which was much longer than last time and I have some hope that he is working up to a full weekend.

We spent the rest of the weekend around a campfire cooking and eating and chatting.

Krishna, in her first camping trip, made up great Indian potato sandwiches. I love potatoes.

Megan brought her mermaid tail and splashed around in the pool.

She is doing a great job with that thing.

We went on a hike that I have been wanting to try to a place called Wolf Rock.

There were impressive rocks for Krishna and Megan to climb. Krishna is such a great role modle for Megan!

They found a blue tailed skink.

The rocks were outstanding and we are gong back with Kiernan and David for sure.

Mom came up with us. It was a steeper and longer hike than we bargained for but she did the whole thing.

I think I found a arrowhead.

We got back down and hung out with friends and fire some more.

We are all the veggies.

Megan got to demand attention from everyone.

I love this picture of her with Kelsey.

I made Megs some Ramen as I know she wouldn't eat many of the veggies.

I had another go at the cobbler.

This time instead of yellow cake I used ginger bread.

I liked it. Peach and ginger make a great combo.

In the morning we cleaned out the cabin and Krishna and Megan went and did the entire wolf rock hike all over again.

While we were going David and Kiernan painted the deck.

It looks so good especially with the power washed siding.

Megan started getting geared up for school.

Also she made this amazing Pinky Pie My Little Pony Cake.

The next weekend (our anniversary weekend) we met up at Silver Diner with some of my excellent friends.

Then after a delicious breakfast we went back to our place and tried out the archery range.

Mariam got a new bow and was brand new to archery.

I brought out our three longbows and all the arrows I could dig up.

We took out Davids big hand me down compound but the arms were uneven on the first draw and we put it back down.

Krishna brought her compound.

We started close and gradually moved the bow stand back as out confidence grew.

Krishna got a great bulls eye

Then Kelsey shot right through it.

Hahahah

It was relaxed and full of love and silliness.

After the fun of the archery David and Krishna and Mariam did the Death Nut Challenge.

Megan took a video of it that is sort of disjointed but nonetheless entertaining. 

In this challenge there are a series of peanuts that have been coated with increasingly hot pepper and capsasin crystals. 

I must say that compared to several YouTube videos of the challenge our group was fairly prosaic about the whole thing.

There were definitely some moments of discomfort at the end but overall I think we either got a weak batch or have an especially hearty crew.

After everyone left David and I went out to shoot a few more rounds and then started packing for our anniversary trip.

Also the mail came and Megan got her princess costume for the year.

Our anniversary trip was pretty low key at Davids request.

I reserved us a B&B in Petersburg WV. This is the town near to where my grandparents (Rumford) used to have a log cabin.

I wanted to go see if we could find the cabin because I was having no luck emailing with grandma or pouring over google maps.

Also the camping had put me in the mood for lots of nature and hiking.

The way we went was different than I remembered and I kept peeling my eyes for familiar glimpses. I was surprised and pleased to see wind turbines up on the ridge-lines above Petersburg as we came down into the valley.

On some weekends my grandpa would take us into town to the Dairy Queen for a special treat of a Blizzard. I thought if we started there I might be able to drive back to the cabin. 

It worked like a charm, we went and got mini Blizzards and drove straight to it.

The cabin was sold in 1996 but evidently the ice cream jogged my memory enough.

Its pretty different. They took down the fence and put a garden where the burn pile used to be (I'll bet that soil is great now!). They put up lots of sheds all around.

I was looking for these 12-15 ft pines that were so thick that I couldn't get my motorcycle through them and instead found these tall thin things.

The driveway was the same and the satellite dish was in the same general place and the bright white between the logs was the same. My dad and my aunt think I should have gone up to the house but I felt like that was wayyy more intrusive than I was up to.

So instead I made a google alert for the address and hopefully some day when they decide to sell I can buy the place for 5 dollars.

ha

From there we went to Seneca Rocks.

We'd brought some subs from the gas station and we ate at the visitors center while listing to some live and lively dulcimer music.

We climbed the trail and enjoyed the vageries of the human condition.

It was crowded up there and everyone from toddlers to the feckless flip flop bro were running around up there.

It had been foggy when we arrived but cleared up beautifully.

Steep hike!

Wonderful views!

David is afraid of heights and was very kind to pose for this one. There was a sheer drop off on the other side of that rock he is on.

We left the rocks and found our B&B and layed around recovering then ate our leftovers for dinner and soaked in their hot tub and watched the sun set over the mountains.

We stayed at Breath of Heaven B&B and had just the quiet time we were hoping for. We sat on the porch and watched hummingbirds battle for the feeder and loved the peace

The next morning we got a nice big breakfast and headed out for more hiking with a rainbow to greet us.

We went to Dolly Sods. The road to Dolly Sods is switchback and unpaved and has a few drop offs and David was none too pleased about it.

I thought a lot about backing out of the whole plan but we made it.

It is colder up there than anywhere else in the area and even though it was in the 80's in the valley we had wind and 70's and it was great for a hike.

We hiked through several elevations though the West Virginia Highlands and saw a few people and lots of nature. We talked and walked and I started planning all the trips to come. We are going to try to take the kids to WV soon.

Wild flowers and ferns. 

Quiet 

One sided trees above the tree line from all the wind they get up there.

Everywhere you look it is beautiful.

On the way back out we followed a convoy of other hikers leaving and that made the drive a good bit less nerve wracking as we didn't have to pull to the side to try to pass except once.

For good measure we drove by the cabin again and then headed home.

Happy Anniversary to David.

17 years...so far so good.