A Little Slice of Heaven

The weekend after the sister-wife adventure, our little family escaped to one of my favorite places:  Whitetop, Virginia.  We've gone once before and it was just as wonderful this time.  We stayed in the same cabin we did two years ago.  We got there Thursday afternoon.  Ate dinner and enjoyed the campfire.  I finally pulled out my new lens for my camera and played around with it for a bit.

Friday morning, we had a big breakfast and then headed to the Virginia Creeper Trail, an old railroad turned bike trail and it's entirely downhill so is perfect for families.  Alice was too scared to ride her own bike after several falls she'd taken on her bike--she struggles with braking.  Alice and Henry took turns riding the tag-along bike behind me and riding in the trailer behind Greg.  Funny story: Henry was first on the tag along.  He was so excited--waving to everyone, saying hi, telling everyone he was riding the tag along, telling me all about the trees and rocks.  After a few hours, he started whining and then went silent.  I looked back and he had his head on the front handle bars, just about asleep.  Rex raced ahead to get Greg to stop so Henry could nap in the trailer and Alice could ride the tag along.  

 

Henry was pretty pleased with himself.

We stopped and played at this park for a while.

Henry got a face-full of mud from my bike tire while on the tag along.

stopping to play by the river for a bit.

ice cream bribe at the end of the ride.

I also played with my camera a bit more while riding.  I think I had the shutter speed too low to get the colors right.  Still working on it.

Saturday we spend playing at Beartree Lake.  The swimming was closed for the season but the kids had fun playing the sand and then Greg rented a canoe for a few hours and the big kids and Greg spent the hours exploring the lake and woods nearby.  I enjoyed hiking around the lake with Zora strapped to my front, sleeping soundly.

We got home Saturday evening.  

This is my favorite trip.  I could go every year, or twice a year.  There is a reason the mountains and temples are synonymous in the scriptures.  Close and beautiful--even though we were too early for the height of fall colors--and relaxing and relatively inexpensive.