Memorial Day with Langfords and Sextons

We've done this for a few years now, and I hope we do it forever. Good times for everyone.

Porter's Creek Trail

We brought along the Cruzes and tried out a new hike last Friday. Porter's Creek Trail was a great one for a large group because the first half was a gravel road so there was plenty of room for everyone to mix it up and not be constrained to single file. It was also great because it ran along a river and provided ample opportunities to hop across on rocks or wade right in. It was also great because there were stone walls, a grave yard, and a barn that were over 100 years old, and a hiker's cabin built in the 30s along the way. One more reason it was nice was because it was not crowded at all. When we've hiked the more popular trails (Laurel Falls and Abrams Falls in particular) they were crowded the whole time, but here we only passed a few people on occasion. Lydia also brought along her bug-home and caught a multitude of centipedes, tomato worms, and snails. It was a pretty awesome kick-off for summer.

Turning 35

Happy birthday to me a couple of weeks ago. Early in the year I asked Scott if his gift could be running a half marathon with me. He's a good one so he said you bet. I googled "scenic half marathons" (because running in the country is way better than running in a city) and found three or four within driving distance. One of them happened to be the day before my birthday, so New River it was. I assumed we'd probably leave the kids with a relative and the two of us would go over the night before, get up and run, then come home. But as I was trying to find a place to stay, I came across a little cabin with enough beds for everyone in a beautiful setting, for less than a room at a hotel and it was perfect. We changed our quick race to a weekend getaway for the whole family, and I'm so glad we did. That weekend was a little piece of heaven.

First the running part.

Before

After (still smiling!)

Before the race started we laughed a nervous laugh together because I trained very poorly/inconsistently and Scott didn't train at all. No, I take that back, he went for a run back in March, and then once again the week before the race. Ha! The elevation was higher than we realized, and the hills were killer. Kill-er. Like legs 2 and 7 of Ragnar combined, plus one more matching incline type of killer. All that along with the cold I'd had for about a week (is that enough excuses?) resulted in times neither one of us especially care to share, but we did it! Go us! Can I just say one of the many things I love about Scott is the fact that he ran 13.1 miles completely untrained like it was nothing? Go natural athleticism!

But the course was beautiful. Bea-u-ti-ful. I wish I'd thought to take a few shots along the run, it was stunning. Trees canopying the roads everywhere, much of it was along riverbanks, it made me smile every step. I smiled most though because we got to do it together. Best gift ever.

We went back to the cabin, got cleaned up, and had lunch. Then we moseyed right across the street to a campground that had a wide open field, large pond, and playground equipment. We thought we might play for an hour or two, but we ended up staying out there all afternoon. It was my very, very favorite kind of day. We had no other obligations, nowhere else to hurry and get to, the sun was shining, no distractions, no cell service, nothing to do but play and laugh and be together. So that's what we did. Even more best gift ever.

I liked it so much I made a movie about it.