Dragons Tooth

James had to make a day trip to Roanoke.  I came along to keep him company on the drive and for some retail therapy, since the kids were at Camp OmaPapa.  We planned to do a hike afterwards and were reminded, once again, of why hiking in VA summer heat isn't always ideal.  It was majorly muggy and, as we neared the peak, a thunderstorm rolled in cutting our adventure short.  It was still fun to be together, and now we know we want to do this hike again in the fall!

Swimming hole hike

The number of weekend days that we have unscheduled is very small, so we have to grab the opportunity when we have one of those that coincides with beautiful fall weather!   We decided to try Moorman's Gap hike, at the Charlottesville Reservoir.  I'd heard about this as a summer hike with great swimming holes, and we all decided that we will definitely need to check it out again in warmer weather.

The hike was a hit, with several stretches along the water and multiple stream crossings.  Even so, this hike will go down in family history as the one with the yellow jackets.  Not long after seeing the snake near the path, Rudy SCREAMED like we've only heard him scream once before (when something popped out unexpectedly in a movie scene).  It took a few seconds to process, but we soon realized that he'd stepped on a yellow jacket nest.  He got three stings - one on each leg and one on the pinky finger.  James ended up with two on his leg.  Brady, Charlie, and I escaped unscathed.  Thankfully, the little buggers didn't put up much pursuit so we were able to escape them after only a few steps.  Rudy was nearly hyperventilating; once he was calmer, I put him on my back and hustled back to the water.  The cool stream did wonders to reduce the swelling and ease the pain.  He and James both said that the stings were still hurting two days later. It was an unfortunate way to end the hike, but hopefully we'll be able to talk him into going back when it's warmer someday!

February hike

We had planned to go skiing today.  After the bitter cold winter we've had, it seemed like it would be a safe bet that the weekend would be plenty cold enough.  Welcome to Virginia, where Mother Nature's neuroses really show themselves in the spring.  The weather swings from bitter cold to 70 and sunny.

I'm certainly not complaining, as a warm day outside was exactly what I needed to pull myself through the rest of February.  Since skiing didn't seem like a feasible option, we opted for our go-to hike at White Oak Canyon.  This one is our favorite for a lot of reasons, one of which is because it's relatively close by and easy to get there and back even on days where we have other commitments in the morning.  

Rudy wanted to stay and play near the river, so James and Brady continued up to the falls without us.  Always nice to split up for a bit to get some quality time with the kids individually.