Shenendoah

This past weekend, in an effort to be a little more adventurous, we decided last minute to head out to the Shenendoah National Park and do a little hiking with the kids. We missed the pretty fall colors but it was still breathtakingly beautiful. We began with the Little Stony Man hike. The path was so really rocky so we let the kids take their time. I was surprised how well they did. This was the view when we reached the top. This is my favorite smile of Andrew's.

About 100 yards down the path Fox stepped in poop (who's dog pooped on the trail??/...uhhem...) so when we saw this little collection of water at the top Andrew took advantage of the opportunity to wash Fox's shoes. It was a pretty stinky hike up when Fox wanted to ride on your shoulders with his poopy shoes swaying in your face.

This picture is for you dad. This guy was really really big...and he had a friend too. Can you see the shadow of his rack? Weren't you out hunting this weekend with mom? Did you catch anything??

Eden enjoying her hot cocoa that daddy so brillantly brought. It was wonderful to be out in the chilly forest drinking hot cocoa and looking at the bright blue sky.

Bela is so obedient--except when he sees water. He just couldn't help himself when we got to Rose River. The water was so cold it took his breath away. He didn't care.
The next hike we did was the Rose River Waterfall trail. It was a 2.6 round trip hike down to a waterfall. We were really excited to do it with the kids- although it may have been a little too ambitious of us. THey did really well though on the way down.

We were about a 100 yards or so from the waterfall when Fox fell and hit his head on a rock. It bled a lot and he cried a lot. We knew immeadiately that he needed stitches so I grabbed Fox and Andrew took Eden and we hiked the 1.3 miles (UPHILL) in record time. It was another 45 min or so until we got to the closest ER.

Luckily they had a small children's area with a TV and movies playing on the Disney channel. The kids were pretty content to watch movies for 3 hours, eating the sandwhiches and fruit we'd packed for dinner. I'm sure that will turn out to be the priciest movie night we have ever had. Fox did really well though. He stopped crying after we got back to the car and seemed to be in a pretty good mood the rest of the night- until the doctor came in.

The doctor said that it was more of a puncture wound. There was a little flesh missing so she said she would have to do one stitch to seal it up properly. Poor guy. He was so brave.

I guess there will be a little piece of Fox out there in the Shenendoah's (even though, as Andrew said, something has probably already eaten it by now). It might be a while before we head out there again, but it was a lot of fun- while the fun lasted.