Today’s post is a bit late because we were on vacation this week and for some reason I thought I’d be home early enough to get this one written after we got home. Silly me!

We went to our long-time friends’ cabin up in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia.

We drove all day last Saturday and arrived after 10 pm our time. Sunday was Tiffany’s birthday and we celebrated our usual way, as much as possible. I even took our usual birthday banners to hang.

We had French toast, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, chicken enchiladas, and mud pie, which I forgot to take pictures of as I made it to share with you.   We relaxed and recovered from our 16-hour excursion. We had stopped several times to eat – I don’t know why we did that, we could have just snacked and stopped once but we haven’t traveled that far for about five years, so I guess we’re out of practice.

On Monday we went over to the state park to hike the trail I enjoy, Twin Pinnacles. It is a 1.6 mile hike. I’ll write more about it next week and share some pictures of the wonderful view at the top.

Tuesday the guys went into town, we ran ourselves out of the distilled water. They thought they might get a fishing license but ended up not doing so. The river is literally across the street from the cabin, so it is relaxing to just sit out on the porch and visit. My feet were swollen from the drive, so I needed to keep them elevated, thus we gals just stayed inside and did our visiting.

We enjoyed sharing some of our favorite movies with them. We really enjoy old Cary Grant movies. We shared Operation Petticoat, Father Goose, and Bringing Up Baby with them. Operation Petticoat was the favorite. We also enjoyed Green Lantern, Knight and Day, and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, of which Knight and Day was the favorite. Knight and Day is probably my current favorite movie. (It does have a couple of curse words and she is in a bikini for a very short scene – less than a minute long.)

Stephanie is a crafter! She does stamps, makes cards, and is currently big into Bible journaling. I took a lot of my Zentangling resources. I knew I would not have internet access up there so I took the Zentangle books I have and all my tiles, pens, and pencils. On Wednesday Stephi and I shared our art supplies. I’ll share more about all that next week too.

My family was great to me all week! Of course, I cooked all day on Sunday but Sean was a gem and cleaned up for me all day. Then Monday was a yoyo day until dinner, which Tiffany made for us – spaghetti with rolls and a side salad. (Stephi introduced us to the term yoyo; it means You’re On Your Own! I love it!)

On Tuesday, the kids jumped in and helped me make waffles, eggs, bacon, and sausage for breakfast. Then for dinner Sean made tacos, Mike jumped in and helped him. I seasoned the meat for them and Tiffany cleaned up.

On Wednesday, everyone did their own thing for breakfast and then Paul treated us to lunch at his sister Lynn’s restaurant, DJ’s Pizza,  nearby (out in the country, nearby is a relative term ). We had some DELICIOUS pizza along with homemade potato chips, loaded fries, and fried dill pickles, all of which were yummy. Stephi’s King Salad – a large chef salad – looked delicious too.

That night we made Sweet and Sour Chicken and Egg Rolls. Tiffany started it and Sean, Mike, and I jumped in doing our part. Mike helped roll the egg rolls, I cut, dipped and cooked the chicken, and Sean cleaned as we went. Tiff really did the most that night. Had she not started dinner when she did, we may not have eaten until 9 that night. It was seven before we ate, the way it was.

We had planned to do s’mores over a fire on Tuesday night but after the guys had gone out and selected the wood, it POURED down rain. S’mores got moved to Wednesday night. Tiff was determined to have s’mores, thus she started dinner when she did. As we were outside by the fire, it started to sprinkle. We managed to eat our s’mores though.

We left Thursday morning. We stopped only once to eat; Dairy Queen was the winner. We snacked a lot and stopped several times for gas/potty breaks. Sean and Mike split the driving time again, like they did on our way to VA. It was dark and had begun to rain when we arrived back home last night.

We had a good trip, lots of rest, and the joy of visiting with lifelong friends. This has gotten rather long now, so I’ll run.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº