Sunrise and Sunset Hike

I saw a few headlines last week about the Sahara Dust Plume and how it was creating vibrant sunrises and sunsets in the Caribbean and Gulf.  A few articles talked about potential impacts along the East Coast so I thought it would be cool to see if VA was affected.  While trying to decide if we should do a sunrise or sunset hike I thought its Summer, why not do both? So we did!  I am so happy my family was willing to go along with this idea.  I texted a friend in the area who loves hiking to get some recommendations.  She sent me a few and we did some research and picked 2 hikes in Shenandoah National Park.

We got up 3:50 am Saturday morning (Soooo early!) and were out the door by 4:06 to catch the 5:52 sunrise. We decided to check out Bearfence Mountain, a trail we had been wanting to hike for a good while. It is not a very long hike and has some fun rock scrambling.  We made good time getting to SNP and were hiking by 5:00.  It was awesome to be hiking in the dark with headlamps!  I like hiking fine but it was way  more fun to do it in a way we never have before with Jared and Lydia.  We did lose the trail once but we found it quick enough and got to the top in time to catch the sunrise.  The rock scramble was really fun and Jared and Lydia did great.  We watched the sunrise while eating cinnamon rolls and trying to stay warm.  I had brought a long sleeve shirt and Jared had a hoodie but Mark and Lydia had not brought anything and it was quite windy at the top so I gave my shirt to Lydia to warm her up.  It wasn't super cold, just a little chilly.  It was beautiful to watch the sunrise up there. I loved it.  Based on sunrises I have seen while out running the Sahara Dust plume did not affect the sunrise but it was good motivation to do something different.  Jared and Lydia did some exploring at the top and we were hiking back down by 6:00.  We got home just after 7:00 and all went back to bed.  Jared, Mark and I slept for over 2 hours but Lydia could not fall back asleep so that afternoon I made her take a nap with me so she would be able to keep it together for our sunset hike.

We will for sure do this hike again, maybe for a sunset next time. 

Hawksbill Mountain:  we picked this hike largely because it is the highest point in SNP.  We ended up driving right past the parking lot for Bearfence where we were 11 hours earlier which was kind of funny.  As we drove by Lydia pointed it out, and I was impressed she recognized it. This hike is also short, less than 1 mile but it is uphill the whole way up.  We were all feeling it in our legs.  It was a little cloudier than I hoped for at the top but we got a decent sunset and almost caught all of it. There was a surprising amount of space at the top that Jared and Lydia could explore which they enjoyed.  Bearfence was pretty tight that morning which they were sad about so this worked out well. After watching the sunset we hiked back down, again with our headlamps (so fun) with a few stops for firefly catching.  

From the top you can see Old Rag (below) which is a really popular trail here. 

I love that my family was willing to go along with this somewhat crazy idea.  I hope that it becomes a fun memory for Jared and Lydia and that we can do it again, maybe just one or the other in one day though. 

Morning picnic, national chocolate pudding day and fun friends

Orange Rolls and Cinnamon Rolls at Chris Greene.  Lydia and Jared rode their bikes to the lake and I followed them in the car with our picnic supplies.  It was a great morning to be out. They really like to explore this area by the water that they call Turtle Ledge as we have seen turtles warming up there.  There is a tree they can climb on that juts out over the water and some rocks you can climb on.  They wanted to eat there but it was too crowded and overgrown so we ate up on a hill near there that has a nice view.  

Friday happened to be National Chocolate Pudding day so we celebrated with the classic treat, "dirt cups".  I am not a big fan of pudding or gummy worms but Jared and Lydia enjoyed it.  I suggested a few activities with chocolate pudding but they passed which is fine.  We did go over the history of chocolate pudding and it was fun to learn about.  I am a total geek about things like this.  I recently discovered clips of "Unwrapped" on YouTube and introduced the show to Lydia and Jared.  I loved watching that show so much growing up. 

We went to a friend's house Friday to have dinner and to try out their new zip line.  Their house is so fun.  It definitely wins as the Cool House. We had a great time visiting with them and their zip line is really fun. We all tried it out and had a blast. Lydia was a little nervous to go the full length but also excited.  After a few times she was brave enough to go all the way from the top of the line and loved it.  We ended the night with chicken catching (Jared and Lydia), s'mores and firefly catching.  It was a great Summer evening. 

At the top

Her face shows how she felt about this but she loved it.

 I was proud of her for going all the way from the top.

Middle

And the bottom

Right after I took this picture the chicken peed on Jared.  He has the worst luck with animals.

They didn't stay out too long catching fireflies, as it was already pretty late when we got home and we had an early morning the next day but they are always happy to have a few minutes trying to catch some.  They both caught one or two and then fell right to sleep when we got them settled.  As much as I don't like Summer it is so much better now that Jared and Lydia are older and this was a really nice Summer evening.

Kitty cats and Double Dates

Lydia and Jared have had some creative ideas to pass the time these days.  They often pretend to be real animals or made up animals.  This day they were adorable kitty cats in their cat beds.  They made some cute cat toys and got bowls out for food (cheerios) and water. Jared is typically a dog or guinea pig and Lydia's go to animal is a Driton  (dragon + kitten from some books we checked out this Spring) with unlimited powers.  Its been really nice to see them play together so well during all this.  They were fine before but I think this has bonded them more which I am very grateful for. 

Mark and Jared went on a date to play Disc Golf one afternoon so Lydia and I went out for some root beer floats. (1$ special at Arbys!)  It was a relatively nice Summer day and we enjoyed our floats over at a lake in Forest Lakes.  For too long I have thought that dates have to be elaborate and a big outing and while those are fun the point is to just go so we did and it was great. 

Virus fighting with chalk bombs

I learned what chalk bombs were as I was looking for at home activities to add to our summer fun list.  The amount of effort required for these was more than I wanted but the outcome was great. They will for sure make another appearance this Summer.  Now that we've done it once I can better adjust for the effort and time needed.  Through a lot of trial and error Lydia and I managed to make 7 chalk bombs (water + cornstarch + food coloring + water balloons).  My hands were quite colorful after making these. 

The colors they left on the driveway were so bright and fun

Once we used up the chalk bombs we got out some regular water balloons and drew some targets on the driveway.  We also drew some corona virus's to take out.  If only it was that easy.  I drew this one without telling them what I was drawing, Lydia guessed it pretty quickly. 

Jared drew this monster virus. 

Thank goodness our driveway is mostly shaded. It was a fun activity. 

Jared also showed me this bird nest in our shed.  I was really surprised at how low it is and hope the eggs make it. 

Fathers Day

We celebrated Mark with crepes for breakfast, candy tie cards, Brazilian food for dinner and mint chocolate brownies.  I was in charge of the activity for home evening and decided to focus it on Dad's. I had Mark read a summary of his Dad's life story, I read the blog post I wrote about my Dad after he passed away three years ago and I read a fathers day post about Mark from a few years ago.  I was surprised to see I did not have more Fathers Day posts on this blog so wanted to make sure I did one this year.  It was really nice to take a few minutes to think about my Dad and remind Jared and Lydia of their grandpas. I am so fortunate to have Mark as my partner  He is generous, fun, full of faith and incredibly capable. He frequently asks what he can do to help me and pitches in all the time.  He did an awesome job working with Jared and Lydia to finish their school work this Spring while I worked downstairs and both Jared and Lydia loved having him as their teacher. He has proven again and again that his family matters most to him and is an outstanding example to Jared and Lydia. He is an incredible trip planner, the best movie picker for family movie night and the best "mixer."

Happy to have some pictures to mark the occasion.

I had some of them standing by each other but the height difference was not working out well.

In the afternoon we visited a family Mark ministers too (he promised some of his brownies to them so he dropped them off real quick) and another family, the Talbots, who are moving away next week.  Jared, Lydia and myself all took piano lessons from Breanne.  She was such a kind, patient teacher.  We will miss them and are a little bit jealous of their new adventure.  Visiting these two families took us on a scenic drive and we were rewarded with some lovely views.  The drive also took us down roller coaster road which has a huge dip in it that gets your stomach so good!  It was a bit of a drive and as we were going down the road I glanced at the backseat and saw Lydia dozing. Mark edged the car over the center line to hit the road grates and it woke her right up just in time to go over the roller coaster section.  Neither of them expected it and it got them so good.

Because there are SO many trees in this area its nice to come across these wide open fields every now and then.

Mark loves these brownies and I don't think they taste good at all but I was happy to make them for him.

These were fun to make.  We made the "tie" with Twix and York Peppermint Patties and then Jared and Lydia wrote things they love about Mark on the card.