Family Trip to VA

We met Amy's family in VA last week for a mini-reunion of sorts. There were 10 of us in all. We stayed in a cabin in the middle of NOWHERE! To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, our cell phones didn't work, there was no Internet, the TV satellite was down and all we could hear from our porch were cows (and the occasional 4-wheeler that was herding them around). Our two outings consisted of a trip to "town" where we stopped at Walmart, the grocery store and a lube shop (good thing b/c our car only had 1 quart of oil in it; thanks for keeping us safe, Lord!). The other outing was a jaunt to Hungry Mother State Park, where we hiked around and otherwise enjoyed being outside in 80 degree weather. While we were very isolated, we thoroughly enjoyed being together. We played a lot of games; ate a lot of food; talked; took a couple thousand pictures; and played some Mario something or other on Jim's Wii.

One of the other things we did with the Wii was create a profile for each person who was there. It was pretty funny. You choose everything from height, weight, shape of the face, eyebrows, hair style and color...the choices went on and on. The Noll profiles are over to the right. Looks like we made Amy a little too tall (Ha!), but otherwise I think they look pretty good. Check out the entire group below.

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Amy's family listed from the top left: Jim (brother); Chris (Dad); Laura (Jim's wife); Patti (Mom); Scott; Amy; Steve (brother); Grace (niece); Gus and Heather (Steve's wife...carrying second niece).

Here are some of the pictures from the park. The rhododendrons (all flowering) were as tall as trees and I have never seen so many ferns in one place in my life. VA should be named the Fern State.

OK. I know most of you are here to see cute pictures. Sorry to bore you. Here:

Gus wasn't so sure about the grass. Gosh, it makes me feel like he doesn't get outside enough!

V Man took a short nap in the front pack during the hike. He held out as long as he could, but finally fell asleep.

Amy continues to do such a great job with Gus. I do what I can when I'm around, but she's obviously the primary care giver b/c of my day job. I'm so glad Gus and I have you, Frau!

Gus's cousin, Grace, was a real sport when we let her sit in a chair that we knew was too small for her. When she stood up, the chair stuck to her. When she finally started to cry, while I was snapping pictures and laughing (along with her dad, Steve), Heather heroically stepped in. Sorry to make fun at your expense, Grace! Sorry if I was a bad influence on you, Steve!

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There are a few more pictures from the trip here. Check out the one of Gus at the top. Heather took that one. She's really getting good.

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Thanks for the visit, Deterdings!