Snow Days!

As a mother, I admit I'm getting a little tired of 3 days of cancelled school due to the snow.  It's frigid outside - today, with the wind, it feels like the temperature is in the single digits!  So when we go to play in the snow, it doesn't last long.  So you have the piling on of layers-hats, scarves, gloves, jackets boots, then the peeling off of the layers quickly thereafter.  However, we have had a lot of fun outside and each time we go out, they seem to get more used to the cold and last a little longer.



                                  

Family Time

We try to do this often, but because the girls have been out of school and because we think it's so important to spend time together as a family and also to be outside, we've gone to the state park close to our house a lot lately.  It's amazing how the girls change when they are outside and able to run free down the paths.  We search for hidden trails, look for birds, trees with the tell-tale sign of a lightening strike.  They laugh, run, play with each other - and if we hear complaints, it's only when we say "it's time to turn around and head back to the car".

October!

We ran the Wicked 10K as a family this year and it did not disappoint!  We dressed up as Merida and the triplet bears.  People thought we were Goldilocks, even though Kate was wearing a curly red wig! Oh well :)  It was a ton of fun - it's the best race around here because so many people dress up and run/walk, there is always so much to look at!  

We then loaded into the car and headed up to Big Meadows.  Our annual family camping trip was cancelled this year, thanks to the government shut down, and we really missed our time, not only in the cold mountain air, but at Big Meadows.  So we drove up, spent a few hours there, then headed back down the mountain and spent the night in Charlottesville.  The next morning we hiked around some and then went to Carter Mountain to pick apples!  It was a jam packed weekend, but was one of the best we had enjoyed in a while.