Hemlock Overlook

Over the weekend we tried a new hiking place at Hemlock Overlook Park.  It was a beautiful hike along the Bull Run River near Clifton.  

   

 The trails were easy to walk, and there were lots of places where we could access the water to let the kids play and Cayenne swim.  It was a great place to go for a fun and relatively easy hike.

 

 

After the hike we found a great little place, Peterson’s, on Main Street in Clifton where we had lunch and ice cream.  It would be easy to miss Peterson’s if you aren’t looking for it, but we certainly won’t miss it any time we’re in the area.  We’ll definitely find an excuse to head back there again!

  

Hartfield for the 4th

Last week the whole family was down at Hartfield for several days around July 4th.  I took a bunch of pictures, all of which I couldn’t put on the post, but if you’d like to check them out, click on this link: https://goo.gl/photos/GWvHFAZrPjLbAWYd7

 

One of the highlights was paddleboarding.  The girls have all paddleboarded quite a bit before this trip, but they were all out there together more than ever this time.  They did a great job with multiple riders, a dog that wanted to swim along next to them (Cayenne, of course), and they even did some cool tricks on the boards.  As always, there were some shenanigans and some dunks in the water, but it was a fun part of their day every day that we were there.

  

 

 

Another one of the highlights was the new tube the Williams family got for their boat.  It was called the Sidewinder, and the girls had an absolute blast getting zipped around the river in the Sidewinder.  Unbelievably, it never tipped over.  It certainly came close though!

 

We went to Urbanna for a great fireworks show one evening, and we did some little fireworks that the Williams brought as well.

 

  

We enjoyed great food, Garland caught quite a few crabs, and of course we celebrated Cayenne’s birthday with chicken jerky pancakes (for the dogs, of course), and the girls made all kinds of great party decorations.  It was a great time making memories with the family at Hartfield!!

 

The week after...

The week after we got back from the beach was a busy one.  We got home on Saturday, Father’s Day was Sunday, then we went to the U2 concert on Tuesday.  For Shen and I, it was our 5th U2 concert in a row, but this was the first time for Mark and Garland.  It was a gorgeous evening at FedEx, and watching the Lumineers and U2 was awesome!!!

 

 

The next day, Maggie arrived to visit for a few days.  It’s good that we’re able to send Cayenne to Mouse and Pop’s house and then for them to send Maggie to us.  The pups don’t have to stay in kennels, and we know they’re happy and being well cared for.

  

 

Nina and I took the dogs over to the dog park one afternoon and they found a nice sized snake skin for us!  

 

  

 In addition to Maggie, we also had Mark’s sister, Joey, and her family here to visit.  We enjoyed a couple days having them here while they did a lot of sightseeing downtown.

We also had a couple really nice weather days for summertime in VA.  Instead of hot and humid, it was really nice to be outdoors, so we took advantage and visited one of our favorite hiking spots.