Lyla’s and Mark’s teams both were in a Labor Day soccer tournament, so we spent Saturday and Sunday at the soccer fields. Both teams did not make it to the finals which were being held on Monday, but the upside of not being in the final was that we had more time on Monday than we anticipated having. The weather was going to be nice and we had all day free, so we decided to head out to the Shenandoah National Park to hike White Oak Canyon - a hike that Mark and I had our eye on for quite some time. Nina had gone with the Williams familiy down to Hartfield to spend the weekend there with them and Mouse and Pops, so we missed having her with us, but it was a great day exploring some more of beautiful Virginia!
You can take the hike several ways. You can do a 9 mile loop, which we would have done if we didn’t have Lyla, or you could a route that was just over 6 miles. We parked at the lower trailhead, and hiked up mountain for 3 miles. It was a workout for sure, but it was one of the most beautiful hikes we’ve done. We passed five waterfalls on the way up to our 3-mile marker turn around point. We ate our packed lunch close to the top of the hike, then hiked back down the mountain and stopped at the waterfalls to play around and get in the water. The water was cold but very refreshing on our tired legs!
The hike took several hours, and we were all quite exhausted at the end, but it was an awesome hike and a fun way to spend the day! We stopped off on the way home to get Lyla a well deserved ice cream, and then dropped off our stuff and headed over to pick up Nina.
Based on this picture Shenley sent me, I think it’s safe to say Nina had an awesome time at Hartfield. It’s so great to have family who love your kids and take them for a weekend of fun. Nina had a MUCH better time swimming, boating, and tubing than she would have had sitting on the sidelines at soccer games, so we missed her while she was gone, but we were so thankful that she could enjoy some fun of her own too.
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