The last week in July we had a visit from Caleb and Mybree Allred. They spent a night with Laura so they could see Washington DC and a couple nights at our house while they toured the local historic sights. Caleb really wanted to hike a piece of the Appalachian trail, so we found a kid-friendly hike up Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah Valley, packed the kids up and went with them! George had to work and Lance was still with his dad, so it was me and the five little kiddos.
We saw a black bear with a couple cubs while we drove! Apparently people like to test fate because there were several people out of their cars taking pictures literally a stone's throw away from the bears. A mother bear and her cubs. Yeah, these people weren't the sharpest tools in the box. We enjoyed the sight from the safety of our car.
We saw a black bear with a couple cubs while we drove! Apparently people like to test fate because there were several people out of their cars taking pictures literally a stone's throw away from the bears. A mother bear and her cubs. Yeah, these people weren't the sharpest tools in the box. We enjoyed the sight from the safety of our car.
Lily was in heaven finding little flowers and pretty things to show me.
This train was short enough to be a decent but doable hike for even the littlest kids.
Little Vivian was such a trooper and insisted on doing most
I think the highlight for the kids was finding little salamanders under the rocks and branches along the path.
Vivian found a stone "phone".
Jude was our salamander finder for the trip. He must have checked under every. single. rock on our hike to the summit.
Sweet Valerie was a trooper like always.
While we were hiking, a couple deer crossed the path just feet from us. It was really neat to be so close to these shy wild animals.
If you look close, you can see the deer in the thicket about 5 feet from Cole and Lily:
We finally made it to the top of the loop! The view was AMAZING.
The kids loved climbing all over the huge rocks and splashing in the little water puddles in the crevices. We even found some tadpoles swimming around.
Tiny tadpole!
The kids also found these enormous centipedes. They were a little creepy...
Caleb brought along a hammock and hung it up for the kids to swing while we had a snack at the top.
We loved having the Allreds visit! Thank you for the fun time!
