Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

On the way home from Tennessee, the weather was gorgeous.  Somewhere in the middle of West Virginia, behavior and attitudes started to decline majorly.  We held off stopping until the Coopers Rock area east of Morgantown just before entering Maryland.  We stopped here last year, but we saw more trails that would be good opportunities to explore. First, we went on the Rattlesnake Trail.  Thankfully we did not see any rattlesnakes! See rock = must climb Brady leads the way.  Perhaps I should say that he charged ahead. The end of the rattlesnake trail meets up with the trail to Rock City. It seemed like we were close to Rock City, so we took a look. On either side of the trail, tall rocks towered straight up toward the sky.  Multiple rocks had entrances. It's amazing what being outside does to enhance moods.  We all had improved attitudes and the 2.5 hour drive home was very pleasant!

On our drive to Tennessee on Good Friday, it poured down rain for most of our drive from Staunton, VA, to Columbia, TN, except for an odd pocket of sunshine in Knoxville. It was raining so much that we didn't really want to stop and get our lunch cooler out of the trunk!  Finally we pulled off an exit and parked under a car wash bay.  The only reason we drove on I-81 to Tennessee was because we wanted to go on a waterfall hike.  I knew that the Cookeville area of Tennessee was known for waterfalls.  It was still lightly raining when we got here.  We decided to go anyway because we had to at least use the restrooms.  At the restrooms, you could hear a water fall.  Naturally, we had to go see it, even if we were getting wet.  It wasn't the main waterfall.  It was a pretty teaser, though. We continued down the trail.  There were several pretty little waterfalls. We ended up walking to Burgess Falls (in our slides).  It was ...

The weekend before we went to Tennessee, we had a great opportunity to spend Saturday afternoon int he woods.  We had not been to Rocky Ridge or the Standing Stone Trail for quite some time.  This might be our favorite place in Pennsylvania.  So, that's where we headed when Jesse got home from work. This was in the Hunters Rock area. At the beginning of every hike, we always warn Brady that the emergency room is really far away.  He loves to climb up every rock around and he mostly runs on the trail. I had the camera out at the right time.  He just slid off of the trail!  It just served as a good reminder that he can fall sometimes, too. We hiked across the ridge to the three sisters.  Of course, we explored multiple stops along the way. Once we got to the three sisters, everyone was quite tired.  They had played outside all day long before we headed to the woods.  We finished the hike by going down the Dogwood Tra...

I took a little longer to gather my thoughts.   The following is what I should have read at Uncle Glenn's funeral: In the days leading up to the funeral, I was reflecting on the thought that when we are more blessed in life by love, it hurts even more to lose a loved one.  I was one of "his girls".  He had a loving disposition that made you feel wanted, valued, and treasured.  As a young child, I desired to be in his presence.  It was always so nice and comforting to see him when I walked into church and he ushered us to our seats. My parents and aunts and uncles volunteered every year at the hamburger stand.  He was very dependable to give me money at the Allensville Festival.  I promptly spent most of that money throwing dimes at the "junk" glasses.  Manning this booth were usually my cousins Johnny and Jimmy. For a couple of generations, the Yoder family had been all boys prior to my cousin Lesley and myself.  Naturally, the...

Before Uncle Glenn's funeral on Sunday, we took a short hike on the Standing Stone Trail to the bird watch platform.  We needed a little time outside to relieve some stress and get the children's wiggles out.  The peace and solitude was very much what we needed. Of course, we are all in our flannels in honor of my Uncle Glenn. Natalee had spent the night at Gram and Pap's house after the viewing the night before.  So, she was not with us on our short hike. The valley had a bit of an odd low, thin cloud cover that made our view appear very hazy. Amie and Brady were playing hide and go seek on the large rock outcroppings. I asked Brady to put his arm around Amie's shoulder for a nice picture.  Immediately, they began jumping up and down and having a grand time.  The thing about this goofy situation is that I ended up with a picture that they do show that they enjoy being together: