one spring day, the stars perfectly aligned, and my day off from all responsibilities coincided with a day of beautiful weather, and i really had no choice but to oad up the world’s best dog and ride up to hanging rock to hit the trail. we opted for the moore’s knob loop, taking the counterclockwise […]
hiking
spring break 2023the longest hardest hike.
as has become standard over the years, we planned for one of the days of our spring break trip to be a big fat longer hike for me (and a much needed day of doing nothing for my people who enjoy doing nothing and derek who was a little under the weather for the whole […]
spring break 2023. wesser bald fire tower hike.
for our first big spring break adventure, we dragged the kids out on a three-ish mile hike to the wesser bald fire tower. it was relatively uneventful. derek wasn’t feeling great and ike was nursing a sprained ankle, so they took their time, while i forged ahead with the girls. we started out a little […]
stone mountain with the best girl.
on one particularly lovely day, it was determined by ruby and i, that we would go up to stone mountain for a hike. we had a fantastic time. the only thing that went wrong was we took a wrong turn at the beginning of the big loop, which meant we ascended mostly via stairs and […]
grayson highlands, sans wild ponies.
hiking friends are the best friends. especially the ones who invite you on a random monday to drive two hours away to another state, to go hiking in the middle of winter. it was just what i needed in the middle of all the thanksgiving, baking, birthday, christmas, etc chaos. so what i’m saying is, […]
grandfather mountain hiking adventure.
derek’s parents generously gifted us a weekend at a resort in blowing rock for the last weekend of october. my only request (demand) was that we plan one outdoor activity, and not just end up eating out and shopping the entire time. derek did the research and settled on a hike at grandfather mountain. before […]
camping in the great smokies, sans family.
a long long time ago, derek booked us a long weekend at a campground in the smokies. during prime autumn leaf color season. it was to be our very first family tent camping trip since selling the rv. but then. isaac wanted to go to a homecoming football game. and anna had some sort of […]
new river gorge day four.grand view, castle rock trail, grist mill
if you’re reading these in real time as i publish them, i’m skipping to day four of our trip because we are still waiting on the professional photos of day three (white water rafting with anna). if not, ignore this disclaimer and maybe i’ll even take it down once i make the day three post. […]
new river gorge day one.sandstone and kate’s falls
we have always wanted to visit new river gorge, but it’s so close that it’s one of those places you just keep putting off until another time. then it became an official national park, so we pushed it up the list, and finally made it happen this summer, basically the minute school ended for the […]
marchy march. 2022.
time for a recap of march happenings in lidbomland. we kicked off the month with a semi-spontaneous visit from my mom, aka new gramma. the kids had a long weekend, but since it was exceptionally nice the day before the long weekend, it was determined that anna would play hooky and have an extra long […]