4th of July Trip

We headed out to Union, West Virgina to visit friends and celebrate the 4th of July. Chris is one of Mike's old high school buddies who recently moved out to Pennsylvania with his wife, Sarah. Her family owns a house in Union (Pence's Tourist Home) which they rent out to those visiting the area. We were lucky to test it out...what a wonderful change from camping. It's a great old house, very cozy and full of history.

Union is ultra small but a beautiful little place set in the hills of West Virgina. There's lots to do out on the small country WV roads. We did a little rock climbing, kayaking, hiking, bouldering, Kubin' (Kube is a mid-evil game played in the back yard which is really fun and frustrating), blackberry pickin', Wii'n and just some catching up'n!

Sarah and Lucas getting ready to go climb.Chris and Buddy the Dog.Mike, Janelle and ?
?, Janelle and Axel.
Janelle, Mike and Axel...this is as good as it gets. Notice Daddy's diminishing enthusiasm? :)

Bozoo Climbing area. Short route but fun climbing and perfect for a mellow climbing day.
Firefly catching along with marshmallow roasting was a nightly event.
Brand new fire pit.
On the 4th of July, we did a little hike. Axel got to test out the big boy backback for the first time. He loved it!
Hiking action.
Caught him on top!
This photo cracks me up. Chris and Sarah look all glamorous and Mike looks like the altitude it getting to him.
As you can see, we were really high up for Dayton standards. :) No, Daddy wasn't altitude sick...just got caught on camera making a funny face.

Here I'm distracting Lucas from the camera.
Happy 6th Anniversary Chris & Sarah.
Here's the view from the top. Pretty cool wave-like hills flowing just like ocean waves. It was beautiful. Lucas did the whole hike by himself too. We have him well trained. :)
That does it for photos. My camera battery died (again). We didn't miss much. It got really rainy and we missed the fire works. We saw a few but had to take Lucas to Kings Island yesterday for the fire work show. Now the 4th of July is complete!

Thanks Chris & Sarah. It was so nice to see you guys. We had a great time!

We hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!