New River Gorge

During our trip to WV, we also took the kids to the New River Gorge Bridge. We thought the gigantic bridge (famous for Bridge Day in October) was super-exciting: it's as tall as one Washington Monument plus two of the Statues of Liberty. However, the kids weren't as thrilled. "It's a bridge...." they said, unenthusiastically. Oh, well. Maybe if we ever get to Bridge Day, and they see people bungy-jumping off it, they'll be excited!

Here are some more shots of Babock, below.

We went on a long hike around the lake at Babcock. We had a lot of fun finding all the places where beavers had been working.

Babcock State Park

One of my favorite places in all of West Virginia is surely Babcock State Park...

The boys had a good time learning to skip stones with Daddy.

And as for that elusive coal that John wanted to find to take back to his first grade class, he found a ton of it in the river at Babcock! We could only collect as much as our hands could hold, because we forgot our handy bag in the car. But hopefully, his friends and teacher will be much impressed...

Kara

Hawk's Nest

We just got back from a Spring Break trip to West Virginia, where we were blessed enough to have a few days outside in warm and sunny weather. Our first trek was to Hawk's Nest State Park, which is up the side of a viciously high and winding road. The kids loved the view, and even though we were a bit bummed that the tram which Tim and I had hyped so much was closed, we had a great visit.

It was our first day in short sleeves. Hooray for spring!

(below) The boys were generally thrilled to watch all the coal trains go by. We don't have coal trains in Ohio, which is a shame. We had wonderful talks about how the coal mines - which we passed on the way to the park - gather the coal, put it on trains and trucks and barges, and then send the coal to power plants, which use it to make our power.

John's goal?

To find a souvenier lump of coal to take to his first grade class in Ohio.

Would he find it?

That answer lies in the next blog post. ...

New Camera

Who got a new camera for her birthday??? I got a new camera for my birthday... Well, actually my birthday isn't until the 13th of April. But my loving husband graciously bought me a camera, and chose to give it to me today. Yee ha!!! And guess what? It's a CANON. I've never had a Canon before, so I am super stoked. I headed out today after the boys got home from school and snapped my first few shots...using of course my favorite subject - my kids...and I'm pretty impressed. Not bad for someone who hasn't read the instruction manual yet.

Newport Aquarium

For part of Tim's birthday, we took him out for a steak dinner and a trip to the Newport Aquarium. Mega thanks to Rachel Sweet, who works at the aquarium and got us in at an amazingly low price! The above picture is the guys sticking their hands in shark-infested water and petting them. Before you get too excited, though, this was the shark-petting tank, which has small sand sharks that don't mind being petted. Thankfully, we all came home with all our fingers.

Below, one of the boys' favorite things is when Daddy holds them up in the tunnel and lets them "touch" the sharks and stingrays. (Anna isn't quite sure she wants to touch them yet....)