Happy Easter

The Easter Bunny had fun this year. We found Peeps everywhere engaged in various activities.

Happy Easter!

A final egg hunt

Our friends the Taggs put on an egg hunt for everyone from church that was under 12 years old. It was so much fun!

Mostly there was just candy strewn all over the yard. Occasionally you could find an actual plastic egg filled with candy. For the older kids there was a bit more adventure across the creek. Yes, they have a creek going through their property. Anyway, across the creek were larger plastic eggs filled with lots of goodies. But they were all well hidden or challenging to get to.  Check out this one that was hanging high above everyone. There was also one in the ground right below but no one noticed it until after the one above was claimed.

First lost tooth

Someone is getting a visit from the tooth fairy tonight!

Overnight Hike

*Guest blogger: Clay*

Clay has been working to 'Link' up the various sections of the Appalachian Trail that he has hiked into one long unbroken chain. With this 2 day hike on Good Friday and Saturday, he accomplished his goal and has an unbroken 291 mile chain of the trail completed from Waynesboro, VA to Duncannon, PA. Hooray!

Today's hike started by dropping off the car at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in PA, named for the large stone furnace that is still visible in the park. It is a great state park with car camping, a swimming lake, and a great day use area. It also is home to the mid-way point of the Appalachian Trail and the Appalachian Trail Museum. We plan to go back here camping and check out the museum this summer or next. One of the best parts of section hiking the A.T. is that you get to experience the local neighborhood around the trail a lot more fully and there are some beautiful towns and countryside all around.

A local trail maintainer decorated a wispy pine tree with Easter Eggs. Happy Easter!

This is Quarry Gap shelter, easily the best maintained shelter on the central A.T. Clay just stopped for lunch, but enjoyed inspecting all the nice home touches provided by the caretaker. Nice job!

Being March 28th at 2,000 feet in the hills of Pennsylvania, there was still snow on the trail in the shady spots or on the North facing slopes. Clay added his hiking boot footprints to many already there.

Clay stayed the night at Birch Run shelter. There was a lot of snow at this location and you can see a friendly snowman waiting to welcome weary hikers. Turned out Clay was the ONLY one sleeping in the shelter that night and it got down to the mid-20s, which turned out to be just about the lower limit of his sleeping bag unless he zipped it all the way up and just let his nose stick out. But it wasn't a bad night sleep, all things considered. And there was a nice stream passing right in front of the shelter providing a little white noise.

THIS is the official mid-point of the A.T.! It stretches 1092 miles in either direction. Thru-hikers have a tradition of stopping at Pine Grove Furnace State Park and eating a HALF gallon of Ice Cream from the store. The store makes sure to carry plenty of extra ice cream to cater to this tradition!

Finally back at Pine Grove Furnace State Park after 2 days and ~20 miles. Here is the store. Ice cream anyone?!?

A little night humor

We went in to check on Rebekah before we went to bed. 

She is INSIDE her pillowcase.

photo bombs

The girls are always asking to play on my iPod. When I get it back I usually find about +30 photos from Rebekah. Here are a few of my favorites.

First day of Spring Break

Doesn't look much like spring does it?

 I like this picture. It reminds me of the Lamppost in Narnia.

We had enough snow that Emma & Spencer went out and made lots of snow bricks into a snow fort. It was cold, but the kids still had tons of fun.

More Egg Hunts

Emma's friend, Emily, invited us to the egg hunt at her church. Afterwards, we sent to Ida Lee for town egg hunt. Emma was too old for that one, but she was good at helping Rebekah scout out the good eggs.

Spring has Sprung

Community Egg Hunt

This year our HOA put on an Egg Hunt. We were excited to participate in a community event. My neighbor and I have put on an egg hunt for our block for the last 3 years. We were glad to participate in this event instead. 

When we got home the girls had some fun with their hair. 

I too came home from the egg hunt with a souvenir. While helping Rebekah into a gunny sack for a race she jumped up and knocked me in the chin. I put my teeth into my lip. It bled a ton and hurt worse. The cut didn't go all the way through. Luckily, lips heal quickly. Also grateful that one of our friends tossed me the keys to his house so I could get cleaned up and get some ice. Would have been a lot worse had I not gotten ice on it so quickly.