Lexington, VA

I went down to visit my sister Julie this weekend. She is a cook at Rockbridge Alum Springs Young Life Camp in Virginia. It is a pretty sweet camp. More like a resort really. And it was a beautiful time of year to go.

Julie lives about 25 minutes from camp in Lexington, VA. Again, another beautiful place. I got to see Stonewall Jackson's gravesite. I'll be honest, it took me quite some time to remember who he was. I need to brush up on my Civil War history!

It was fun to meet Julie's friends and see how and where she lives and works. I'm already trying to figure out how I can get both Tanner and the motorcycle down there with me for my next visit!

Bull Riding

I won tickets to our local "Bull Mania." I had never seen bull riding in person before, so I learned quite a bit! And I think I actually embarrased Tanner with how little I knew. For example, there were some guys walking around before hand dressed like cowboys and wearing spurs. I was wondering what they were there for, becuase surely you wouldn't wear spurs when you are riding a bull. That would just make him more mad! It turns out, that is exactly what they do. The more mad the bull is, the more points you get. I didn't take any pictures. No one else was and I didn't want a bull coming after me for blinding him with a flash, but I got this one off the internet as an example.

New Nephew

My little sister is staying with us for the few months between her various marine biology jobs and grad school. Probably as something of a mid-life-crisis, she adopted a dog today. I got some really cute pictures.
Noah is a 6-year-old, 25 pound, cocker spaniel mix. He and Drake seem to get along just fine, but Diesel was being a bit too rowdy (of course). I ended up putting his shock collar on him and, after one or two shocks when he was getting on Noah's nerves, he won't even get close. But I got an awesome picture of Drake and Noah. I'm not sure Noah really understands what "sit" means yet!

Snowshoe

I realized I skipped the middle of our vacation. We spent the weekend with my family in a neat little condo in the middle of the Village at Snowshoe Mountain Resort. It was sweet. Here are us sisters getting ready for some black diamonds!

And here are Lori, Tanner, and Julie relaxing in the hot tub after skiing back diamonds.
Dad relaxed a bit too.
If you've never been spring skiing, it's pretty fun. It was nice to not be freezing to death, and I can actually say I've been skiing and swimming on the same day!