Soo....the weekend before Jimmy's birthday I surprised him with a weekend away. Just him and I. I had been planning this for months!! And it all worked out perfectly. I had a house sitter set up for the dogs, a babysitter set up for Charley, our own private cabin with a hot tub all reserved, plans for a day full of rock climbing and I was so excited!! It was so hard to not tell him!!
So I took off the Friday we were scheduled to leave - see I usually work every other Friday...and he thought I was supposed to work that Friday, but I told him I switched weeks so I wouldn't have to take vacation when I go to Wisconsin in July...a little fib - but it was all for good!
Charley and I had planned to meet Jimmy for his 'birthday lunch' on Friday - since he would be in class for the next 3 weeks and I work on his actual birthday and wouldn't be able to meet him for lunch then. We were going to get some killer crab cakes from G&M's...mmm.
My plan for this birthday lunch was because it was on my way to meet my friend to drop off Charley for the weekend and since Jimmy didn't know we were going away he didn't know he wasn't going to see Charley when he got home or for the rest of the weekend. So this would be a nice chance for him to see her before we went away.
Well I packed her stuff up in the back of the car...which wasn't much due to her going to a house with 2 young kiddos for the weekend. So that helped, because I was afraid he'd see her stuff packed in the back of the car and wonder what was up...well even though we got our lunch to go and ate it in my car...he had no clue. Ms. Charley was VERY sleepy and fell asleep right before we got to the restaurant, so instead of waking her up and taking a cranky 15 month old into a packed restaurant, we let her sleep and enjoyed our lunch in the car! So Jimmy got to see her and have a little time with her...she woke up about 1/2 way through our crab cakes :)
So off I was to drop Charley off with my friend...an hour away from home. I dropped her off and headed home to pack everything and get the dogs set. I got everything done about 5 min before he walked in the door! I put a birthday card I found (which was about camping!) and wrote in it how we were going away for the weekend for his birthday and taped it to the front door. He came home and read it and walked in the door with this look on his face like he was so excited and shocked at the same time, it was great!!
I didn't tell him where we were going until we stopped for dinner about an hour and a half into the trip :) He kept guessing the entire way though!!
Well...we went to West Virginia...we had this amazing
cabin....
With this deck and view across the little drive...
Which was right on the river!! (view from the deck across the street from our cabin!)
I had arranged a mounting climbing at
Nelson Rocks Preserve of the Via Ferrata on Saturday at noon - I was SO EXCITED for this. You can go
here to read about what a Via is.
Here we are on the hike to the start...
Here is the copperhead we saw on the hike to the start...well let me take that back...we walked right past it!! The last person in our group saw it and pointed it out to us...and at that point it was all curled up ready to get to business if we bothered it!!
Here I am hanging off the side of the mountain...
Here is the 'hardest part' of the climb...the blind corner...
And here is Jimmy peeking around the corner...
Here if you look very closely you can see a bridge that we are climbing to...we still had to go up and over to it...
Here we are getting a little closer to the bridge...you can see some of our fellow climbers here...
Here I am on the bridge looking down...we were about 150 feet up (or 1/2 way to our max height) here...
Here is Jimmy coming across the bridge...
And here is the view of the bridge once we crossed it and climbed up the other side of the mountain...we were about 250 feet up here...
Here is another look at the same bridge...we were now at the highest point...about 350 feet up...the views were amazing!!
Here I am at the top of the head wall...
Here is Jimmy after the climb at the top of the summit...(we could hike to this point)
Here are Jimmy and I at the summit...
We climbed for about 4-4 1/2 hours, it was unreal, so amazing and so much fun!!
When we got back to the cabin, we grilled out, I had made turkey burgers and brought them with us. And both mornings we were there we had scrambled eggs and french toast which we cooked as well.
I told Jimmy he could pick what he wanted to do the next day...and he chose to do nothing. And it was great!! We both very rarely get time to sleep in and just sit and relax, and it was wonderful, we walked around a little bit (our cabin was one of 18 in the little 'resort'), packed up the car and headed for a leisurely drive home.
We had an AMAZING weekend. We missed Charley and the dogs....but it was SO NICE to get away and spend time together. He said it was the best birthday weekend ever. And now I have done it...set a standard...and it wasn't even a big birthday! What am I going to do when he turns 30!? :)
Well that is one of the many things I have been up to...but you will be seeing a lot more of me around here :) hope that is ok!!
I will be back this weekend with an exciting announcement!!
We had a great 4th of July – on top of having a 3 day weekend as a family which was wonderful to start with! We went to a local beach with Roni and her family – then home for a nice long nap and then off to see the fireworks with them too! And Charley LOVED the fireworks!! Here are 2 quick picks of her taken Jimmy’s phone as we all forgot our cameras.
The fireworks were great and Charley was a trooper staying up past her bedtime too. I love taking her new places and seeing the joy and amazement on her face! She loved walking around the little fair before the fireworks and checking everything out!
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