New encounters!!

I made a wonderful new discovery this week. And I can't seem to stop talking about it!! It is hard for me to believe that we have lived here for 4 years now and I didn't know about it prior. We live close to two entrances to the Massanutten mountainside. Both are marked that you have to have "permission" to enter and I don't enjoy doing things all that much without a clear conscience. So it was just about a month ago that we finally got our "pass" to be able to hike on the western slopes "legally." But with all the canning and other happenings, it was not until I had a wonderful friend visiting from Canada this week that I finally got our pass out and decided to take one of the trails to a lake that I was told was about a mile in.

It's a delightful hike - not very steep, a gravel or grass road the entire way, open pastures and some woods and then a large pond/small lake with picnic tables and what looks like the makings of a small campground. The following day I walked it with our neighbor K and then last evening after talking about it a lot, Jason and Kali were able to join me. We saw the most wildlife activity last night at dusk; a bunch of deer out and about as well as a red tailed hawk. Kali said she love, love, loved it times 10 or something like that.

We had just gotten home from being at Jason's sister's home for a short 24 hour visit with family. We had tented in her backyard which was fun and made us very interested in camping again! It was Kali's first experience of sleeping in a tent (she had camped in our little popup a number of times but not in the last 2 years) and she was very excited about it. Her excitement was tempered only by the fact that she was also very focused on falling asleep so that she could get her flu shot in her sleep, which she did and once again did not wake up. However, we are not fully convinced of the benefits of this approach. The first thing she said to me in the morning when she woke up was "Mommy did I get my flu shot yet?" When I assured her that she had, she got a big grin on her face and said, "I dreamed lots of dreams that you were trying to give it to me when I was awake." Poor girl!

I enjoyed waking up in the morning and looking out our tent right at a little red bud tree that A had planted in memory of Nora. I was grateful for the few moments I had to sit beside it.

Our walk last evening as a family after we got home left me feeling close to Nora. Maybe it was just the slowing down and the deep breaths I savored along the way. Maybe it was the beauty of our surroundings and being out in the natural world for an hour plus. When we got to the pond, Jason exclaimed, "It's so unfair that we live here." We hope to never take for granted how the beauty of our home and the outdoors around us plays a large roll in sustaining us. And hopefully we will also not forget to take the time to be out in it!! Tonight we'll be doing salsa again but for now I need to head to work.