Valley Falls and Frisbee Golf

The boys have a new hobby: Frisbee Golf. I don't know why George Costanza's "Frolf" didn't catch on as a name....but apparently, this is a real sport. We went to the sporting goods store and bought real discs to throw and everything. The .50 frisbees I found at Target just didn't cut it for this highly competitive game.

Anyway, between rounds of Frolf (as I will now be calling it), I drug the family to Valley Falls. It was a beautiful day on Saturday, but we didn't have time to go far. So I fed the troops some dinner and stuck them in the car.

After trekking back to the bathroom once, we finally crossed the train tracks (still active, one of my favorite parts of living in WV. I love the sound of the trains. Of course, we live across the river and up the hill....so the train sounds we get are pleasant.)



Then past the site of the old grist mill. Incidentally, that's just a fancy name for a place to grind grain into flour. Why couldn't they just call it that so I wouldn't have to google it?



Since we just got a considerable amount of rain, the falls were up a little. That means some fast, serious water. I gave the boy a good talk about how you don't even mess with water like that (swimming used to be allowed at the falls....but people died to often and now it's not. Still, every few years someone will fall in or slip on the rocks....and the outcome is never good).

Also....will someone please tell everyone to stop sending my husband shirts like this? It's bright yellow and says "ABC Affiliates are Great". Please, just send him a polo shirt please. The man will be a walking advertisement to anything....so let him do it in style.



Even Jordan sat still for a few minutes in awe of all that powerful water.



Man, that's some serious water.



Then we had to feed the geese. On the way out the door I discovered that the stale bread I'd been saving was looking a little....erm, green. In my panic (since I already told the kids we'd feed the geese) I grabbed a pack of stale tortillas and prayed that geese like tortillas.

They do. Even when a toddler lobs huge chunks in the water like some kind of edible frisbee.



Then we had to play on the swirly slide.




Then for my favorite (and my husband's least favorite) part of the evening: adventure and exploration!

When I was in college I used to picnic with a group of sorority sister (an academic one, FYI). Once, one of the girls promised she knew where a swimming hole (not in the dangerous falls river) was, and we hiked to it. I'm afraid that we hiked on the train tracks (umm, a bit of a no-no) so I wasn't about to break the law with kids in tow. We set off on the Rhododendron Trail which runs parallel to the tracks and the river. I figure we ought to at least be able to find it that way.....but I was pretty sure it was quite a hike.

In any case, we set off. Chris was convinced the trail was covered with snakes or bears and soon had the boy convinced of the same. We had to stop for a toddler pee-pee break and Celia managed to pee all over MY pants (but not hers). Finally, I got worried that my little girl might get tired (we didn't have the jogger stroller, so she was hiking too) and I didn't' want to go farther than I could piggy back her back, if need be.

She did quite well, though I did piggy back her just to get us out of there faster since the boys were having a complaining contest and getting on my last nerve. I can't wait to get the bike trailer so we can ride farther up the trail and maybe find that swimming hole.

And if any of my long lost Sigma Alpha Iota sisters are out there.....can you clue me in on how far it was....and what to look for to find it?