Sandstone Falls

Today was a big adventure day, going to the Sandstone Falls, which is part of the New River Gorge National River. There’s a nice little parking area, and an easy hike down a well-maintained wooden boardwalk, with lots of natural trail offshoots. There are also multiple viewing areas from a few different levels, and it was so cool!

This little rocky beach area was at the end of one of the natural trails (off of the boardwalk) which was a really neat spot to play and explore and throw rocks and climb rocks and find these stacked rocks.

After the morning spent hiking by the river, we went to lunch at the Dairy Queen in Hinton, WV, which has been there forever and all of the family grew up eating there, and some even worked there. It’s built directly next to the river, and has an excellent dining room / seating area with beautiful views!

They’re apparently known for their buttered and toasted hot dog buns, so after hearing so much about that, of course that’s what I wanted to try out as well. And I wanted to save room for a delicious brownie batter mini blizzard.

And of course Addie Pie fell asleep on the way home after all that fun and adventure.

But she missed seeing this tiny baby deer right on the road as we were about to turn back into our house!

So, Nita and I had made a stop at Kroger with the girls, and then headed home so I could get Addie down for a nap. But Jeff, Dave and the boys made a detour to see the John Henry tunnel, which looks really cool, from the pictures at least!

We grilled out and made some cheeseburgers for dinner, with baked beans and some of the leftovers from last night. Then we went back outside to enjoy the amazing weather, and to play with the “toys” again.

This was actually the first time either of the boys had driven a 4-wheeler, but they caught on quickly and did pretty well. Ryan especially loved it, but almost had a little minor incident, but actually bailed and jumped off and rolled through the grass himself to keep himself from getting hurt, or from crashing/flipping the atv.

These little girls have loved getting to ride around on the mule, and got to ride about an hour between rides from Uncle Alfred and Jeff.

Absolutely beautiful sky to end the evening!

The kids all had Popsicles on the front porch after we got them off the machines, and then Jeff and I got the girls ready for bath and bedtime.

Addie was a little whiny tonight about sleeping in her bed, but ive been sitting on the floor by her whole writing this post, and I think she’s completely asleep now. Praying for a good night’s rest for everyone!