Wild and Wonderful West Virginia

Greetings! We're back from a lovely week in West Virginia. We try and go to the family cabin out there whenever we can. We went three times last year after Z was born, but this was the first time it was warm enough for him to get in the water. West Virginia changed their state's slogan to "Open for Business", but we prefer their old slogan (see title above).

That's my Ben water skiing!

First dip in the lake!

Ben, his sisters Bekah, Debbie, cousin Megan and brother, Andy canoed across the lake to climb a mountain. We watched them with binoculars and talked on walkie talkies from the dock. The day before a bunch of canoers went across the lake to swing off a rope swing we hung a few years back.

Grampa doesn't let just anybody drive his boat! Look at the face Z is making!

Gramma H and my beautiful nieces, Jenna and Ally
On our boat ride we spotted a beaver house (shown below). The day before we went on a traditional deer ride where we crammed 14 people in the bed of a very, very, old pick-up truck and looked for deer. I think we spotted around 15 deer. Earlier that day two of our campers spotted a black bear on a walk!

OK, now this is a funny story. Stay with me! Since last Fall Gramma H has been finding these unidentified seeds (shown below) inside the cabin! If anyone knows what they are, we'd be most grateful! First she found them under some clean sheets on a bed in a neat little pile, then she found them under some pillows in the living room. We suspected a practical joke by the younger kids, but they kept turning up. The latest incident was two weeks ago. Get this, a pile of them (maybe a half cup) were found INSIDE a nearly empty roll of paper towels that was standing on it's end high up on a little shelf in the kitchen. We can barely reach this shelf, so we knew it couldn't be a little kid. There's no droppings anywhere in the house, so, it can't be a mouse or rat. There's been no destruction in the house to suggest a squirrel or chipmunk. We're just dumbfounded as to what these things are (they're not droppings, see the broken shell?), and what put them in the cabin! We cracked one open with pliers and there was green seedy stuff inside, no odor to speak of. Hopefully, someone out there can shed some light on the matter!

Anyways, while there, we also got a little target practice in with Ben's 9mm semi-automatic, went dirt biking, hiking (picked wild flowers), had campfires (and s'mores of course!), fireworks, did a bunch of reading and relaxed in the hammock. Truly a lovely place to be. Thank you Great Grandpa Stahl for building a family cabin for us to enjoy!