Erev Rosh Hashanah 2023

 

Crochet at Dartmouth

 Abby sent me some pictures of her wearing her new top around campus. She said she got compliments!

National Cream-Filled Doughnut Day

 

First Day of School. Dartmouth 2023

 

Dartmouth Move-in (Sophomore edition)

One of our bucket lists items was a family pic in front of Baker Tower, so we knocked that off as a break from moving

At the top of Mid-Mass, so they have these little dormer windows

Shot where you can see more of the room - Abby and Annabelle N. are in this room and Annabelle

H. has the room behind the closed door

Fall 2023 Drive to Dartmouth

We left from Virginia on Friday morning, after packing the car VERY full. We thought it would be a quick trip to Dartmouth from there, but the Tappan Zee bridge being closed detoured our plans a little. On the plus side, it was a more scenic trip across Vermont and we stopped at a fun little farm for lunch/restrooms:

Earrings and Crochet Tops

For the summer, Abby had a goal of getting her ears pierced. She decided it would be her birthday gift from Gammy, and she finally got it done right before she went back to school. She also asked if I might make a crochet top for her, which I likewise finished at the very last minute. Here she is modeling both:

First CHS Home Football Game 2023

 

National Anthem/Fight Song

Halftime Show

Stands Tunes

Benji, using his 3rd Quarter break to show the marching band drill program to Steph and Abby

Tonic Dinner, part 2

Sort of bookending the summer, we had another family dinner out on Tonic's patio on a lovely evening the week before Abby left:

String Art Fun (plus bonus water fun)

Abby and I had a lot of fun art outings this summer, which was a great way to spend some time together doing something we both enjoy. One night, I dug out this old string art kit and we each made a project:

We thought we were settling in for the night, but we had one last August bucket list item left, so we added on a little family water fight before we hit the sack:

National Rock, Paper, Scissors Day

 Benji kept pushing for rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock (from the Big Bang Theory), but we stuck to the old-fashioned version and had a family round robin:

Family Bowling Outing

 A men v. women bowling tournament was on our August bucket list:

The scores were a little embarrassing, but we had fun

Cooperative Meal

My new colleague Kim gave me a very thoughtful gift for my birthday, which was a plan for a cooperative family meal. We could not do it right away, but saved it for one of our last weekends together before Abby went back to Dartmouth:

Kim gave us each a separate envelope, with instructions not to open them until we were in a grocery store and not to show them to each other

Ready to hit the Kroger

Everyone's envelope had instructions on a category of food to buy (vegetable, fruit, protein, starch, etc) and a little money - we were told not to talk about/share what we bought until we got home

The challenge was to put it all together into a meal without adding anything from home but spices/condiments

We cheated a little to make the meal more to our liking, but honored the spirit of it 

National Banana Split Day

 

First Day of School 2023

 

Kevin was kind enough to take pictures before they left for early morning Marching Band

I made him take another one after school because I like a full body shot to match the other years

Ruth's 48th Birthday

 It was a quiet day as we all had work and school, but we had dinner out and cake:

hand painted card from Abby

And a drawn one from Benji

Funny card from a co-worker

Who also brought me flowers

New River Gorge National Park, Day 2

After much debate, we decided not to get up for a sunrise hike on Sunday, but to set the alarm to hike early enough to beat the crowds. We chose Long Point, which is one of the most popular hikes in the park, and were glad for the decision to set out early. We found an empty parking lot at the trailhead at 8am and passed only one other set of hikers on the way out. By the time we were nearly back to the start, we were passing dozens of people. By the time we got back to the parking lot, it was full:

More rhododendrons (this part of the hike is called rhodi alley)

As you reach the "long point" the path gets relatively narrow with steep drop-offs on both sides

The view that makes this hike famous

More wildflowers on the trail - noticed them a lot more on the way back:

After the hike (plus showering for most of us), we headed to downtown Fayetteville for brunch at Cathedral Cafe, so named because it is in an old cathedral:

Abby and I did a little shopping before it was time to head to our next activity:

We had just enough time left to check out the main visitor's center and finally get our sign picture:

This is the view from out back of the visitor's center

This is the canyon rim view, which is down a little path from the center

From here, we checked in at Bridge Walk, where we got our gear and instructions for walking across the catwalk under the bridge:

Sign in the bridge walk store. We did not show it to Kevin until after we were done

First look at the underside of the bridge

Abby is ready to roll

Benji and Kevin, before stepping out

The view straight down

The view out was beautiful

Half-way point - directly over the river

The guide invited us to sit down here, which Benji happily did

Several times, the guide pointed out fun notes left by the engineers

All done!

After some ice cream to replenish us, we headed to our last stop: Thurmond Depot. In its boom days, Thurmond saw hundreds of trains come in and out every day, but it is a ghost town now. Much to Benji's delight, however, Amtrak still runs in and out several times a week:

coal tower

To the left of the railroad bridge, there is a one-lane bridge you have to drive on to come in and out of Thurmond. It is not short, and it is surreal to drive across it knowing that it runs in both directions