Summer Road Trip Part IV- Laurel Fork, VA

We love the Brown Family!!! Our good friends Aaron and Jenny live in Laurel Fork, VA- one of the most beautiful areas of VA in my opinion. They live on 30(+/-) acres near the parkway and it is always so peaceful to spend time up there. We had such an amazing time with this great family that the pictures don't even do it justice.
The dads took the kids for a ride all around the property one afternoon and they spent 2 days building a fort in the woods. I am so sad that I didn't get any pictures of the fort because they worked so hard at clearing a spot in the woods and building the foundation. Every kid helped and had a tool in hand which made the process even more fun.
I call Jenny my pioneer/homesteader friend and while the boys were building the fort, she was teaching me how to can. We managed to can 21 quarts of peaches. I messed a few of them up a little, but Jenny is a very patient teacher and I realized that canning isn't nearly as complicated as I initially thought.
Aaron is a landscaper and he collected a huge pile of brush so we could have a bonfire. This has been a tradition every time we visit. This was the biggest bonfire yet- it was huge. The funny thing was that Jenny had a little patch of sunflowers last year and one lone sunflower came up in the same spot this year. Well, Aaron put the brush pile right next to it. Jenny hugged it good-bye and then it went up in flames- I could tell she was crying inside as it burned! So sad.
On Sunday we had a great time visiting with Jenny's family. We had a bible reading on her parent's back porch overlooking the mountains and we shared a great lunch together. Then we went swimming in the creek. The kids thought it was really cool to drive through the open ford. Matt is really good at skipping rocks and spent a lot of time teaching our kids how to find the perfect rock and showing them the proper throwing technique. Elijah caught a fish. The little boys enjoyed playing in the mud and they actually found a really muddy bank and turned it into a mud slide. They were so dirty, but as my Papaw used to say "a little dirt helps kids grow".
Our kids loved being able to spend so much time playing with their buddies. Savannah took a special liking to Ezra and kept trying to convince me that she was a very capable babysitter (which she is and will be a fabulous mommy someday). Little Katie Mae and Jonas really enjoyed chasing each other around. Elijah and Savannah loved putting together big puzzles every morning- it became a morning tradition and setting up elaborate scenes with the toys. Alan and Caleb just enjoyed getting dirty.
Our last day we went for a hike up Buffalo Mountain. The view from the top was breathtaking. You could see for miles and miles in all directions. Elijah felt like he was on top of the world. Finally, we had a picnic at Mabry Mill on the Parkway. It seemed like the perfect day and it was sad to get in the car and come home.
The thing I always recognize now when I spend time in the country and in nature is how much noise pollution we are subjected to in the city. My ears felt relieved to just listen to the wind blow and the crickets chirrup minus the sirens, trains, cars, horns and airplanes. It was so nice to sit under the stars without street lights dimming the view. It is so easy to recognize and appreciate all the things that God created without so many man-made obstacles in the way.
So thank you sweet Brown family for a relaxing mountain getaway. Don't be surprised if we set up a permanent tent on your property!