Uncle Ryan, shredding

Uncle Ryan came to visit us for the weekend and Allen took him shredding.  He also wore my yoga pants.  :/  But Allen blocked him in most of the pics, and I just told the world he wore my yoga pants, so there. 

Same pic over 6 years

I love, and hate, these looks back through the years!  They were so little, though we're having a lot of fun now that they're bigger too.  The water's been too high to do the natural waterslides so far this year. 

2007: 2009:
2011:

2013:

Shredding

Allen and Josh decided to try out the shredder instead of kayaking (and they may be hooked!)  They had a great time and hit all their lines.  Lizzy and I still spin like a top and seem to stick every rock, so we have some kinks to work out.  Or not.  :)

We deal with Jack every time.  He cries like crazy and wants to rescue them.  If he weren't such a baby, we'd take him down the river.  But we're a bit afraid he'll try to rescue other boaters too.  Crazy dog.  

 

Kayaking

We spent a great month in Middleofnowhere PA kayaking and shredding.  And hiking to the river to photograph the kayaking and shredding.  This was Matt's second run on the Yough.  He did the loop and didn't flip on Cucumber this time.  We renamed it Mattcumber.  :)
Sorry, I couldn't choose favorites, so I'm just posting them all!

 

 

 

 

 Videos too.  Allen, then Matt on river left.


Josh, on river right.

Swimming with the manatees

In December, we took the kayaks and shredder out, not for whitewater fun, but to swim with the manatees at Crystal Springs.  They like to hang out near the 70° springs and so do we.  We took Uncle Ryan when he was visiting and had a great day.  I bought a cheap, disposable, waterproof camera and finally got them developed in May, five months later.  :) The pics stink, guess you do get what you pay for.  But we got a few to at least help us remember. 

3rd Nomadiversary!

It's our THIRD year on the road!  It's hard to believe it's been three years already, but at the same time, we feel like we've lived on the road forever.  We love the motion and exploring new areas, but always having the familiarity and comforts of home. Will we ever "settle down"?  Well, it feels like we already have.  We've settled into our life of travel.
This year, instead of cake, we celebrated with chocolate lasagna and milk shakes.  We still used our (Josh's) toy truck & RV (cake decoration).

2012

2011

We've hit 47 states so far in our 3 years.  Only a few to go! 

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Family on the river

We took our first family trip on the Yough together, Lizzy & I shredding while the boys all kayaked. It was so fun, even though Lizzy and I have not mastered the shredder. We didn't flip, or fall out, but it wasn't pretty. We didn't hit our lines and kept getting stuck, but hey, a day not IN the river is a success! I used up the rest of the waterproof camera pics (from the manatees in Dec!) so the pics stink, but at least they prove we were on the river. :)  Allen and Matt both had a little swim on Cucumber (Mattcumber), mainly because of the frigid water! 

Table Rock State Park

We heard about some great  hiking in South Carolina, so we stopped by Table Rock State Park.  Great hiking means two very different things to Allen and me, but I survived the strenuous climb up over 3000 feet (ugh!) and it was indeed worth it, as it always is. 

 See? Not exaggerating! 

 We had a great rest at the top.

 

This part looked so much like Maine!  Except no blueberries.  Those blueberries were a great bonus for each hike.  Our tangerines were okay, but it wasn't the same. 

 This wasn't even a steep part.

I'll admit sometimes I pretend to care about getting a good picture just so I can rest.  I really don't care about these whatever flowers, I just needed my heart rate to slow and to feel my legs. 

My sweet Matt left me some flowers and notes along the trail.   :)

More pics: