We kicked off our summer with a little getaway to the Shenandoah Valley. When you live in the city you need to get into the country every once in a while! We stayed at a small cabin with a cool loft. The kids were digging it.

For what it’s worth, we have a theme every summer. A few years ago it was the summer of adventure. Last year was the summer of simple pleasures. This year we’re going with the summer of new experiences. And we had lots of them on our little trip.

We hiked up a little creek that was right behind our cabin and caught a watersnake. A little scary, but really cool. Amazing to see it slither through the water. The only downside is that I had to carry Summer and Josiah on my back after we caught the snake! Good workout.

We visited the Luray Caverns on Monday–the largest caverns on the East Coast. We went to Shenandoah River State Park and swam across the river. That was a really cool adventure, but there are so many rocks in the river that I had about a dozen cuts and scratches on my hands and legs! We topped it off with dinner at Cracker Barrel and called it a trip!