a post with no cute pictures of or stories about the boys

As my post title warns, this post is about some fun Daddy A and I had while our children were in the care of some wonderful babysitters. There are no pictures of or stories about our adorable children in this post. If that's what you're here for, come back soon, because vacation pictures are on the way! In the meantime, if you care to hear about our adventures, read on.

About a week and a half ago, Daddy A and I had the privilege of going to the Saint Andrews Society dinner in Blowing Rock with some good friends of ours from church. They invited us to come up in the afternoon for a bit of hiking, and then we headed out to dinner that evening. We had a blast!

I did say "hiking" in the previous paragraph. However, I quickly found out that what we were actually doing was going rock climbing. This is our friend Scott. I discovered during our adventures that he's actually part mountain goat.

He grew up in Blowing Rock, so I suppose it's possible that his expertise at jumping about on large piles of rock comes partly from practice, but I'm sticking with my mountain goat theory.

Here we are by this awesome waterfall. I'd call it our "money shot," but the picture doesn't really do the waterfall justice. Instead I'll call it our "we hiked up to this waterfall and here's our touristy picture to prove it" shot.

And here's Scott and Amy's "we hiked up to this waterfall and here's our touristy picture to prove it" shot. Except they're not tourists, since they grew up in Blowing Rock. But I guess, since they were with us, they decided to take a touristy picture, too. Or maybe we asked them to take one... the details aren't that important. Here's the photo:


We went back to Scott's parents' house to shower and get ready for dinner. I'd say we cleaned up pretty well...


We laughed, enjoyed food and fellowship, and sang Scottish tunes. We met new people, we ate delicious desserts, and chatted with our friends outside of our church building. We came home relaxed and refreshed... and then I left with the boys the next day for vacation with Grandma Paige and Poppa Fred. Pictures will be posted soon!