The drive home- June.

To get to our cabin, we have to drive across the dam at Summersville Lake.

See those cars at the top of the dam? That's the road we take. We never thought to go down to the bottom to see how it looks from below.

Here's the view from up top. We love seeing the low river on one side and the full lake on the other side of the road. We especially like the signs that warn about the quickly rising river when the sirens sound.

We can't wait until we're all old enough to start renting boats to go out on the lake or maybe even brave the rapids.

Have we talked about Henry's new National Parks Passport book? You go to different national parks and collect the stamps? We got three stamps at the New River Gorge visitors center. That takes us up to 4 stamps. You can see the passport book in this picture as Henry takes a look at the Bridge. As soon as mama took this picture, he dropped the book off the edge.

Lucky for Henry, it was only about a 25 foot drop and papa was able to climb off the wooden walkway to the next lookout and retrieve it.

I'm pretty sure Henry is getting a stern talking to as papa made his was back onto the stairs. Thanks, papa!

Someone offered to take our picture, but we forgot to pay attention that we weren't standing in front of the bridge. This is definitely, the "We're all tired, dirty, and sweaty, you just dropped an irreplacable book off the edge of a cliff, June is whining and the baby is crying." shot. Sounds like the result of a good weekend. We went back up to the van and headed for home. The great part about the drive home was that the baby slept for 5 hours straight! We only stopped once and that was at CookOut (The best NC fast food joint ever!). We went through the drive through so as not to wake the baby. We got to watch "How to Train your Dragon" twice and eat hush puppies, so we were happy.

Before they dragged us back up the 150 steps to the parking lot, mama got one last shot of the bridge. Only 350 days left to psych herself up for the 3/4 mile walk across the underbelly. Gulp.

At the cabin- Georgie.

This is what it's like to be a baby in this family. You just get thrown on a coffee table and they expect you not to go anywhere. One of these days, I'm going to start rolling people! I think at this point, mama was a little mad at me because everyone was outside at the campfire, but I didn't like being out in the cold, even though I was bundled up. So she was stuck inside by herself watching the OSU-Wisconsin game. (But they kept showing shots of the lakes, the Farmer's Market and the Capitol all lit up at night, so she was feeling pretty melancholy about that too.)

Luckily, everyone started drifting back in before mama could feel too bad. (Though the Badger win felt good!) After a few rowdy rounds of Pit, everyone was feeling good.

We forgot to take a picture of the cabin we stay in, but mama did get this picture of a crisp, foggy fall morning from the porch. She loved it up there, especially because it is 85 degrees, muggy and overcast in SC today. (When is fall going to come???)

We love this picture! This is how Henry and June pay attention to me. Perched precariously over me, inches away from a knee to the belly.

When it warmed up a bit, we sent Sadie and Henry on a garbage run.

After we checked out of the cabin, no one much felt like heading home, so we went over to the Carnifex Ferry Battlefield next door and spent the afternoon playing. Throw me the ball, Pikes!

Isn't Aunt Girl pretty?

The big kids decided that the sand volleyball court would be the most fun.

Check out how filthy Henry is. Yuck. It should be noted that the entire weekend was punctuated by June and Sadie fighting. Sadie just wanted to be close to June and June just wanted to be left alone. Those two can really go at it. Luckily, once Henry showed up, Sadie's attention drifted to him and he actually wanted to play with other kids. The best part is that June spent 3 days asking for Sadie after we got home.

The view from on top of the mountain. Mama was a little bummed she didn't get to run the trails this year, but she was constantly attached to me and papa laid down some big threats after she ran in the rain last year, fell down a hill and came limping back to the cabin with bloody knees and a twisted ankle. We're happy to report that mama made it threw this vacation with no injuries.

That's a good looking family.

June didn't want to be a part of this shot.

And here's the whole group! I'm going to go ahead and call Cooper Bridge Day 3 a huge success! See you again next year!