Another Fun Weekend: Babcock and Baseball

As if our summer hasn't been fun enough, we rounded it out with a great weekend of camping, hiking, fishing, and watching baseball. Above is a fampic in front of one of West Virginia's famous landmarks, the Grist Mill. You can find this frequently-postcarded structure within Babcock State Park, where we spent Friday afternoon through Sunday morning.

We did the usual camping stuff, including catching bluegill, sitting by the campfire roasting marshmellows, and hitting the park playgrounds, and even swimming a bit in the pool. We also had what we now call "snobby Smores" which uses Hershey's Symphony bars instead of the normal chocolate. And more than anything, we hiked hiked hiked:

Autumn wanders among the rhododendren, a common West Virginia native species.

Autumn, Evan, and Momma rest along the aptly-named "Island-in-the-Sky" hiking trail. Trailhead notes: WATCH YOUNG CHILDREN CAREFULLY. They are still alive, so I guess we followed directions okay enough.

Saturday morning we hiked around the beautiful Boley Lake, where Autumn took this picture of Mom and Dad.

Before our camping extravaganza, we went to see a game of our local single-A baseball club, the West Virginia Power, in downtown Charleston. Several of Mark's co-workers and their families were in attendance, as this was an organized out-of-office social event. It was pretty cool, but the kids (especially Autumn) quickly went into melt-down mode - too tired I guess. But they both loved the mascot (that silly coal dude on the lower left) and Evan was a power swinger at the kids' batting activity.