Wild Wonderful West Virginia

Well, the Buterbaughs survived a weekend that was both Wild and Wonderful.

Highlights included:

• Meeting my new nephew Stratton -- who is at that adorable bald and toothless stage
• Getting to spend some time with my soon-to-be sister-in-law Carlee. Anyone who can enjoy a weekend in a cabin with no electicity or running water with 15 future in-laws gets an A+ in my book!
• Shooting the rapids in the Greenbriar River directly behind our cabin. It was so cool we could just walk out of our cabin to the river. The first day the river was low and we could all scoot through these rapids easily. After a night of rain though the river was much higher the second day. Gabe and Peter served as life guards to help each of us through a very wild ride in the white water!
  
• Watching Bute5 and his cousin Dawson become fast (and loud!!) friends. This is the first time they have been together when they could really enjoy a playmate the same age and they were really wound up together! They played this game where they ran around "axing" and "chopping" things which they just found hilarious
  

Low lights included:

• Watching Bute4 (who is terribly afraid of the dark) sniffle himself to sleep clutching his flashlight in his hands, wishing for his closet light that we usually leave on all night for him
• Walking to the out house in the middle of the night in the pouring rain. Actually being out in the rain in the middle of a pitch black night might me think of the John Denver song, when he says "You fill up my senses ... like a walk in the rain". It was a very sensory experience, that I probably would not have had, if I had not been forced to
• Getting our car stuck on a switch back on the mountains while looking for our cabin. We were way in the wrong place -- (thanks Google maps!) and this picture gives you no idea how precarious our situation felt. We would up in someone's driveway, with our car hopeless unable to turn around, tilting at a terrifying angle. We actually climbed out of our car and walked down the side of the mountain until we found a very kind and helpful family who took Jeff to the State Park where he rounded up Dad, Gabe and Eric to help push our car out of the wheel spinning position and back it down those switchbacks... In the meantime the kids and I spend several hours waiting in the family's very nice backyard.