Every summer my mom’s side of the family gathers in Virginia for a two-day reunion. After a Friday evening dinner, my uncle and aunt generously allow us to gather on their property along the river for a fun-filled Saturday picnic. 

This year I was struck by how active the younger children were. They had kayaks and other water toys for playing in the dammed up river – two depths, one deep and one more shallow as pictured below. I watched as they tooled around using their kayaks not only in the traditional way, but also as standup paddleboards, and kickboards. Never once did they complain of being bored, and they only stopped playing long enough to eat lunch.

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Despite the fun they were having, one of the first things these little first cousins once removed ask when they saw me was, “Are we going to hike up Big Spring Branch today after lunch?” Over the last few years it’s become our tradition to make this fun and challenging hike, and this year our hikers ranged in age from eight to seventy-three. I’ll recap the hike later in the week when Bill and I’ve had a chance to pull together some of the video from the GoPro. In the meantime, I’ll tease you with this – there’s video of my cousin “accidentally” falling backwards while carrying me piggyback across one of the deep pools of water!

This year we were able to hike up each waterfalls to the next pool of water, over and over again until we reached the fresh-water spring; something I hadn’t done since I was in the second grade, and something I was thrilled to share with my cousins and their children.

Changing gears, thanks everyone for your kind compliments last week on my new infographic. For those of you who said you liked it, but you would never be able to make your own, I say, “If I can do it, so can you!” I didn’t know where to start, so I texted Meagan to see how she had made one for her blog. Her answer involved starting from scratch on PowerPoint and that’s above my skill level. 

I decided to Google infographic templates and found a set of ten from HubSpot. Luckily, their website include a video tutorial so once I downloaded them I was good to go. I had hoped to find a app or something similar to PicMonkey, but these templates that I use in PowerPoint work just as well. Again, thanks go to Tricia for the original idea.

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Fitness tools beyond the equipment in my gym that I used during the week included: 

Cameras used for blog photography include:

 

  • Questions:
  • What’s the most unusual hike you’ve taken?
  • Does your family have a yearly reunion? 
  • Did you race this weekend? 

 

Have a great week!

 

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on the blue product link and then make a purchase, I will receive a commission for referring you. You will pay no more or less for the product; however, Amazon will show their gratitude for my referral by paying me.

 

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I’m linking up with Holly at HoHo Runs and Tricia from MissSippiPiddlin for their Weekly Wrap.  Be sure to check out not only the hosts, but the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!

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