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Sunday, June 17, 2012

Weekend with Marmee and Papa!!!

Well, we just had our first visitors to Morgantown, WV.  Marmee and Papa Lattin, also known and Christine and Dan Lattin came for a visit.  We had a very delightful and action-packed weekend together.
 The fun began Friday morning.  We rented a couple of canoes and went down Cheat Lake.  The water was surprisingly calm and there were not many boats on the lake that day.  Marmee and papa were in one canoe with John and I in another. 
Taking a break for lunch

We enjoyed the very green scenery and then ate a lunch of bagels, carrot sticks, and apples.  The hardest part was transporting the canoes, but luckily nothing terrible happened.
We then hiked around the WVU Arboretum and saw chipmunks, birds, and to my dismay, a snake.

Dinner was next on the list and had to take our visitors to a local Morgantown restaurant-'Black Bear.'  When we arrived it was pretty packed, but there was a local banjo-player performing and the food, although a little spicy, was delicious.

At the end of our hike in Ohiopyle

Johnny carrying me so I didn't have to get my feet wet




Saturday morning began with a filling breakfast at the Marriott.  We then ventured to Ohiopyle-a national park just north of Morgantown.  We went along a gorgeous hike and enjoyed good conversation, a couple of big dogs and some more bagels for lunch.  On our hike we were surrounded by more green and several soft falling waterfalls.



Ohiopyle has a couple of natural water slides.  John and I tried to convince Marmee and Papa to join us on the natural water slide, but were unsuccessful.  It was a good experience.
John went a little further than myself through the section of the slide entitled, 'the Meat Grinder,' I was not as daring.






We then ate delicious ice cream and walked along the bridge overlooking more waterfalls.  Ohiopyle is a very beautiful national park.  I am still unsure as to why it is called Ohiopyle because no part of the park is actually in Ohio, however, many West Virginian and Pennsylvania residents enjoy it.
Lastly, we were able to visit the grounds of 'Fallingwater.'  Built, in 1935, by the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright, this beautiful home draws many visitors (I sound like a tour guide).  The grounds were breath-taking and the architecture was really quite remarkable.  Johnny and I both noted a gym would not be required if we owned this amount of personal property.
For dinner we decided an a quieter, more traditional restaurant.  Marmee and Papa enjoyed Talapia fish, I had tasty coconut shrimp as did Johnny.  Games were next.  We introduced Marmee and Papa to the game 'Apples to Apples,' and laughed a lot while playing it.

Outside our apartment on Sunday
Sunday was a beautiful day, as usual.  Church always makes life better.  I was excited to introduce Marmee and Papa to all the wonderful people in our ward and allow them to put a name with the face.  Marmee was actually needed in Primary.  She helped out as the Primary chorister while I played the piano-the children loved her.


Finally, there visit to West Virginia would not be complete without a calming Sunday drive out to Cooper's Rock and the overlook.  All that can be seen is a sea of green and a great view of our little Morgantown.  As you can tell from the picture it was very sunny.

I was very saddened our visitors trip was almost to an end.  We ended the eventful weekend by creating a Sunday dinner and cooking Marmee's famous cinnamon rolls.  I think Papa and Johnny enjoyed them the most!  Thanks for coming out and visiting us in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia!!

Monday, June 4, 2012

Columbus, I go!

Over the long Memorial Day weekend, my Johnny was going to be studying his hardest to complete his final class of his first year of med school.  I had Friday and Monday off of work, therefore to Columbus, OH, I went.  I stayed with one of the funnest, happiest, coolest women alive Jill Mangum (previously known as Jill Gill).  We had experience several adventures in Provo, mostly biking.  So, of course, we had to go on a bike ride.  We rode all along the gorgeous rail trail and OSU campus.  Jill and I ate ice cream, walked a lot, ventured out to a bbq and a Memorial day breakfast together.

 On Sunday we roamed the delightful streets of Columbus.  Here, Jill is showing me the large trees which line many of the streets of Columbus.  Columbus is very similar to Morgantown, no sidewalks, but different in that the roads are wider. 







After remembering good times as anatomy TA's together, it was time for me to leave.  I will never forget the wonderful weekend I spent in Columbus with Jill.  Nor, the spectacular pecan cheesecake Jill's mother-in-law created (it honestly riveled The Cheesecake Factory).  I gave my Jill Gill a big hug good-bye and started the 3 hour drive home- I had missed my Johnny.  Actually, the first night away from him, I could not fall asleep and finally text him at 2 am...to my delight he could not sleep either.  We missed each other!