Poconos

One of the reasons we abandoned our search for a dog was so we could travel a little more and go away at a moment's notice...two things we found hard when we had a dog.

I'll admit, we are not HUGE travelers, we like the comfort of home, so we will be looking for a dog again soon...but for now, we are embracing not having one...

A couple of weekends ago we decided to do just that!

We packed up the car and headed to the Pocono Mountains!

so beautiful and rustic!  it was like another world!

We are nature people.  My husband works with trees.  he loves trees.  he is a little obsessed with trees.

When we were dating, one of our favorite things to do was go hiking.  We walked a good part of the Appalachian Trail, spent a week wilderness camping in the Green Mountain Park in Vermont, hiked Van Damme's Arm, spent a week hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains...when the girls were small it was difficult, but as they are getting older we hope to do more hiking and exploring.

a nice guy along the way offered to take our family photo :)

Bushkill Falls is called "The Niagara of Pennsylvania".  The two are so completely different.  Niagara Falls is huge and powerful and extremely tourist-y, whereas Bushkill Falls are peaceful and rustic and beautiful and serene.  Much more our style.  Not that we didn't enjoy Niagara, but it is VERY touristy and we usually shy away from that.

I love that Jason and I both love photography and hiking and nature

There were other people there the days we were there, but they kind of did their own thing and we did ours.

There are lots of places to stop and relax, picnic and reflect.

we sat in the spot we took this photo from for hours, having a picnic, talking, just enjoying some family time and the beauty of the place

Piper is full of fun!  

Allie is like my mom, she likes to read maps.  I don't.  I find them cumbersome and frustrating (maybe why I don't really like traveling??) and they get in the way of my being able to take pictures!  Allie, on the other hand, loves knowing where we are and how to get to the next place we want to be.  And she is really good at it--I am not, which is why my girls will forever remember when we first started homeschooling and I took them to a historical site and we got lost in the woods and they thought we would be eaten by bears! 

Allie was our official Map Reader :)

beauty, fun, family...

It was beautiful, it was majestic, it was peaceful.  It was good for the heart and the soul and easy on the eyes.  It was a fun time and we created beautiful memories.

there were 8 different waterfalls in this place--each one amazing and beautiful!

The girls took a several week Survivor class right before we went and pointed out places we could use for shelter along the way.  They also spotted natural springs and we all had to drink the water.  It was actually really, really good....better than bottled water!

potable water

we sat and enjoyed this spot for a while, too

I love these kinds of trips with my family.

they are so grown up...yet they still hold my hand :)

time spent like this is important for our family.

this just makes me feel calmer

Parts of the Poconos are very touristy and other parts are so old-fashioned, it's like time forgot them.  I loved this little bridge.  The toll taker stood outside and collected the money and then went inside to put it away!

i LOVED this little old bridge.  the guy stood there and collected tolls and then went inside to put them in a cash box.  Love the old-fashioned-ness of that!