when it's cold and winter is upon us, the snow comes up, just like the flowers
It's been quite the week! Enough that I want to post about it, at least. We've spent the last few years really enjoying getting rid of the kids for the xmas week, and going somewhere secluded to relax and be outside. This year was no different, except that family obligations poked their head in, so we went back to Ohio instead of elsewhere.
Sunday we dropped off the Boy and said hi to xuth's family, then drove down to The Tree House in Hocking Hills, which is sadly not actually a tree house, just a house surrounded by trees, but it was still quite nice. We had a relaxing evening in, with plans to hike on Monday and go back north to see friends in the evening. Then Xuth woke up feverish in the middle of the night - not sick enough to panic over, but sick enough that he definitely wasn't going anywhere until it subsided, so we stayed an extra day in the cabin, with me catching up on some rereading and Xuth fitfully sleeping off whatever ick it was.
Cedar Falls in the mistBy late afternoon on Monday his temperature was down, and desire to do something besides sit inside was up, and the light rain had mostly let up, and Cedar Falls was only a few miles away, so we drove out and walked around slowly for a bit in the cold mist.
Xmas day we spent a loud and active day with his family and a quiet evening with rms_butterfly and fam. Sometime after retiring for bed and talking to my parents on the phone my stomach started feeling icky and upset, and I spent the next few hours lying as still as I could and feeling awful before it mysteriously subsided and I could sleep. I woke up in the morning feeling relatively fine, although by this point both Xuth and I had residual coughs that were making us feel not great overall.
river and fall at GlenlaurelWinter had finally decided to come in a variety of ways by the morning on Wednesday, so we drove through wind, hail, sleet, rain, and snow, at different places and times, on the way back to the house to say goodbye to family and pack the car with excess Stuff that had been acquired, before making our way (in slow, snow-covered traffic) back down to Hocking, this time to Glenlaurel, a cute and fantastically pretentious inn/B&B we had a gift cert for. They did have a fairly spacious woodsy land to explore, so we spent a couple hours leisurely hiking along their small gorge.
Thursday, our last day out, we finally got to spend time wandering through some Hocking parks, both of us still coughing and feeling slightly cruddy, but that was in no way going to keep us from going out. We visited three parks, hiked a couplefew miles in various places, took some pictures, but by late afternoon I was pretty much done for and ready to sit for the rest of the night. We returned to the Inn for a tasty (and pretentious) dinner, then a late drive back home to Pittsburgh.
adding some colorFriday I tackled the ice and snow on our sidewalks, as Pittsburgh had decided to allow winter in while we were gone. The rest of the weekend has been mostly doing a lot of lazing about, cooking various things, shoveling show, going to a couple parties, and attempting to get over these coughs. Mine has settled into being the better part of laryngitis and some vague coughing after I did a bunch of talking/socializing on Friday afternoon, and sounds pretty awful, but I'm otherwise feeling fine, so I think it's just the last bit of recovery. I made some pretty ice decorations and took a long walk through Frick yesterday.
Tonight we're off to another low-key party, hopefully one where I don't have to talk too loudly. Going to ring in de new year all quiet und sottle-like. Yarrrr.
Sunday we dropped off the Boy and said hi to xuth's family, then drove down to The Tree House in Hocking Hills, which is sadly not actually a tree house, just a house surrounded by trees, but it was still quite nice. We had a relaxing evening in, with plans to hike on Monday and go back north to see friends in the evening. Then Xuth woke up feverish in the middle of the night - not sick enough to panic over, but sick enough that he definitely wasn't going anywhere until it subsided, so we stayed an extra day in the cabin, with me catching up on some rereading and Xuth fitfully sleeping off whatever ick it was.
Cedar Falls in the mistBy late afternoon on Monday his temperature was down, and desire to do something besides sit inside was up, and the light rain had mostly let up, and Cedar Falls was only a few miles away, so we drove out and walked around slowly for a bit in the cold mist.
Xmas day we spent a loud and active day with his family and a quiet evening with rms_butterfly and fam. Sometime after retiring for bed and talking to my parents on the phone my stomach started feeling icky and upset, and I spent the next few hours lying as still as I could and feeling awful before it mysteriously subsided and I could sleep. I woke up in the morning feeling relatively fine, although by this point both Xuth and I had residual coughs that were making us feel not great overall.
river and fall at GlenlaurelWinter had finally decided to come in a variety of ways by the morning on Wednesday, so we drove through wind, hail, sleet, rain, and snow, at different places and times, on the way back to the house to say goodbye to family and pack the car with excess Stuff that had been acquired, before making our way (in slow, snow-covered traffic) back down to Hocking, this time to Glenlaurel, a cute and fantastically pretentious inn/B&B we had a gift cert for. They did have a fairly spacious woodsy land to explore, so we spent a couple hours leisurely hiking along their small gorge.
Thursday, our last day out, we finally got to spend time wandering through some Hocking parks, both of us still coughing and feeling slightly cruddy, but that was in no way going to keep us from going out. We visited three parks, hiked a couplefew miles in various places, took some pictures, but by late afternoon I was pretty much done for and ready to sit for the rest of the night. We returned to the Inn for a tasty (and pretentious) dinner, then a late drive back home to Pittsburgh.
adding some colorFriday I tackled the ice and snow on our sidewalks, as Pittsburgh had decided to allow winter in while we were gone. The rest of the weekend has been mostly doing a lot of lazing about, cooking various things, shoveling show, going to a couple parties, and attempting to get over these coughs. Mine has settled into being the better part of laryngitis and some vague coughing after I did a bunch of talking/socializing on Friday afternoon, and sounds pretty awful, but I'm otherwise feeling fine, so I think it's just the last bit of recovery. I made some pretty ice decorations and took a long walk through Frick yesterday.
Tonight we're off to another low-key party, hopefully one where I don't have to talk too loudly. Going to ring in de new year all quiet und sottle-like. Yarrrr.