... to murphy (-ish)

we were home from the beach barely long enough to do some laundry and buy some groceries, before heading down I-40 in the opposite direction to join the basses at their mountain house.  the surroundings gave the weekend a totally different vibe, but no matter which side of the state we happen to find ourselves, we always have an amazing time with them.

last week it was a turtle in the middle of the road; this week it's a fish that web caught ... but notice that susanna is always happy to post near the animal without having to touch it.  momma didn't raise no dummy

liam was the only mann to catch anything -- and it wriggled off the line before he could pull it all the way out.  and sadly, we have no photo proof of it.  which sort of goes along with what they say about fishermen anyway, right?

s'mores over a firepit on a cool mountain evening ... if there's a better dessert, i don't know it

after last year's tubing debacle, it took some convincing for liam to try it again ... but he did, and we had a blast.  here's our motley crew, minus the photographer bill, in a haphazard conglomeration of tubes, floats, and an unpictured kayak

our saturday evening hike was calm and peaceful ...

... until this happened.  (i did get through it, after i forced myself to stop laughing)

i have no idea what marshall was wishing for, but i'm pretty sure susanna's wish was that her mother not embarrass her by getting stuck in a fence ever again

our final afternoon took us up off the blue ridge parkway -- and for some reason, provides us with the only photos of liam.  (not quite sure how that happened)

yep, that's marshall and susanna again ... but only because we three opted to end our hike after the picnic lunch in the meadow, while the rest of the group retrieved the car

a liam sighting again!