For the first part of the vacation, we drove to Nemocolon, an amazing resort south of Pittsburgh up in the mountains. We met the Harney's and Grampy and Kay for a 4 day great vacation. It was ~5 hour car ride. Noah...stop asking "are we there yet!"
 |
| Sophie couldn't wait to see Uncle Kyle. We kept telling her he was silly, but she kept calling him "weird". |
 |
| Sisters |
 |
| The kids had a ball together. This is a great picture of all 4, right after we told them "Stay off the rock"! |
 |
| Grampy and Kay up ahead. Noah and his mom. |
 |
| Boys |
 |
| Noah and Sophie were watching Evan and Josh on the rock wall. |
Sophie was going to do it all. The Harney's were going to climb the rock wall. And so was she. She is getting all geared up with helmet and harness
 |
| It was Josh'd Birthday today and he was amazing going up the wall... |
 |
| And then our little monkey. |
 |
| She did great. Look how high she made it. What a monkey. |
 |
| Meanwhile, Noah was doing paintball target shooting. This was fun! |
 |
| Is this good parenting? |
What next. Well I couldn't believe it. They have an enormous Zipline called Fatbird. It is ~3000 yards total, over 40 ft in the air, goes over trees and a beautiful pond, down to a tower where you change to a second zip line to the bottom. Crazy, but there is no age limit. The kids were used to zipping from Arrowhead where they both conquered "Big Z". Well Big Z was a baby line compared to what was coming up. Harness up.....
We were all planning on doing it, though pretty confident Noah and Sophie wouldn't go through with it. David, scared of heights, was anxious to stay with them and watch the others go.
Sophie and Kyle walking up to the start.
Evan took the lead and was the first one off. You can't get the perspective, but if you look closely you will see the line goes over a stand of tall pine trees then a pond. you can't even see the tower where it stops (midway mind you!)--it's a tiny spec in the distance. The zip line is probably 40 ft off the ground and 100s of feet down. You zip to a tower where they unhook you, and then go to a second line at the bottom of the chair lift...which takes you back up.
Noah and David were getting ready to go. David was pretty scared. The only reason he could do it was because he was CERTAIN Noah would NEVER be able do it. He would back out at the end, and David would have an easy excuse to say "sorry...I have to stay with Noah. He was shocked, scared, amazed when all of the sudden Noah let go and yelled "ZIPPING!". Watch this video below or check it out on Youtube. We can't believe Noah went down. And then wanted to do it again!!! So proud of this brave guy.
That was nuts, right? Well check out this brave crazy little 4 year old girl strapped into the zip line "a little scared", who yells "Zipping" with a big smile and lets herself go! Go Sophie! This first video is just waiting to go (
http://youtu.be/cBDPm8yg_Hs)
And then...."I'm Zipping"! This one you have to watch on youtube. It's took big for the blog.
http://youtu.be/PYgEO8W1Bfs This is must-see!
At the bottom of the zip line is a "brake" that slows you down coming into the platform. It works great for grown up. The little kids often get stopped short of the platform. They have a set up where they slide out a rope for you to grab and pull you in the rest of the way--that worked great for Noah, Evan, Josh. Sophie was so little and light, that she stopped even farther out than the rope could reach. One of the guys had to climb out on the wire to her and pull her in. Kathy was with her. Don't think David could you watch. She was dangling 40 feet in the air from her harness laughing and joking.
What a fun start to vacation. More excitement to come.
