Pipestem, West Virginia

Jase and I went to the Pipestem State Park and Lodge in West Virginia for the Memorial Day weekend. We met some of Jase's family there for their annual family reunion. Usually they do their reunion at the beach, but last year we went to Pipestem and decided to do it again this year because it was just so beautiful. While we were there we enjoyed playing outside, spending time with everyone, eating a great Sunday dinner (complete with Salmon and vermicilli), playing games, and lots and lots of hiking!






Jase and I got there on day earlier than everyone else so we wanted to camp. These pictures were taken at an overlook close to the campgrounds. Absolutely beautiful!



Let's camp!!

Jase securing our shelter for the night.


Our rooms were located down in a valley that you got to by riding a gondola down the mountain. You get a really pretty view of everything all around, but it gets kind of hot because the ride takes about 5 minutes and the sun is beating down on you and there isn't any air circualtion. It's definately a unique way to get to your lodging!



Picture of the gondola from the top of the mountain.



Picture of the gondola from the bottom of the mountain, at the lodge.

This is (almost) everyonewho came to Pipestem. We were heading out to take our first hike of the day.

This is the river that runs in front of where our rooms were.

THE BLUE CREW. From left to right: Liz (sister-in-law), James (Jase's brother), me, and Jase.

Like father, like son.

This is what happens at night when you're with the Olsen family. All the guys get together and watch the game, whichever one might be on that night, and the girls attempt to get everyone together to play a game. We took it easy on them this night because we all had a pretty busy day.

This was a huge black snake that we saw on one of our hikes. NASTY! but pretty cool.

Sorry Jase, I couldn't resist :) One of the hikes we went on had a river at the end that you had to cross. We did this hike last year and were shocked when we saw the river and realized that was the only way back. So we ended up crossing the river in our pants and tennis shoes. We almost died in the process because the river was up pretty high and there were slippery rocks everywhere. We wanted to do that same hike again this year because it was such a pleasant walk. So this year we came prepared. We made sure we had shorts on, and we brought water shoes in our backpacks and poles to help us cross. This is Jase gearing up to make the trek across. He looks like he can handle it, right?

This picture was taken while we were waiting for everyone to get ready to go on a hike. Getting Jase's family out the door to do something takes forever, so I decided to snap some pics of Jase and his mom and dad while we were waiting.

This was taken in our last ride up the gondola as we were leaving. We sure do miss Pipestem! It's always good to be home, though.