a day in the nog

Somebody and I woke up at 4:45 a.m. this morning. We were in the car and on our way by 5:45 a.m. What on earth, you ask, would get us up and moving that early on a holiday? It was the promise of breakfast in the mountains. Usually when we have breakfast in the mountains we are meeting up with my aunt, uncle, and cousins, but this time I had somehow talked my sister into hosting the event. I think she set the crazy early time to try and get us to back out of the arrangement. She has no idea how much I love the outdoor breakfast.

We arrived in the NOG just after 7 a.m., and were over the mountain and setting up the breakfast site by 8 a.m. Ahhh. Pancakes, eggs, and bacon cooked outside. It just doesn't get any better. After eating (which was a GREAT part of the day, but I must move on to the action in this story) we took a little hike and discovered a small pond hidden in the trees. My nephew Kolby was the first to notice that a tall tree that was leaning over the pond had a rope swing attached to it. In a marvelous display of good parenting, my sister and her husband encouraged all their kids to strip down to their underwear and do a little swinging and a little swimming. Oh, the good times that ensued.
Even the littlest one got into the action.

And my sister set the standard by swinging from the highest part of the hill. She is amazing.

This was our group shot. The only person missing is Jed, but someone had to take the picture. You can't really see the detail here, but check out the zoomed in photo below.

This is the highlight of the above picture. My niece is such a riot. She, apparently, is afraid of the good-looking Asian.