The Dutchess': Snowshoe to Pipestem

Bets won Matt a seat in the WV Poker Tournament again this year. The tournament was held at Snowshoe. On our way up to the tourney, I about drove right into a deer on US 64 at about 12:oo am. It was huge by the way!!! Luckily, I swirved and we were able to get there in one piece. The drive was gorgeous (and curvy)! Our room at the resort was nice and we took advantage of the hot tub and indoor pool. It was Freedom Fest during the same weekend as the tourney (Freedom Fest means A LOT of motorcycles). Matt now wants us to buy bikes and Colton wants one of them to have a side car.
Matt did extremely well in the tournament. He knocked out several of the players. I would say he made it to the top 35 players out of 96. He lost with pocket kings. He went all in and ended up getting beat when the player got 2 pair on the flop and turn. He did so well and I was VERY proud of him. During the tournament, Bets, Rusty and Kaleb took Colton to the top of the mountain and watched the motorcycle games and looked around. Poor Bets had food poisoning, so she wasn't feeling that well, but she hung in there. You know she is not feeling well when she has to pass on her shrimp cocktail!! After the tournament, we met them at the top and enjoyed the festivities. There were bands, food, etc. It is really pretty up there. We were able to see a GORGEOUS sunset while on top of the mountain (sorry no pictures...forgot my camera).
We really had a wonderful weekend. It was nice to spend some together.
On the way back, we decided to take our time and stop if we saw anything "interesting". We had breakfast at a restaurant on the river in Marlington. There was a park across the street that had some of the "old" playground equipment that Matt and I remember playing on, so we had a great time showing Colton. Then, we went to a state park that had a civil war site (watch tower and other things). We climbed to the top, felt it sway and decided to climb back down. :) We spent some time at the playground there as well. It had a VERY TALL slide that Colton enjoyed "flying" down!!!!!! Then, we went by the John Henry statue, so of course we got out and took some pictures. The drive from there to Pipestem was amazing!!!!! We stopped at Pipestem and have found our new "place that we want to vacation". We took the air tram to the bottom of the mountain. We explored the river and looked around the hotel. Colton made a new friend when a little boy wanted to give him one of his fruit rollups. It was really cute. Colton and Matt skipped rocks and looked for crawdads (some of them were big). Then, we took the tram back up the mountain and reluctantly went home. Pipestem was gorgeous and there is even a drive in at the town. We will definitely be back.

A worker at one of the stores in Snowshoe had thrown out some apples, which attracted the deer

Colton and Matt attempting to see saw
The next two pictures are just too cute

Colton on top

Colton took this picture of the bears in front of the restaurant
Colton in the tower at the Civil
War site
Colton's picture of the view
On top of the very tall slide-he went too fast to take a picture of him going down it
Just a swingan