A Week to Remember

I have a story that I've almost been dying to share. I haven't had a chance to blog for the last two weeks, so all my happiness has been pent-up inside.
Actually, I have longed for social media a few times to be able to quickly share some of my joy. ...But, I've made it through without exploding... ;) ;)

Ever since last Christmas (or before) I had planned to get myself up to West Virginia this summer... to go visit my sister of course! ;) But in the back of my mind, I was also thinking just a little bit about Tyrel... ;) And as the months passed along and Tyrel and I started talking, we got kinda/sorta/very excited about that time that we would get to be together, even though things weren't very official. That all changed in July! ;) So my trip suddenly became centered around being with my boyfriend! :) (Sorry Alyssa! ;P)

One thing in particular that we wanted to do together was make hay... ;)
So, as my boss put it... I was going to take a week of vacation to go let my boyfriend see how good I could be put to work... ;P Hahaha!
Far from that! I really did want to do it with all of my heart!  (I have always secretly loved and admired the hard work that goes into farming!) Though, to be quite honest, I was very nervous about the day that I would actually get out there and experience making hay because everything was so new and unknown! I've never been around much farm life at all, never driven a tractor, and never spent a day out in a field like that... (Boy, have I missed out on soooo much! 😳)
 But as soon as we started going... all my nerves when away, and I knew I would be okay doing this all day! 😉👌🏼 At the end of the day, I could honestly say that I enjoyed the whole hay-making process much more than I even thought possible. It turned out to be the most satisfying and perfect part of the week! :)

The first day we were making square bales! :)

I loooovvveddd... the fresh smell of hay... the beautiful mountains... our group lunch break chat... the sunny skies and fluffy clouds... working alongside someone special... ;)

 ...But the best part, was seeing all we got done, and knowing that we all did it together! :)

Stacking and more stacking...

...while the others were out making some more ;)

The second day, we took it easy and made round bales... ;) And I enjoyed it equally! :)

:)

Thursday, we took a drive up to a beautiful mountain to watch the sunset -- and for the life of me, I can never remember the name of the mountain. :P

Thank you, Summer, for taking pictures!! ;D

It was soooo amazingly beautiful! <3

All you can do is marvel at God's delicate work of beauty that he has created all around us!

I felt like a kid in a candy store being up there with such a beautiful 360* view. Everywhere I looked  was another piece of the absolutely breath-taking scene!
 The picture below shows the beautiful view going on behind us as we were watching the sunset. <3

☺️

Friday, I spent some time with Alyssa :) After we met up with Marty for lunch, the three of us paddled around the lake at Snowshoe Mountain.

That evening we took some four wheelers out on the old back roads. Ah...! I can just feel the breeze right now! 😅

The picture above and below are from two different times, but they are my favorite pictures from riding around in Tyrel's truck! Of all the memories we made, I'll forever be missing the smells, sounds, and views from his awesome truck... 😌

We also explored our way through a sweet cave!

We stopped halfway through and pulled up the Evening Light Songs on our phones and sang "What a Mighty God!", and let me tell you, the acoustics in there were amazing! 

We were pretty much walking through water a good 70% of the time... which was cold.

But not nearly as cold as the last bit of the way that we had to swim through. Haha, I think we all felt pretty awesome to be able to say we "swam through a cave" ;P

Walking back from the cave... Hehe, our dads look so tiny out there ;P

Then a few of us went up to Spruce Knob to take in the scenic view. :)

And finally... our last day together...

For the main part of the day, we actually worked together with Tyrel's family spreading straw out on some land that had been cleared off. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else! :)

And I'll re-iterate it again, that I loved the simplicity of getting to work together with everyone to get it all done! :) 

Tyrel's dad... :)

...and the super cool truck that I got to ride home in with my favorite person driving. ;) :)

It was a bitter-sweet day. Something about the whole day just didn't feel "right", because I knew our time together was coming to an end. And pretty soon I would be transplanted back to a completely different life 1,000 miles away.

It's rough folks. Rough, but good! :)

-MarLeahJoy