This past weekend, the Faucheux family had a nice relaxing weekend at our second home, Marc's hunt camp, Pan Fauna. The camp is located in Bath County, which is in western Virginia, right on the West Virginia state line, and nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. Needless to say, being the middle of October, the fall colors were spectacular. Being that we were in the mountains, the temperature was definitely a little chilly, but Marc's expert fire making skills kept us nice and toasty. The camp doesn't have heat or air conditioning. So in the winter, the entire house is heated by the HUGE fireplace on the first floor. Luckily, our bedroom is right next to the fireplace, so we were kept nice and warm while we slept.
We got there, late Friday afternoon, and Marc got to building the fire right away. The fireplace is so big, that they use 3' long logs. It sure puts off a lot of heat. Luke learned pretty well that it was hot. Here he is warming his tushy in front of it.
This little coffee table that he is standing at is about four feet from the couch. It was the perfect distance for him to practice his walking. He did a lot of back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
Later that evening, once Luke was ready for bed, we all gathered around the fireplace and played a little cards. Luke caught on real quick.
On Saturday, Marc got busy doing manly things. He shares his room with another guy, Ken Runkles, who was also there that weekend with his wife, Jennifer. So while the guys got busy building bigger bed frames in their room, Jennifer and I relaxed around the fire, and tried to keep Luke and our dogs out of trouble.
Luke was loving crawling around and getting absolutely covered in dog hair, fireplace soot, and dirt. In this photo, he went exploring for fur balls under the chairs and got stuck. Of course, I had to take his picture before I got him un-stuck.
When the guys were done building the beds, Luke offered to help with the clean-up. He loved playing with the shop-vac. We needed to use it on him. Check out how dirty his knees are.
The weekend was wonderful. The guys got their new beds done, the gals got to relax, and even Lucy found a new friend, Maggie.
I was practicing my walking and fell and busted it on the edge of the table. But I'm a big boy - I only cried a little bit - and there was blood and everything. Mommy's going right out and buying some protectors. I don't know why she hadn't done it before.
Mommy has such a good little helper. He kept trying to climb in the dryer, so I put him inside to look for any stray socks.
Now that Luke is a year old, we are trying to wean him off multiple naps a day. He normally takes two 1-1/2 hour naps, one in the morning starting around 10:30 and one in the afternoon starting around 3:00. A couple times this week we tried one nap starting around 1:00, and hoping it would last at least a couple of hours. So far, both times that we've tried, he's only slept about 1-1/2 and then starts to fall asleep while eating his dinner. I've been able to keep him awake while he eats, but then he's up until 10:00. Oh what to do, what to do?
Hunting season is upon us. Daddy is heading out, this weekend, to hunt for squirrel and fish for trout. So that he won't get lonely at his hunt camp, Mommy and Luke ventured out into our woods and snapped this photo. Daddy can take it with him and put it next to his bunk. Doesn't Luke look ready to scout for local wildlife?
