Ahh! Now you know the WHOLE TRUTH behind our plans to go to Virginia this summer! Take a look at this cutie! He's Isaac Raymond. Two weeks old... and I got to hold him for an entire day!
Andrea and Adam are wonderful, proud, gushing, attentive parents. We got some long-overdue girl-time and enjoyed great food together. Too much food, probably ;) But leftovers are ALWAYS welcome post-pregnancy, right?
You know you just wanna kiss those sweet little lips!
We stayed for a few days with Mike, Mary, and Graham in Charlottesville. Jim and I totally enjoyed talking and hanging out with their family. We hope to see them again soon, on July 4th!
Big Boy Marcus is now 8 years old. With that, comes his baptism! We were really happy to be able to witness this special occasion. Final quick stop to visit Nora... look at how big she's getting! And talking so much!
Our first family vacation! Just the four of us! With pure intentions to have fun! And we did it!
Many thanks to our Realtor, Phil, for providing us with the opportunity to stay at Massanutten Resort in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. His family owns a time share there.
For four days and three nights we had an absolutely wonderful time.
On the first day, we checked out our room and got to take a dip in the pool. We then traveled to downtown Harrisonburg (where JMU is located) for some seafood dinner (quite the risk, as we were nowhere near the ocean).
The second day began with our tour & schpeil from the time share company... see the clan below: After it was communicated that we had NO interest in buying into a time share, we headed off to the new indoor/outdoor water park (a la Great Wolfe Lodge). With 90 degree weather predicted for the entire week, we knew that most of our activities would involve keeping cool.
I snagged the shot above after 5 hours at the water park of non-stop fun. Oliver fell asleep in a tube as I walked him around the lazy river. Trenton and Jim hit all the water slides-- even the completely scary dark ones.
They had a great arcade/game area. You can see the water park through the window behind them. The kids games were actually A QUARTER. Nice sized Skee Ball, right? No vacation trip is complete without an evening at a buffet, am I right? We LOVED the selection here (esp. the desserts...) The General Store didn't offer much in the way of resort-specific souvenirs, so alas, all we left with were our pictures. Nice try, guys, but no "hair hats". Day three had us up at the ranch! Trenton got to ride on a horse for the first time. Not very intimidated, I'd say. The little staircase helped ;)
I can't say that he was very excited, but it certainly was his first time doing this. We were proud of him for trying it and sticking with it.
Oliver got his jollies at the Petting Farm. He fed a lot of eager bunnies, sheep, and horses. Momma held up the fence, seeing as it was five bucks to get to the other side of the fence...
The boys TOTALLY loved chillin' by the pool. I attribute this to the fact that they rarely get to go swimming in pools. They were totally excited to jump in from the side (which they both did about a hundred times) and toss around a ball in the water. Most of the best vacation memories I had as a kid involved looking for crayfish under rocks while walking through the creek on my parents' property in PA. Wouldn't you know it... that was probably my son's favorite thing to do on this trip, too. Yes, it was cold. But he's five.
Pay close attention to Oliver's progression in the two pictures below.
I laughed out loud when I was looking back at these and realized that I captured his fall!
The Nature Center was a great place to hang out (and stay cool). The boys were able to put on a puppet show (above) and Trenton created an original story about a space ship (see below). He also went on a nature scavenger hunt, finding an acorn that was in the early stages of growing roots. One night the resort had a Family Ice Cream Social... at 5PM... so we ate dinner at 4 and hustled on over to the ski lodge for some (unlimited) dessert. The boys found a "huge" ant & played Simon Says with some other families. Needless to say, we all returned to our room with stomachaches. Some times, you just need to raise your shirt up when Mommy says, "Smile!" Behind him is some kind of bungy-jumping dome. Not totally ready for use yet.
We drove up one of the mountains after dinner to get a view from the ridge. Breathtaking, even with heavy haze. T insisted that I take this pic of him... climbing the log.
He took this one of Jim and I. Not bad... We saw deer around all the time. This family had a baby fawn with them. So sweet!
We were able to eat breakfast in the room each morning and pack a picnic lunch for each afternoon. (That's the fam under that umbrella up there.) Oddly, the boys didn't get too tired of PB&J and Lunchables ;)
It was great visiting you, Massanutten! Thanks for all the quality memories!
Looky at that niiiice front lawn. A sight to be seen, no?
The boys enjoy the fact that the giant tree in the front yard offers so much shade. On days like these, they don't want to be entirely in the shade (too chilly) or in the sun (too hot). So we swing both ways...
Guess what!? Avon FINALLY got a new playground for the kids! All those years of paying for season badges and watching the boys tumble around on paint-peeling, bumpy surfaces... And new showers! (We'll have to try those out soon.) Lord knows what they've increased the badge price to... These pics were taken prior to Memorial Day, so no charge ;)
Ahh! Now you know the WHOLE TRUTH behind our plans to go to Virginia this summer!
Andrea and Adam are wonderful, proud, gushing, attentive parents.
You know you just wanna kiss those sweet little lips!
We stayed for a few days with Mike, Mary, and Graham in Charlottesville. Jim and I totally enjoyed talking and hanging out with their family. We hope to see them again soon, on July 4th!
Big Boy Marcus is now 8 years old. With that, comes his baptism! We were really happy to be able to witness this special occasion.
Final quick stop to visit Nora... look at how big she's getting! And talking so much!
