Virginia... Part 1

At the end of the last post I said that we were...

"Off on another adventure."

And an adventure it was!

A full week in Williamsburg, Virginia...

refreshing our American History lessons...

and learning stuff we never knew.

Playing at Busch Gardens and Water Country USA.

And having a great time together.

It happened like this...

A timeshare week that needed to be used.

Enough sky-miles for our whole family

....And Williamsburg it was!

The trip didn't start out fantastic...  we woke up @ 4 am and made it to the airport with more than an hour to spare... but then there was a ridiculously long line to get checked in, (and yes Lisa if you were with us you would have saved the day by telling us to use "curb-side check in!)  We didn't even think of that though... and we would have missed our flight if it hadn't been delayed an hour.  We definitely had our allotted carry-ons...  but I was pretty proud of myself that we only had to check ONE bag for all 7 of us!!  Then there was Tayler who woke up telling us she felt sick...  and then the puking in the airport bathroom.  And then me telling her not to "act" like she was sick which didn't make her very happy.  (I'm just saying that no one wants to sit by someone who looks like they will puke on you...  put on a smile and pretend...  And then when the plane gets in the air you can blame it on motion sickness!)  There was also a MAJOR freak out from Jadyn in the airport bathroom about the "auto-flushers"...  same old story there.  Except that she didn't have nice friends to cater to her and save the day.  During our layover in DC she FINALLY went... and although timid about it the rest of the trip she was OK...  (the Atlanta airport with the amazing new fangled "auto-seat covers" set us back a bit on the way home though :)!)

Then we were there... pheew!

We stayed here...

We spent a day and 1/2 exploring Williamsburg...  It was fascinating!  So much to do and see and LEARN...  we loved all of the period costumes...  everyone in costume was fabulous at staying in character and acting just as if they were really there in the 1700's.  Some of the more memorable sites were the cabinet shop, the brickyard, the wig maker shop, the plantation, the slave quarters and the governor's house.

It will be interesting to see what Kenna/Jadyn remember from this trip in a few years.  One thing is for sure they never seemed bored... I'm sure they won't remember too much of the history part but they had fun...  Our awesome little Lydia was along for the ride...  O... and to make everyone smile with her adorableness :)

(stomping the clay for brick making :))

Then there was a 1/2 a day at Jamestown... 
The first permanent English settlement in North America...
Back in 1607...
You know the whole "John Smith/Pocahontas" stuff...
Is it ringing a bell??
(Tayler knew ALL about it, it was vague memories for me...  and I think Shane was absent for most of his American History classes... He was a clean slate! :) )

Another 1/2 day at Yorktown...
the site of the surrendering of Great Britain in 1781...

And actually I know what Lydia will remember the most about Virginia...
The dirt and rocks...
She was fascinated with both! :)

The weather was perfect... we missed the 90 degree weather from the week before and stayed in the 70's - low 80's without much humidity at all!  Yippee...

Of course we ate lots of yummy food like 2 nights that Shane and I went out and had delicious seafood while the girls ate lame stuff like Subway and KFC at the condo.

And the night that we went to a "hibachi grill".

And the dinner that we had at the "Movie Tavern" while we watched "Mr. Popper's Penguins".
It was fun to order food and have it delivered to us while we watched the movie!

Other memorable moments from our trip were seeing "fireflies" - and then catching them in our backyard... we only wish that we had noticed them before the 2nd to last night!!

And then there was serious fun at Busch Gardens...
and Water Country USA...
but I'm saving that for another day!