A Visit with Aunt Ashelyn

 Two weeks ago, we enjoyed a visit from my sister. She came to visit us up here as we were in the process of buying our home last year but before we closed on the house. So this was her first visit since we were actually in the house. Usually, we get to see her when we visit NC, but this was her Spring Break week so she was able to come up for a couple of days at the end of the week. She and the girls enjoyed some time together on Thursday while I worked. 

Brent decided to try the spiky hair look today since he had a recent haircut. I guarantee this is the only time he has ever had mousse in his hair. This will also be the last pictures you see of him this post. He ended up with the stomach flu that Rachel had earlier in the week.  So he wasn't up to having his picture taken for a few days!

 Friday gave Ashelyn and I some time together to visit. Aunt Ashelyn likes to read almost as much as I do so we took her to a place she was sure to love...the Green Valley Book Fair!
Sure enough, we spent a big part of the afternoon here as she enjoyed checking out alot of the books. She and I actually came back Friday evening and sat and each read a book we had gotten. We actually ended up having a race to see who could finish their book first. Ok, so she finished first but my book was longer...yes, I know, what can I say, we really like to read.

 After the book fair, we headed into Staunton to Gypsy Hill Park. We like to bring family here because the girls enjoy the park and showing it all to our family. The girls began at the swings and took Aunt Ashelyn all around the upper playground.

 Aunt Ashelyn enjoys photography as well. She actually got the camera from me and got several really good pictures of  the girls and I.

 And here is  my child who has tried to climb (even though lots of times I wouldn't let her) to the highest part of the playground equipment she could find from the time she figured out what a playground was!
 

 After the playground area, we headed to the duck pond for a few minutes. I didn't get a picture of it but one duck actually figured out how to get through the fence and came up close to try to get us to feed him

Aunt Ashelyn, we had a great visit with you. Thanks for coming to see us! We Love you very much!

A Trip to Troy

 The second weekend in March, we headed down to Troy, NC to visit Brent's grandparents. He has always called them Mama and Papa. So to our girls, they are Big Mama and Big Papa. We planned with them when we visited at Thanksgiving to come back and see them again in the spring. So we were so glad to be able to get back to visit them again.

We headed out to eat with them Friday evening at their local Italian restaurant. Since we were sitting  in a booth, I actually got the girls sitting still for a few pictures!

 Then we headed back to Big Mama and Papa's to visit and spend the night. Our girls love to play magnets here. They will move them around and around for the longest time.

Rebekah was fascinated by their phone

 This is about the only other picture I have of Rachel from the entire visit. Did I mention we were in stop and go traffic on the way and Rachel got carsick? Except after we got back from supper, we realized it wasn't just carsick... So after we got Rachel settled and cleaned everything in sight to try to keep Brent's grandparents from getting sick, we were able to visit a little more together before everyone headed to bed.

Our little sickie

 Did I mention we also forgot to pack Rebekah's pack-n-play in the van?

 Saturday morning brought a new visitor. Nana drove over from her house to visit with us too while were at Big Mama and Papa's house. We were all glad to get to visit with her for the day as well.
 

Hugs for Big Mama

Can you see me now?

 Rebekah and Big Papa spent a lot of time together. Here she is- getting a ride with Big Papa.

Sitting in Big Mama's cabinets

Trying out Big Papa's cane

 We visited most of the day and enjoyed lunch together. We enjoyed Bojangles for lunch because you know we have to eat Bojangles at least once every time we visit North Carolina! Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head back to Virginia.

W

 

We had a wonderful visit with Brent's grandparents and hope to get back down to see them this summer. We have already told them we are coming back for a visit when everyone is feeling well and we can visit a bit longer.

Big Mama and Papa, we love you very much! We pray for you often and we thank God for you!

Red Lobster and Beast Feast 2013

 Earlier in March, we had our annual Beast Feast and Ladies Night Out 2013 at Faith Mountain. The ladies in our church get together and go out to eat while the men have their Beast Feast event. Basically, Beast Feast is a opportunity for the gentlemen to bring animals they have hunted or caught in some way and also game or fish for everyone to enjoy eating as well.

Some of the Beasts

And the Feast

This year, the ladies and young ladies headed to Red Lobster to enjoy an evening out while the guys were at Beast Feast. We had 24 ladies of all ages join us and we had a great time!

The young ladies waiting for our tables

 It took 3 tables to for all of us. Red Lobster had actually saved a section for all of us so that we all were able to sit together. There was much laughter, joking and fun!

 

Rebekah had a blast with Maggie J. She figured out she could suddenly say Maggie's name and when Maggie moved very far from her she would call "Maggg-ieee".
Rachel had to check on "Larry the Lobster." We had gone to Red Lobster around Valentine's Day and she had been concerned since we were there that someone might have eaten Larry. She was very relieved to see that Larry was still there (we think...)
We are thankful to be able to enjoy such fun times with our church family and friends.

Trip to Williamsburg

 Earlier in March, we headed to back to Colonial Heights for the day. Brent decided to attend a conference  for pastors being held at Colonial Heights Baptist Church. He invited Matt Coiner, a pastor friend from nearby at Vesuvius Baptist Church, to go too. This meant Molly and Hannah came along with us too. We headed to Colonial Heights to drop Brent and Matt off for the conference and then Molly and I with our girls headed to Williamsburg for the day.

We headed by Great Wolf Lodge to show Molly and Hannah a little about it. We have been twice with Brent when he attended Student Pastor retreats there. It is an awesome primarily indoor waterpark and you must stay there overnight to be able to go into the waterpark. However, you can go into the lobby area and view the waterpark from there. The girls had fun watching all that was going on around them.

Bekah watching the giant bucket dump water everywhere

 Next we headed for Chick-fil-A for a great lunch. We sat at the glass window beside the playground so as you can see the playground was much more interesting to Rebekah than looking at me holding the camera! I thought this was a good picture of Molly and Hannah.

 Hannah and Rebekah are very close in age and Rachel is very good with both of them. However, she figured out another perk of being the oldest on this trip. Neither of the little girls was big enough to go through the Chick-fil-A playground on their own yet, so she got to take a few trips through while they watched her.

Can't you just see what good friends these two will be...

 We actually headed back to Great Wolf Lodge for a few minutes after lunch.
The last time our family went to Great Wolf was February 2011. Rachel was 2 and I was pregnant with Rebekah. While we were there, they do a bedtime story and the kids can meet the characters that are a part of Great Wolf Lodge. Wally is the wolf that is their mascot. Back in 2011, Rachel got her picture made with Wally and talked about this for Months!! We noticed when we stopped by in the morning that the characters would be out just after lunch. Guess who that character for that day was...

Yep, Wally...

After this, we headed to the outlets for a little shopping. I found a couple of cute shirts for the girls and matching sunglasses. Molly was looking for a jacket. We both found what we were looking for there but we didn't stay too long. What was supposed to have been a sunny 55 degree day ended up being much cooler and windy!

Soon it was time to head back and pick up Brent and Matt. After that we headed to "Father Abraham." This has been Rachel's name for Cracker Barrel since she was two. We are not sure how she came to call it this but "Father Abraham" it is for her!

We enjoyed supper with the Coiners' and were also blessed to get to see our friends from Richmond, the Reids. We had a great day visiting with new and long time friends!

Rachel, Hannah and Pastor Matt

Judy, Rachel, Rebekah and I

Tubing Time

 

 We finally got a chance to go tubing this year. We had planned to try to go when the aunts and uncles came up to ski but we just ran out of time and it was freezing and POURING snow! So one afternoon recently, we headed over to Wintergreen for just a couple of hours to tube. Rachel loved it. We went down a couple times and she asked me 1) Mommy when can we come back again and 2) Can we go lots of times, like 50 or 70?

I then explained we would go down as many times as we could before our tubing session time ran out. And so we did!
After I went down with Rachel a bunch of times, Brent took a turn going down with her too. Rachel quickly figured out that she liked Lane 2 the best-it was not so bumpy she said and that was the only lane she would go down. We also really liked the conveyor belt that hauled us and the tubes back up the hill. We certainly got to tube more times this way. Last time I tubed several years ago at a different resort, the tubes went on the conveyor belt and the tubers had to trudge back up the hill on their own. So this system at Wintergreen was really nice!

 

 Our littlest snow bunny is, of course, not big enough to tube yet. She thoroughly enjoyed herself walking in the snow, climbing around in the tubes and each of us took a turn pulling her in the level snow at the top of the tubing runs so she could "tube." She had a great time with this and we will blink and she will be tubing down the hill with her big sister.

 

 We had a great couple hours as a family together. We love living here in the mountains and feel so blessed to be able to enjoy these times as a family with all the mountain activities and adventures, like tubing, so close to us now!

Our Family, February 2013