Back in the 'Burg

Because of my fabulous college years at W&M, we've loved to visit Williamsburg since we moved back to the East Coast 5 years ago.  I've blogged about the trips here and here and here .  This was Ella's 3rd visit in her short 5 year life!  This time, the trip came as a response to an invitation from my dear friend Ana (I can't believe we've been friends from 8 years already!) who was able to get two timeshare units right next to each other and asked us to join her family for a long weekend trip!  

Ana and me enjoying Cracker Barrel!

We had really fabulous time.  Traveling with friends and 3 kids under 6 could have been disastrous hard but it really was so much fun! Ana and Jonny are so sweet and our families meshed together so easily!  What a blessing.  Ella and their sweet son Daniel (3 years old) played well together the entire time despite the age and gender difference.  We were so happy to see them spontaneously holding hands and really enjoying each other all weekend!

 

 We had a great time in Colonial Williamsburg checking out the sights...

 

  Sadie was cranky the first day until we realized she had a fever! Poor thing! After that she returned to being pretty easy going and slept SO much better than we expected in an unfamiliar place.  She napped and slept through the night really well!  She did however discover the new skill of shrieking on this trip.  Mostly when food isn't coming at her fast enough.  Oh dear Lord let this shrieking phase be short. Good thing I love her so stinkin' much!

I got to give a little tour of part of William and Mary's campus which made me giddy with all the great memories I have there...

entering the Wren building

Sadie looking regal on an ancient chair in the Wren Building

next to the Sunken Gardens

  

Back at the Timeshare (which was spectacular-I highly recommend the Marriott Manor Club at Ford's Colony) we got to do a lot of relaxing as well as swim...

 And had an amazing picnic dinner in the gazebo right outside our front door...

Jonny was our gracious chef!

 

And snagged as many family and group pics as we could...

It really was a great trip and we are so thankful for great friends.  Excited to share and create more memories like these!

Outer Banks!

Last week was our family vacation with Chris' side of the family (plus about 10 people from Amy's husband's family). There were 25 of us in the nicest, biggest beach house I've ever seen! There were 14 bedrooms, a kitchen and dining room that was about the size of my house, an impressive theater room, about 30 TVs (it was excessive), a pool, and a private "boardwalk" out to the beach. You can tell, we were impressed by the house. Anyway, we did a "formal" family photo shoot on the beach (coordinating outfits and everything!) so those pics will be coming soon. Here are some of the more fun pics of people and stuff we did.


I think this was my nephew Silas' first ice cream cone :-)

A close-up of our little beauty-kinda scary!

Erin, Dave, and Chris on "Adventure Night" (think teams, sand dunes, mini-golf with "special rules", beer, and Chris' truck stuck in the sand for 30 minutes)

Matt was the creator of "Adventure Night" :-)

Ella was obsessed with this umbrella

The cousins had the time of their lives playing ALL DAY EVERY DAY!

Chris and I on top of he Wright Brother's Memorial


That's the Memorial up on the hill behind them

Ella spent lots of time in the pool-last summer she needed the floating bathing suit but she does great with just the "water wings" or "blow-bluffers" as my family calls them

Chris' rents having fun when we were out to dinner for some seafood

Getting ready for the beach. Yes, Chris is wearing Ella's shorts on his head.

A really fun game of Catch Phrase once the kids were asleep.

Ella and Christopher got a little carried away in Nana's bathtub!

On the drive Ella did GREAT. She watched DVDs a lot of the time and it was SO cute to hear her laughing out loud at the movies or telling Curious George to "watch out!"

Watch for some of the good pics from the family photo shoot soon!

Day Four-Science Center

Today was our last day of special toddler events. It rained all day so after an unsuccessful trip to the indoor pool (it was closed-she played in the bathtub instead) and lunch at a restaurant (where Ella ate NOTHING) we headed to the Harrisburg Science Center. They had a lot for Ella to do and it was a perfect way to spend a rainy day. As usual, we're picture taking fanatics on this trip so here ya go...

This Huge Bubble Blowing thing was super cool-Chris wants to build one at our house :-)

Ella played in their 10 ft by 10 ft water table forever! I've NEVER seen anything (besides TV) captivate this girl like water does! Chris also got a kick out of building dams and making the water flow in different directions in the "upper level" area of the table. They also had little seats in the table where you could strap babies in and they could put their hands in the water but it wouldn't flow into their laps-it was pretty cool (I should have taken a picture).

Ella spent a lot of time in this ambulance playing doctor and pushing all the buttons that made the lights flash and sirens sound. Somehow we didn't get any pictures of the grocery store where Ella shopped for food, put it on the working conveyor belt and then got to scan it (when it beeped she'd say "I paid, I paid!")

We got to listen to the Mr.Stuffy body parts show where the lovely gentlemen in the picture explained most internal organs by pulling them out of Mr.Stuffy. It was actually pretty amusing and Ella got to hold the large intestine!

As you can imagine, we're exhausted. Lots of events, no naps, greasy food...we're ready to come home but it's been a GREAT trip. I need some rest now from our vacation though!