Charlottesville, Virginia
August 3-9
We had a rough start on our journey to Charlottesville. I was up until the wee hours packing, as I usually am, but I was determined to get enough sleep before we headed out, so we didn't leave until sometime between 10-11am. Then only an hour on the road, we ran into a closed freeway in Toledo. We were stuck there for two hours. Heavy fog and rain in Pennsylvania around 8pm nearly caused us to stop for the night, but we pressed on and got to Charlottesville around 12:30am. It was so good to finally get there! Nana and Granddaddy looked great, as did Mom and Robbie, and the girls were smitten with Mom's and Robbie's new dog, Willie (named after Willie Nelson.) We got to stay in a guest room downstairs (their fifth floor condo was a bit crowded with my parents there) and it was so nice to be able to keep the air conditioning as low as we liked and to have two nice soft beds to sleep in. It was a big room, and very comfortable.
We took the DVD player and some of our DVDs with us, and I think Granddaddy is hooked. They saw "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and we watched "Anna and the King" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou" together. I guess no one really liked "O Brother" as well as I do, but it was nice of them to humor me and keep watching it with me. Mom and Nana and I got to leave the kids behind and go to Red Lobster for dinner one evening, which was really nice. It was great to be able to be together, just us girls, and talk, without worrying about who was being mean to whom, and who was biting and who was screaming. My kids aren't really that bad, but they can be a handful and it's nice to have a break once in a while.
I think maybe the best part of the trip was when we all (even Robbie!!) went downstairs one evening and played Bocce. This is an Italian game similar to lawn bowling like they do in England, only it's done on a long gravel-covered court. Nana kept the girls amused with bubbles while we played two games. It was great fun! There was even a little hare that took a keen interest in watching us. He must have stuck around for 20 minutes, at least!
We went swimming, too, but only once, since my two year old kept finding alarm buttons and pressing them, alerting 911 and getting us kicked out of the pool. Very embarrassing. We played lots of Go Fish (Mina has mastered this game) and Cranium, and ate lots of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. (We don't have a local Krispy Kreme in Ann Arbor, so this was a great treat.) We took the kids to Planet Fun one day. This was like a miniature Chuck E. Cheese with a bumper boat pond and a miniature golf course outside. It was so swelteringly hot while we were there though, that going outside for any reason in the middle of the day was masochism.
A side note that not everyone will be interested in, but here it is anyway: Layla used the potty twice in Virginia! Maybe this is the beginning of her long awaited potty training.
All in all, it was wonderful to see everyone, but I was reminded that a retirement village is really not prepared to handle the loud rambunctiousness of small children. Maybe next time everyone can come to us.
We had a rough start on our journey to Charlottesville. I was up until the wee hours packing, as I usually am, but I was determined to get enough sleep before we headed out, so we didn't leave until sometime between 10-11am. Then only an hour on the road, we ran into a closed freeway in Toledo. We were stuck there for two hours. Heavy fog and rain in Pennsylvania around 8pm nearly caused us to stop for the night, but we pressed on and got to Charlottesville around 12:30am. It was so good to finally get there! Nana and Granddaddy looked great, as did Mom and Robbie, and the girls were smitten with Mom's and Robbie's new dog, Willie (named after Willie Nelson.) We got to stay in a guest room downstairs (their fifth floor condo was a bit crowded with my parents there) and it was so nice to be able to keep the air conditioning as low as we liked and to have two nice soft beds to sleep in. It was a big room, and very comfortable.
We took the DVD player and some of our DVDs with us, and I think Granddaddy is hooked. They saw "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and we watched "Anna and the King" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou" together. I guess no one really liked "O Brother" as well as I do, but it was nice of them to humor me and keep watching it with me. Mom and Nana and I got to leave the kids behind and go to Red Lobster for dinner one evening, which was really nice. It was great to be able to be together, just us girls, and talk, without worrying about who was being mean to whom, and who was biting and who was screaming. My kids aren't really that bad, but they can be a handful and it's nice to have a break once in a while.
I think maybe the best part of the trip was when we all (even Robbie!!) went downstairs one evening and played Bocce. This is an Italian game similar to lawn bowling like they do in England, only it's done on a long gravel-covered court. Nana kept the girls amused with bubbles while we played two games. It was great fun! There was even a little hare that took a keen interest in watching us. He must have stuck around for 20 minutes, at least!
We went swimming, too, but only once, since my two year old kept finding alarm buttons and pressing them, alerting 911 and getting us kicked out of the pool. Very embarrassing. We played lots of Go Fish (Mina has mastered this game) and Cranium, and ate lots of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. (We don't have a local Krispy Kreme in Ann Arbor, so this was a great treat.) We took the kids to Planet Fun one day. This was like a miniature Chuck E. Cheese with a bumper boat pond and a miniature golf course outside. It was so swelteringly hot while we were there though, that going outside for any reason in the middle of the day was masochism.
A side note that not everyone will be interested in, but here it is anyway: Layla used the potty twice in Virginia! Maybe this is the beginning of her long awaited potty training.
All in all, it was wonderful to see everyone, but I was reminded that a retirement village is really not prepared to handle the loud rambunctiousness of small children. Maybe next time everyone can come to us.
posted by Nikki | 8:28 PM
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