Spring Break!

We had a really great spring break! We decided to avoid flying and do a road trip down to VA to spend the week with my family. Flying has always been very stressful for our family, and really hard with Claire and Cady. Historically, one or both of them have cried from the time we get buckled up until the time we get off of the plane. Bryce and I both feel that we have lost years off of our lives from the stress of flying with these girls!! At any rate, we packed up our portable DVD players and stocked up on some books on tape from the library and proceeded to drive 19 hours to VA. The drive was very enjoyable, the girls were happy and we got to stop at a hotel and go swimming with them--which they absolutely loved. The only hitch in our drive was when we discovered 6 hours into the trip that our car power jack for the DVD player was not working. Other than that, things were great. :) We listened to Ella Enchanted and Little house in the Big woods. Our favorite pit stop was at a rest station in Kentucky. There were two workers sitting on a bench when we went inside and they showed us the gleaming brass pipes in the hallway that they had just finished polishing. Of course, we just had to get a picture of that! Then, one of the workers lowered the Kentucky flag for us so we could take a picture next to it. :) We were very impressed with Kentucky and their squeaky clean rest stops!

We arrived in VA in time to meet Buffy and Tim's new baby Eleanor George. (Isn't that such a cute name?). She is a beautiful little girl, she slept the whole time we were there. Tim & Buffy had invited the whole Bunton family up to be with them. It was nice a cozy with 19 people in their house, but we loved every minute of it. I think my favorite thing we did was visit the Historic Monticello house and see my cousin Nancy who is a tour guide up there. This was Thomas Jefferson's house and a really neat place, I loved learning about him and seeing what he had surrounded himself with in his house. We also got to go and stand in the dome that is pictured on the back of the nickle. :) Other than that, we spent a lot of time hanging out and playing Settlers of Katan, monopoly, accompanying my dad to go grocery shopping (we went through an insane amount of food!) and playing with the kids outside. Sadly, my camera ran out of batteries about 2 days into our trip...and of course the one thing I forgot to pack was a battery charger!! I've posted the few pictures I was able to take. Just know that I didn't do the trip justice. It was a great break, and really nice to see Bryce again too. :)