When Dad's brother Ryan
announced that he and Christine were getting married in Virginia, it was an
easy decision to make it into a mini vacation. Dad was the only one that had
ever been to Virginia before. Mom spent quite a bit of time researching the area
and trying to figure out what to do that was fun for the adults, but also
enjoyable for the kids. Here is a look into a Grashorn wedding and our travels.
Video of Vacation
Day 1: the drive down
After hitting the road at around 6:20 am, we were on our way. The drive down to Virginia was beautiful. We went through southern Ohio, West Virginia, and finally into Virginia. We took Highway 64 almost the entire way. It brought us through the mountains, Jefferson National Forest, and the southern tip of Shenandoah. Some of the roads were a 7% grade (up and down) and made the drive feel a bit like a roller coaster. The kids loved seeing the mountains. We stopped at an overlook so that they could take pictures with their camera (and mom could too). We had to make one quick bathroom break in northern West Virginia and we stopped in Lexington at Wendy's for lunch. The kids amused themselves with their cameras, re-positionable sticker books, drawing notebooks, reading, and lots of snacks. We arrived in Suffolk and checked into the hotel in the late afternoon. We let the kids hop in the pool to get some of their wiggles out before dinner. We were one of the first family members down, with most people arriving on Friday. We went out to dinner in downtown Suffolk at the Plaid Turnip. The portion sizes were huge and the food was great, but the boys were not very interested in sitting anymore. Mom played eye-spy with them to keep them entertained while we waited for our food. After a long day, it was time to get back to our room and go to bed.
virginia mountains
jumping in
the plaid turnip
Day 2: beach, brunch, and rehearsal
We had planned to go to the beach on Sunday. When we looked at the weather before our trip, the weather was not going to cooperate. It was supposed to be cold and rainy on Sunday. The only nice day was going to be Friday. We had talked up going to the beach so much with the boys (they were beyond excited) there was no way we were going to get out of Virginia without going to the ocean. We got up really early and drove towards the Atlantic. We ate breakfast in the car a little after 6:00 am and got to the beach at around 8:30. We were not sure what beach to go to. Mom had heard that to the south and north were some less busy beaches. Mom had printed off directions to try going to Little Island Park, but on the way there we saw a parking lot and just went for it. We got stuck in traffic and had to leave by 10 am to get to the Chitwoods for brunch, so that only left us with an hour and a half at the beach. The drive to the beach was pretty. We saw lots of strawberry patches picking in April, which is crazy early to us northerners. We ended up at Sandbridge Beach which was so nice. It was not busy at all and it wasn't too hot yet, considering it got up to around 90 degrees in the heat of the day. The amount of time we spent there was perfect. Both Eric and I were exhausted watching Clara who refused to sit still. She kept sprinting towards the water and then would try to run towards people walking on the beach, especially those with dogs. She was having the time of her life. So were the boys. They gathered sea shells has fast as they could. There were mostly tiny shells and shell remains, but that didn't stop them. They splashed in the very cold water, built sand castles, and enjoyed the ocean. We then brushed the sand off the of the kids and changed them out of their swimsuits to leave for the Chitwood brunch. Clara fell asleep on the way, which made for a nice quiet drive in the country. After we arrived, the boys ate a quick breakfast while the parents chatted a little bit and Clara was confined to her booster seat. It was nice spending some time with Christine's family before the wedding. The boys loved running around outside and looking at their dogs, which they had in a fenced in area in their backyard. It was then back to the hotel for naps. We amazingly got everyone to sleep. Eric left to meet up with his brother to pick up the tuxes while mom held down the fort and got everything ready for the rehearsal. She eventually had to wake everyone up so that we could get ready. We heated up leftovers from dinner the night before and had a picnic in the hotel room. Dad got back just in time to get ready for the rehearsal. The wedding was at a small church called Beech Grove United Methodist. It was a lovely small church. The rehearsal went fairly quickly. Everyone practiced their parts and then it was off to the rehearsal dinner. The dinner was at a restaurant that mom wanted to try out called Taste. Everyone hung out, ate some delicious appetizers, and we bought the boys gelato for dessert. The highlight for the boys was the soda machine, which had cane sugar soda. Mom and dad let the boys try the birch beer and the lemonade. It was a beautiful way to end the final day before the wedding.
sand castles
collecting shells
mom and clara
natty
walking the shores
beach baby
looking for more shells
sippin soda
gelato
chilling watching arthur
Day 3: wedding day
After two fairly busy days, we were excited to have a relaxing morning. We enjoyed a long breakfast where we got to catch up with family, including the man of the hour, Ryan. The reason it worked is there were cartoons on the tv, so the boys happily watched after eating. We went for a final swim in the pool since we were checking out of the hotel the next morning. The boys got to swim their hearts out while mom let Clara swim for a little bit. Mom then took her upstairs to see if she could get her down for a long morning nap because with a 3 pm wedding, there would not be time for an afternoon nap. It worked, praise the Lord. When the boys were done swimming, mom passed clothes to them out the door and they hung out in the uncles' room and went and got lunch at Panera. Dad brought back lunch for us girls and we ate it picnic style in the hotel with Clara in the booster chair. (Note to self, always bring a booster chair on vacation.) Mom had to wake Clara up because she was still napping and the boys wanted back in the room. Dad had to be at the church a little early for pictures, which meant that mom had to get the rest of the kids ready. We headed over a little early as well for mom to get Nathaniel dressed in his tux at the church so that he didn't wrinkle it. We weren't there too early, so we grabbed a spot and waited for the ceremony. Nathaniel was the ring bearer and Melina (the flower girl) walked down the aisle together and they did such a good job! Since dad was a groomsman, mom had to juggle all three kids and keep them quiet. The boys were doing great. Clara was being a little chatty and since it was a small church mom thought it best to take her out. The uncles said they would watch Nathaniel and Edmund. Mom was glad she got to see Christine come in because she looked so beautiful and she got to hear Lissa do the reading. Mom took Clara to play on the playground and watched her cousin David until it started to rain. We then ran into the classroom area in the back of the church until the ceremony ended, which was shortly after. We then hung out until pictures were done and drove to the reception. Ryan decided he wanted the bridal party to get coffee, but Starbucks was too far away, so we drove to WAWA. Mom drove dad since there were only 5 seats in the car and 6 people in the bridal party. It was perfect because Nathaniel and Clara had fallen asleep on the way to the reception. We then went in to the reception and dad helped since it was raining. It was at a golf course and it was perfectly pretty. The boys didn't want to eat the food, Clara ate all the food, and all of them loved dancing the night away. Mom had lots of help from family (especially Aunt Laura) since dad was at the head table. It was a lovely reception and it was fun to see so many people celebrating the marriage of two beautiful people. We almost made it to closing time, but it was almost 9 when we headed back to the hotel for bed.
watching pbs kids
looking at the rain
the church
dressed up boys
our family
Day 4: virginia beach, virginia aquarium, and to williamsburg
It's leaving day and time to move on to our next stop on our trip. We ate a quick breakfast and worked on packing up our room. It was hard to find a cart, so mom tracked someone down in the parking lot and waited until they were done with theirs. We then headed over to Virginia Beach to walk along the boardwalk. The boys wanted to play in the sand, but it was about 50 degrees out and misty. It felt really cold with the strong wind that was blowing, but it was nice to smell the salty ocean breeze and look at the ocean. We made our way a block inland and looked at the trinket shops. We had given each boy $10 to spend and they excitedly picked out their treasures. This was one of the highlights of the trip for them. They looked at each shell until they figured out which ones they wanted to purchase, their eyes wide with excitement. Once all of their money was spent on shells, we continued walking to find a place for lunch. We settled on Cactus Jack's because it wasn't a pizza place and looked like it would have something that mom could eat. After a nice lunch, we headed over to the Virginia Aquarium to meet up with Bill and Jeannie and the kids. The aquarium was nice, but crowded. We first went to the Marsh Pavilion since they had arrived before us and had already seen the Bay and Ocean Pavilion. Since the rain had stopped, the walk over was really nice through the salt marshes. We enjoyed seeing the sea otters and the crabs. We then walked back and it was time for the Grashorns to start the long drive home. We stayed behind and walked through the Bay and Ocean exhibit. We were getting tired, so we tried to breeze through it, which was hard since it was quite crowded. The boys enjoyed seeing the sea turtles, sharks, and touching the sting rays. After, we drove to the tux rental place to drop off dad and Nathaniel's tuxes from the wedding. We then drove the hour to Williamsburg. After a busy morning, we hung out in our room, swam in the pool. and went out for seafood. After dinner, mom noticed that the front tire looked low on air and asked dad to go check it out. By the time he went back out to the car it was completely flat. We looked online and found there was a Goodyear about a mile away that dad could take the car to in the morning since it would need to be fixed before we drove back to Ohio. We let the kids watch an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie that was on tv and then it was time for bed.
giant sea shell
walking virginia beach
virginia aquarium
touching the sting rays
watching the fish
Day 5: colonial williamsburg
We all woke up bright and early at 6:30 since Clara is our little alarm clock. Dad left to get the tire fixed while mom took the kids down for breakfast. We had a slow breakfast since even though dad got at Goodyear at 7:30, the repairman didn't come in until 8:00. Mom got the kids ready and herself ready and watched Arthur which seems to be the only show on PBS kids. We then headed to Colonial Williamsburg. It rained out the entire day, but luckily mom brought rain jackets for everyone so we were fairly dry. We arrived at the visitor's center and decided to hoof it over to the Governor's Palace for our first stop. We got there right before the tour started. Clara was loud but there was some kind woman that played peek-a-boo with Clara almost the entire tour. (Bless her heart! I heartily thanked her for entertaining Clara since she was in the Ergo on my back.) The house was amazingly beautiful. Even though it is not the original, since it was destroyed in a fire in the late 1700's. We then moved along the palace green and enjoyed the Wythe house and grounds. There was a cook in the outside kitchen that was making lunch and talked to us about the bean and vegetable patties he was making. We then walked over to the colonial garden and talked to the workers in the Joinery where they were making stools. It was almost time for lunch so we strolled down Duke of Gloucester street to the east. We stopped in the blacksmith shop where they were working making metal snipping shears. The boys loved looking at all of the things they made and Edmund really wanted to keep the lock. We stopped at the King's Arms Tavern. It was on the early side, but lunch was being served. It was really fun to eat there because everyone talked as if it was the 1700's. We got more enjoyment out of it than the boys. Mom had a salet and vegetable soupe and Dad had a "made dish of beef." We were glad we went when we did because the waiting area was packed as we were leaving. We walked down to the Capitol. They were not having a tour for another 20 minutes so Eric peaked in the windows and we turned around and made our way back west. We stopped at the silversmith, where the silversmith was making spoons. Edmund then wanted his own silver spoon. He talked with us in detail on how he hammered the silver to make them. It was pretty impressive. We then continued on and made our way back to the car, the boys jumping in puddles all the way back. Everyone was quite wet at this point, except for Clara who was snug in the Ergo on mom. We drove back to the hotel where it was time for naps. We had the boys nap first and then Clara napped later since she had napped in the Ergo at Williamsburg and wasn't as tired. While she napped, mom took the boys swimming. We then went out to Blaze for brick fired pizza. It was a huge hit with the kids. Edmund ate an entire pizza and Nathaniel at almost an entire one himself. After getting back to the hotel, everyone went swimming again until the chlorine burned mom's eyes so much she couldn't stand it anymore. We went back to the room, packed up the car as much as we could and headed to bed.
governor's palace gardens
checking out the chickens
wythe house
colonial williamsburg
king's arm tavern
Day 6: shenandoah and the road home
We had an 8 1/2 hour day of driving to get back home, so we didn't want to leave too late. We got up, ate breakfast and finished packing up. We were then on our way. We were planning on stopping at Monticello, but it was pouring out. We decided we would save that for another trip. We did stop around 2 hours in at Shenandoah. We are pretty sure the man working there thought we were crazy because he warned us it was foggy in the mountains and raining. We told him we knew and told him what hike we were planning on and asked his thoughts on it - Little Calf Mountain. He agreed that it would be a good hike for kids at around 2 miles. It was only lightly raining so we put our rain coats on, strapped Clara to mom, and away we went. It was a nice hike, although a little muddy in most spots. The trail wound through the meadow, the forest, and finally to the top of the mountain. The view would have been lovely, but it was foggy on top of the mountain, so we couldn't see much. Edmund thought there would be treasure at the top, even though we told him there wouldn't be. He was disappointed. The boys walked the whole way, despite Nathaniel slipping and falling on the mud. We all took our shoes off before climbing back into the car. We were all fairly dry despite the constant drizzle. We fed the kids some snacks so that we could drive a bit farther before stopping for a late lunch. We stopped at Tudor's Biscuit World. We all agreed we would probably not go back there since Wendy's is better. The kids were full and tired, and they all passed out for a couple of hours while we wound our way through the mountains and made it back to Ohio. By the time we reached the Ohio border, the rain had stopped and it was sunny and beautiful out. It was a great bookend for a lovely trip.
(No pictures of Shenandoah. It was raining so hard that mom didn't bring her camera. Mom was worried it would get ruined. Mom was able to fit her video camera in her pocket, so there are a few clips.)
