Believe It Or Not

Believe it or not, this was to be our last day of vacation. We decided to take a tour of Williamsburg Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. It was (mostly) a big hit with the boys. We bought our tickets and decided to go with the package that included two 4D movies. Since one was about to start, we hung around the entrance and wait for it.

See this moment right here........

What you are seeing is the birth of Dylan's new obsession, Transformers. After this, he discovered the animated series on Netflix and then got a Bumblebee toy for his trip to Dallas just two weeks after our return from Virginia. He's hooked. Then we went to the 4D movie. It started out well...boys had fun with the 3D glasses and were excited for the start. Then it began and the dinosaurs started thrashing out of the screen at us and we got the occasional spray of water. Neither of the boys appreciated the water and Cade sat in my lap shivering with fright at the dinosaurs. So, that ended up being our only movie of the day. We skipped the 2nd one we had bought tickets for.

Then it was on to the exhibits and everyone was happy again. Being a museum of weird and spooky stuff, Dylan was in his element. Cade loved it too. Here are some of the highlights.

Iron Man Statue

Falcon Mummy

Skull Bowl

After the museum, we went across the street to the 1 of a kind, unique to Williamsburg restaurant called Chili's. OK, not exactly exotic, but kid friendly and close. Next door to it was a general store we wandered around before sitting down to our meal. The kids each got a souvenir that entertained them during our meal.

The rest of the day was spend napping and exploring the grounds of our condo complex. Can you stand the excitement?

Feeding the Geese

Walked Through the Georgian Plantation Mansion on the Grounds

Baby Ducks!
I can't remember exactly what was happening in this picture,
but doesn't it look like Cade is going to scoop them up and hug them?

They were so cute!

Turns out we got to see lots of wildlife on the condo grounds. In addition to the ducks and geese we fed almost everyday, this little nature walk also included swan and turtle sightings.

Turtles

Swan

It was a pretty hot day. So, when we got around to some shaded picnic tables, the boys and I sat to cool off while Mike went to the store across the road to get us some cool water. While there, we could see the pool and Dylan decided that's what we should do that night.

Fuzzy Geese Babies

So that's what we did. We went back to the room, changed into our suits and spent some time at the kiddie pool. Then dinner, packing and sleep. The next morning, we made the 1 hour drive into Richmond and had a pretty uneventful trip home.

It was a slow paced vacation for us. Nothing too exciting but we spent some quality time together and got to see a part of the country none of us had been to before. When Cade gets to be a bit older, we will start doing some travel that includes some longer flights and distances. Until then, we're going to do our best to stick closer to home (ie short flights).

Tunnels, Flowers and Kid Craziness=Day 4 of Vacation

On our 3rd day of our trip in Virginia, we set off again for an hour drive to the Norfolk area. The plan was to find something to do in the morning. At lunch, we were meeting up with our friend Kari and her 3 kids who were making the drive up from the Raleigh, NC area to meet us for the afternoon.

For our morning activity, we chose to go to the Norfolk Botanical Garden. This area is choked full of toll tunnels and we experienced several on the way but no toll booths. Apparently, they bill by license plate. Seeing as how we were in a rental car, we didn't really know how that bill would get to us. Apparently they have the system pretty well worked out because I saw the charges come through from the rental company on our last credit card bill.

When we got to the botanical gardens, we realized we forgot the sunscreen. Us being the pasty family that we are, we can't really go about so first thing was hunting some down. We found a gift shop that did have small tubes to sell so we slathered it on and head out. The botanical gardens were huge and Cade wanted to explore by foot rather than by stroller. So we made pretty slow progress. That means by the time we wandered for only about 45 minutes, we got the call that Kari was close and packed it up and headed towards her. With passes good for the day, we thought we might return for a bit that evening. Yeah, after a full day of craziness that didn't happen. But we enjoyed what we did get to see, even though it was only a small fraction of the gardens.

These were the roses that my grandmother used to grow in her back yard.
The scent took me right back to her yard. Serious nostalgia going on.

We grabbed some sandwiches, found a courtyard to eat and waited for Kari and her gang to find us. We all had lunch together then headed for our next stop, The Children's Museum of VA in Portsmouth. With 3 adults and 5 kids, it was a little nutty. The kids wanted to constantly go in different directions and the adults had very little time to actually be in the same room, let alone chat. Dylan and Luke were great friends in Boston and they picked up where they left off and had a great time playing together. Cade and Ryan pretty much wanted to do their own things at all times and little baby Erin was happy to be along for the ride.

Riding the Fake Bus
Dylan, Cade, Ryan (Behind), Me, Erin and Kari

Sweet Erin and Kari

Kari was the only one that got this body bubble thing to work.

Bubbles

Kari and Mike

We explored all the exhibits, watched the planetarium movie (Erin and Ryan snuck in a nap during it) and enjoyed seeing each other, even if we didn't get a lot of chatting time. Other than a lost backpack and kid (both retrieved), we survived the day. And bonus for me, I get to see Kari this upcoming weekend on a girls only (no kids) weekend. We'll actually get some time to catch up!

After the chaos of the museum, we were all pooped. We parted ways, each heading in a different direction for our drives home. Then, it was dinner and a mellow night at the condo.

The Rich History of Virginia

After a very exhausting first day of vacation in D.C. and Mt. Vernon, day 2 of vacation needed to be a slower pace so the family could recover. We headed into Williamsburg and mosied around. We saw some of the colonial area and just took in the scene. It was pretty mellow.

Then we paid attention to our grumbling stomachs and stopped for brunch at one of the cute restaurants in the brick sidewalked shopping area.

Very focused on his coloring.

Cade got antsy at the table (as he often does), so Mike took him for a walk while I finished breakfast (Dylan was content to sit at the stroller next to the table). Cade found a new friend...a horse that he fed some leaves.

Then Cade led us back to our car and we made our way back towards our condo. Just down the road from our condo entrance, there was an awesome park. We stopped there and played for a bit.

Follow the Leader

I can't believe I didn't get more\better pictures of this playground. It was really awesome. There was a pirate ship, extensive connected walkways and even a old west set up. The boys loved it there!

We rounded out our lazy day with naps and feeding the birds. Right behind our condo was a small pond. Spring is baby season and there were a lot of them around us. Goslings and ducklings were all over the grounds. We enjoyed watching them and feeding them all week.

Dropping Food to Them off Our Deck

Our lazy Sunday was supposed to be followed by an exciting Monday. Our plan was to use our pre-purchased Busch Gardens tickets to spend a day at the amusement park. What was the biggest disappointment of our trip, Monday morning we found out that the park was not yet open on week days. Wah wuh! Totally a big bummer. Our one shot to go was the day we spent lazing around the day prior. However, as tired as we all were, we wouldn't have been able to enjoy it anyway. Plan B was to take a short drive to Jamestown and explore.

We drove the scenic Jamestown Island loop before heading back to check out the settlement museum.

Pelts

The boys liked looking at the displays in the museum and loved walking around the Native American and colonist settlements. They especially liked touring the recreation of the ships that brought the colonists over.

The state bird of Virginia is the cardinal.
Appropriate since we saw them all over the place.

Cade and I enjoyed watching (and hearing) the musket loading and shooting demonstration. I honestly can't say that the day was very informative for me. Walking through museums with a 2 and 4 year old doesn't allow much time for reading and learning. So, after 2 days of exploring the rich historical culture of that area, I learned not very much. But, it was fun to see anyway!