Once upon a time...

Once upon a time I was a great blogger. I never let even a week go by without a post. Now I notice that I'm EXTREMELY far behind on my blogging. I still have VIRGINIA posts to write, for Pete's sake! I do have great excuses. Really, I do! Right now I'm in the midst of my 2nd photography workshop in just 2 little months. The weather has gone from hot to FrEeZiNg without my permission. We've had birthdays, soccer games, and fun times. The kids are fully immersed in school, homework, and sports. Yep, you could say we are busy, but the term that truly fits right now is CrAzY!! Jared and I crash into bed completely exhausted. And time just keeps marching on. We feel like we are chasing it, running to catch up, and it just doesn't seem to slow down. But somehow we are managing to tread the water and keep our heads above just enough to breathe. I'm crossing my fingers that I will find a spare hour to do a great blog post soon. And if not, well, life will still go on. We will still get up way too early every morning and go through the usual routine just to get to school on time, and the dishes will still get dirty, and the laundry will keep piling up. Stuff will just keep happening. And I will TRY to enjoy as much of it as I can.

Colonial Williamsburg

Just when I thought I was almost done with these Virginia posts, I realized that I skipped right over one of the most memoral days we had there! The reason it was so memorable? The heat... the expense... the long drive... the humidity... the heat... the humidity (oh wait, I already mentioned those!) We were so excited to take our kids to Colonial Williamsburg. Jared and I went when we were first married, and his family used to go all the time. I remember being able to go in many of the buildings without paying a penny. However, this time, things have changed. They've really added a lot of cool things, but they charge an arm and a leg just to be able to go in the buildings. We decided to just do the "free" thing, and didn't realize until we took the shuttle clear out to the village, that there really isn't much you can do without paying. Oh well! We decided we would just walk around, go in the shops (of course they let you in there!), and just SEE the old houses and buildings. And it was HOT! Everyone was sweating like crazy, and the kids, as brave as they tried to be, complained a little bit. I would hear "Mom. I think I'm going to DIE!" And my response? "I know. Me too."  BUT... looking at these pictures, I was reminded that there were a FEW things to do.

We could watch the ONE free little performance. A speech by President George Washington.

We could wander the lovely streets.

We could lock ourselves in the stockades!!

There was ONE old church that we could go inside of. It's still a functioning parish, and they kindly let people in to visit. This is a church building that Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and others actually WORSHIPPED in. Pretty cool!

We could enjoy the outside of EVERY building. I love old bricks, so atleast there was that! LOL :)

One nice colonial lady let the kids play for a few minutes. They thought it was pretty fun. They were in need of some serious water afteward, though.

We got to talk to a kind, and very much in-character colonist. I loved his accent, and his proper way of speaking. The kids thought it was pretty funny. I thought it seemed like it would be fun to work there ;) LOL! And of course, a family picture during the one breeze that blew through, right in front of the palace. I wish we could have gone inside!

Although we were disappointed by the ridiculous cost (I'm talking AMUSEMENT PARK pricing just to tour buildings - it would have cost our family a couple hundred), and we decided that we'll visit somewhere else next time, I'm glad the kids got to see a little piece of Colonial Williamsburg. I think they learned a little bit, at least, and they definitely learned to be grateful for air conditioning!!

Virginia State Capitol

Still trying to get this Virginia trip blogged! There was SO MUCH, I just can't get it all done. One of these days... oh well, anyway, on to another fun day :) We spent the day on Tuesday July 12 touring some of the government sites in Richmond. Jared's brother Duane works for the Governor, so we got to have a tour of the Governor's mansion. It's so pretty. It's one of the oldest Governor's mansions in the country that is still actually LIVED in by the Governor. It was fun to hear some of the history, and some of the legends about ghosts, and things like that. Then we walked over to the Capitol building. I've been there before, and it's really a cool building. It was designed by Thomas Jefferson! And there is an amazing statue of George Washington (I believe they said it is the only statue that he actually POSED for. It's awesome). I love history, and Virginia is just FULL of history. It's fun to visit the historical sites and allow our kids to learn up close.

The next day, Wednesday July 13 we just hung out at Jared's mom's house. It was nice to just relax after feeling like we were running all over the place! The "boys" played basketball, the kids just played. It was really nice to just CHILL!!

A little B-ball! Must be nice to be so "tall" that you can dunk! LOL. They were funny to watch. The Stafford boys (and the married-into-Stafford boys) LOVE to play ball when they get together :)

Little cousin Lindsey and Hayden had a great time swinging, playing with sticks, and just being silly!

Kaitlyn enjoyed just sitting on the porch. We were pretty worn out from all the activities of the past week, and it was REALLY nice to just SIT!!

Well, I'm almost done with these Virginia posts. Just one or two more, then maybe I can get caught up to where we are now. School is going, soccer is keeping us hopping, and life is just generally FULL! Hopefully I'll post again before a whole week passes by :)

"Give me Liberty!"

When we are in Virginia, we try to make a visit to St. John's Church in Richmond. This Episcopal church is the actual place where the Virginia delegates met before the Revolutionary War to discuss what they thought they should do. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and several others were all there when Patrick Henry gave the famous speech where he said "Give me liberty, or give me death!" They do a re-enactment every Sunday evening, and men dressed as the delegates are spread throughout the audience. They sit where the real men actually sat. They stand and speak as they debate about possibly going to war against England. It's really such a neat way to learn about this part of our history. A congregation actually still meets and worships there each Sunday morning, and the church building is surrounded by a cemetary.

 

The inside of the church is pretty, with stained glass windows, beautiful chandeliers, and really cool pews. They are actually enclosed, with a little door to get in and out. I think the idea of the doors is genius. It would have been especially helpful when Jared was in the bishopric the first time, and we had REALLY little people that I had to keep corralled!!

 

It was fun to be there with cousins.

 

I love the flags, and the plaques throughout the building adding to the history.

 

The building itself is the original building. I think they built on at one point, but it's a VERY old church building.

 

Our little family outside St. John's Church.

Trip "through" D.C.

While we were in Virginia, Jared's sister Sarah was married in the Washington D.C. Temple. We left in the afternoon on Thursday, so we could take a few pictures that evening at the temple. We wanted to make the actual wedding day as stress-free as possible. It's always an adventure driving up to the Temple. It's a couple of hours away (and that's when there's no traffic... which means NEVER.) Traffic from Richmond to D.C. can be kinda nasty. It wasn't too bad this time, but it still took us a while, especially since the good ol' GPS took us through a really interesting part of the City of Washington D.C. A bit of a different route than we have taken in the past! The kids were really excited to see some of the monuments through the car window. As we passed, we promised them that next time, we would actually GO to the monuments, instead of just watching them as we drove by. Then we hit what looked like the business district. The architecture of the buildings was really beautiful, but it wasn't long before we hit the less-nice part of town. It was definitely not where you'd want to hang out on a regular basis ;) It seemed to be taking us longer to get to Maryland (where we were staying) than usual, but we just kept trusting the GPS. We finally got there, and the motel we were staying at ended up not being the best place, but we "camped" there anyway ;)

We headed up to the temple and tried to shoot a few pre-wedding pictures, but the clouds rolled in and it got dark pretty fast, so we just decided that we'd have to do the majority of the pictures after the wedding. The next morning we were up early and ready to go! The ceremony at the temple was really nice. The weather was beautiful. The bride and groom were so happy. We all had a great time. It wasn't until after the luncheon (at a buffet) that the weather got CRAZY! It started to really storm, and it took us F O R E V E R to get back to Richmond, where we would be setting up for the reception which would be the next night. We got the church all ready (and it looked so awesome) and ended up staying with Jared's younger brother Matthew and his family. We didn't get much sleep - we were having too much fun playing the Wii!

Saturday was just filled with errands, and last minute reception details. That night was the reception. The only pictures I took during this weekend were the wedding photos. You'll have to go check them out on my
PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG

OH! And then there were these few pictures from the reception that I DIDN'T post on my photography blog:


Yes, somehow Bryson ended up with the garter. Not sure how, but it was pretty funny! :)



All the brothers got to "share" a dance with Sarah, since she couldn't have a Daddy/Daughter dance. We missed Dad, but we know he was there!



Then I loved looking over and seeing my cute Kaitlyn dancing with her daddy!



Especially this one:

Needless to say, this was one seriously exhausting weekend. My next post will be the fun thing we did on Sunday afternoon after church. It's one of my favorite things to do in Richmond!! :)

Pamplin Park Civil War Site

Oh my goodness, at the rate I'm going, it will take until Christmas to get our entire trip to Virginia blogged! I'm still editing my sis-in-law's wedding pictures (which happened while we were in Virginia), and I don't think I've even LOOKED at all our fun trip pictures. Soon... soon. Hey, life's busy!! All I can say is that I had better get moving. We've done plenty of fun things since we've been home from our vacation, and there is so much more to come. MUST. CATCH. UP!

Several years ago while in Virginia, Jared's dad took us to this awesome new Civil War museum. It was amazing. Unfortunately, at the time, I had a two-year-old and a nursing infant. I'm pretty sure Jared got MUCH more out of it than I did. And he was one the hanging with the two-year-old (which was Eryn, by the way). So this time, 11 years later, we knew it would be much easier to see everything and actually enjoy it since our kids are all old enough to not be quite as "difficult." It's called Pamplin Park. It's on an actual Civil War Battleground. The museum is amazing. Very interactive, and all about life as a Civil War soldier. The grounds are HUGE, and they have done so much more since we were there last. We stayed as long as we could before the clouds rolled in... and the rain started DUMPING. It was amazing, and our kids LOVED it. Enjoy the pics!

Everyone got to wear these sweet headphones attached to a little device with numbers. All around the park there were things to see, and each spot had a number on it. When you typed the number in, you got to hear about what you are looking at. It was pretty cool. The best part, was kids that couldn't read well, could still understand what they were seeing. We learned so much about the plantation, soldiers and their lives, and the battleground we were on.

Part of the park is on an actual plantation. Apparently the army came in and basically took over the whole plantation. They used the home as their headquarters. It was neat to go inside the house and see how they may have had things set up. And since it WAS a working plantation, there are barns, gardens, and farm animals, as well as slave quarters.

After seeing the plantation and learning a little about slavery at that time, we walked toward the actual battleground. Some of the family with small kiddos decided to leave (we went with aunts, uncles, and cousins) so we ate lunch and then explored the rest of the park.

The kids LOVED seeing the cannons, and how the soldiers set up barracades. They would dig trenches, and build up earthworks as a fortification, then protect it with huge wooden spears sticking out toward the enemy. Made it a little hard for the enemy to get very close.

Another thing we (especially the boys) enjoyed, was a gun demonstration. Two men, dressed as Confederate soldiers, showed how to load and shoot the rifles they used. Of course, after the first shot, our boys were begging them to "DO IT AGAIN!" So the second time, instead of again slowly showing step by step how they loaded, he showed how FAST he could do it. I was pretty impressed, and the boys were even more so!

There was a little log cabin full of fun things the kids could try. They all had to try on some clothes! There was a drum they could beat on (like the drummer boys would have carried into battle) and some other things. Too bad I had to tell a silly uncle to stop banging the drum... it was getting ANNOYING! LOL! Gotta love the serious (or attempt at serious) faces. Well, you never really saw people smiling much in pictures back then, so our kids thought they should be authentic!

We walked around the rest of the park, where the battle actually took place, and learned that it was one of the FINAL battles before the South surrendered just days later. The area was so beautiful and green, but the sky soon became very threatening. Once we saw lightning, we decided to head back to the museum (which was a considerable distance). We just barely walked through the doors, when the rain started DUMPING!! The inside of the museum was really cool. You "became" a Civil War soldier, and throughout the museum, you would hear about the particular boy or man in your headphones. It was really cool. There was one area where you walk through a "forest" into battle. The ground shakes as cannons go off, and you see soldiers shooting at you. (This was our boys' most favorite part of the whole museum... I think they went through it three times - maybe more!) All of it was really interesting. Sure makes me glad to live NOW and not THEN!

There is so much more Virginia to come. We FILLED our trip with activities. Probably too many, actually, but it was a great time.