Massanutten Mountain

Ben won a free trip to Massanutten and we couldn't turn down the opportunity to escape for a couple of days. My Aunt Jill, Uncle Duane, Cousin Ed and Laura and their kids live only 20 minutes away from where we were staying so we were able to see them a little bit too. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, so you'll just have to trust me on this part of the trip. Eleanor and Lewis are close to Alison and Eli's age, so all the kids had a blast playing together. The boys were hooked on watching basketball and I really enjoyed catching up with Laura and Aunt Jill. Hopefully we'll be able to plan more trips to see eachother.

The drive up went fairly smoothly. We left right after church and I planned (I should learn not to plan on anything!) that the kids would sleep most of the trip since it would be during nap time. I think they slept all of 30 minutes, but played contently the rest of the trip. My favorite part was listening to Alison read Eli books and listening to him giggle at her.

We got to stay in a fairly nice condo. It was right by a peaceful stream and had it's own kitchen, so we were able to bring our own food for meals. Somehow they wrote down our "number of guests" wrong, so they only gave us a unit with one bedroom. The first night we tried to put the kids in living room, but that only resulted in no one sleeping. Needless to say the first night was terrible. Alison was the only one who actually slept, but that kid can sleep through anything. The second night was much better...minus Eli pulling the ice chest into the pack in play, dumping ice all over himself and his bed.

Sleep deprivation left my little guy looking like this the whole time:

Alison wasn't phased by the sleepiness for a minute. She can always find room for energy.
After we endured a morning of touring the resort and many persuasions to get us to buy a time share, we were able to relax and enjoy the mountain. We played at the park several times and went for a little walk by the springs.

They had a huge indoor water park that we had originally planned on going to, but when we realized that Alison would be just as excited about this small, free pool, we decided to save our money for a time when we'll be there for longer than 30 minutes. It was good decision. The pool was shallow enough that Alison could touch and she had a blast climbing up the ladder and jumping in over and over again.



This was Eli's first time in a pool and he beyond loved it. He had absolutely no fear or hesitation of the water.


That night we had a fabulous dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and Ben treated me to a movie of my choice.

The morning we headed back home, we made one more stop at the park. Eli loves swinging, and I love that he can swing happily while Alison runs around at all the other things...it's a good combination.


And what trip is complete without chasing some ducks?

Alison kept calling our trip "the adventure" and that it certainly was. But in the midst of Eli finding beer bottles, lost room keys and Alison jumping on the bed, begging to watch Sponge Bob, it was a refreshing time as a family. And the beauty of it all, because we have small children and opted for the free activities and brought our own food, we actually made money on the trip...now that's refreshing!