A date with my girl

I got to go on a spontaneous date with my favorite girl to Dunkin Donuts for her first pumpkin spice latte.

It was so refreshing to have some one-on-one time!  I sure do love her to pieces!

Alison said one day, "My perfect afternoon would be: working on the puzzle while daddy plays music."

Check.

Fall Vacation, Part 3

We went to Alison's soccer game for the first time as a family.  Ben played with the boys while Alison warmed up with her team.

Ben had to get some more stuff off the ship and was able to give us a tour.  I knew it was a big ship, but it literally took my breath away when we stood next to it.

 

It was good for the kids to see where he was while he was gone and helped us understand his deployed life.  He showed us where he slept, and I can't imagine sleeping a single night in this:

 

This was his office and where he'd send us emails.  This small space was for 3 chaplains and 3 RP's and 1 computer.

This is where the officer's ate meals:

And he showed us the smoke deck where his smoking club met

Being back at the ship stirred up a lot of emotions but most of all for me, it made me thankful that we can walk off and go home as a family.

We went to the zoo afterwards.  I've never been to the zoo in the late afternoon, but the animals were more active than I've seen them before.  We stood and watched the monkeys climb around for a long time.

We went to the pumpkin patch, but it was COLD!  We were only able to be out in the field for a few minutes because it was so cold.  Thankfully we were able to find a few good ones quickly.

Colin was dead set on the tiniest pumpkin he could find.

 

We sat in the car while Ben paid and got us ice cream.  You have to get the ice cream even if you're already freezing...it's just a requirement.

Boys making silly faces while we waited:

 

 

Eli showing his muscles:

They have the best pumpkin ice cream!

Shenandoah, Day 3

Ben took Alison fishing one last time and we gave back our keys to the cabin.  We loaded up the car and headed out to find an apple orchard.  

 

Then we went to the Shenandoah National Park to drive Skyline Drive and take some hikes.

As much as I love the mountains, they don't love me.  Shortly into the drive I remembered how carsick I get in the mountains.  We pulled over for lunch and to give me time to regroup.  It was really cold when we got up in the mountains and I was not prepared.  I pulled out some blankets and the kids huddled up to eat.  THEN, I discovered the bread for our lunch was moldy.  So we had peanut butter and jelly on hotdog buns and bagels.

Ben took the boys exploring and let them run around.  They found a funny looking tree stump and laughed and laughed that it looked like a potty.

 

He found a patch of milkweed and taught the kids about them.

 

We found the closest "kid friendly" trail.  I think they classified it as that because it was only a mile long, but it was a steep, narrow and rocky mile.

 

Ben carried Colin pretty much all of the way and I walked in between Eli and Alison.  They did amazing and the view was worth the work.

There was a couple at the top when we got up there and they offered to take our picture.  The lady was SO nervous about our kids, which is understandable, but then kept saying, "Um, that boy isn't looking at the camera."  Um, we don't care where he is looking as long as he's not falling off the cliff.

 

Eli found a little nook that was out of the wind and instantly started playing house.  I love this boys' imagination.

 

 

 

 I loved chatting with Alison on the way back down.  She had such fun things to say!

We drove on, in search for a less rocky trail and all of the sudden A BLACK BEAR JUMPED ONTO THE ROAD!

 

I write it in caps because it was the craziest, scariest thing I've ever seen.  I was driving (it helps the carsick thing) and panicked.  Ben told me to stop and rolled down his window and get a picture and I panicked even more.  Yes, let's open our car for the black bear, good idea.

We eventually found this meadow trail, that was much more kid friendly.

 

 I'm disappointed I don't have a picture of the end of our day, but we met my cousin Ed and his family and my aunt Jill for dinner.  They live right by where we were hiking and we've only been up to see them once since we've lived here.  I wish we could have made it up more often, but it was fun catching up over pizza. 

Shenandoah, Day 2

We had Alison's new favorite breakfast: english muffin, egg and sausage sandwich.

Then we went fishing!

Alison explored nature while she waited her turn.

We bought the boys these scopes to explore with...I think Eli is exploring his hand here, but they had fun with them.

 

Ben was changing lures and crouched down at the tackle box, when Colin went over and just snuggled up to him.

The boys and I headed up to the cabin (the stairs were SO steep):

and Alison got some alone fishing time with daddy.

She caught her first fish!!!

  

She loved holding the fish, which is really surprising and was really excited for me to post this picture of her.

Here's the cabin:

and Colin throwing rocks off the deck into the river.

Then we went to Luray Caverns.

Our patience was tested on this one, but I think it was worth it.  It was long wait to get in and then we got stuck in an hour tour.  Ben and I are not tour guide people; exponentially not with kids.  The guide actually was good and the caves were awesome, but I was very nervous about some of the people down in that cave with us...and they were not our children.  Let's just say, if you can barely walk or breath, please don't go in a cave!

Pictures were hard to take down there and nothing came out quite right (I guess I needed Kent there), but this was my favorite spot.  It was a shallow pond, but the reflection made it seem really deep.

We made it out

We spent the rest of the day relaxing at our cabin.  We played some rounds of Mastermind and grilled dinner.  Apparently Ben smokes a pipe now...

Colin was quick to tell him that it smelled icky.

I got these "monkey drinks" (that's what the kids call them) as treats.

They didn't last long...

The kids were excited just to play and watch new kids shows in the cabin,

but eventually joined us outside for a little exploring.  Eli is teaching Colin the art of finding weapons in the sticks.  They were so proud of themselves for hiking up the mountain around our cabin.

 

 Alison took some pictures and she captured the boys perfectly; Eli is still in pretend world with his stick weapon and Colin is making some goofy face.

He's always making a face.

Sleeping was a little rocky the first night, with a wet bed and bloody nose in the middle of the night, on top of taking forever to get everyone asleep.  So this night, we decided to put the boys to bed first and let Alison stay up a little bit later until they fell asleep.  I took my turn at watching cable TV and I looked over to this:

She's curled up on the couch with her Nature Encyclopedia book.  It melts me.  She loves that book and made a huge point to take it on this trip with us.  I love how much she loves reading.