It's All About the Journey: We're BACK!!!

Yes, and although I planned on posting the last couple of days, it just hasn't worked out that way! I did set aside a bit of time today to say we are still alive and well, and returned safely home from a GREAT vacation!!

We got to Luray Sunday afternoon after driving through a lot of rainy mess. It worked out fine raining that first day, as we were busy unpacking and getting settled into our cabin. The "cabin" is a beautiful log home with 3 bedrooms and a lofted den. It has a full kitchen, living room, dining room, 2 baths, and a full unfinished basement that is perfect for ping-pong and riding tricycles. The front porch is wonderful, overlooking a beautiful stocked pond, and the side screened-in porch has an amazing stone fireplace. It is a WONDERFUL place to stay!

Our cabin is tucked right behind those trees!

Our week was great, full of both activity and relaxation. We went fishing

-I caught my 1st largemouth bass and Thomas caught a good number of both bass and brim - and hot-tubbing - well, everyone but me hot-tubbed! The boys rode bikes and trikes (Thomas even did some downhill speedracing and WAY off-roading-i.e. crashing - with no real injuries!),
and we did some sightseeing from the beauty of a model T driving open-topped through the countryside!

We roasted marshmallows-Max loved them, Benjamin did not - and we found a GREAT playground we kicked around at in Luray. We had a super time, and while mom and Rich may never recover from the chaos that IS our everyday standard operating procedure, we enjoyed the time spent together. I got some great sunset pictures,

and thankfully, was NOT up and about to get any sunrise shots!! The boys enjoyed running up and down the gravel road that led to our cabin, and throwing rocks in the pond. It was a great time, and I came home rested and refreshed!

We got home Saturday afternoon and set about getting settled back in and unpacked. I ran some errands and picked up Sully and some groceries. When Thomas was getting a new trash can liner out of the utility room, he asked "Is there supposed to be all this water in here?" Uh, 4 inches of water all over the utility room floor, um, no, that is NOT a good thing!! Turns out the valve in the top of the water heater blew when we turned the water back on after we returned, and flooded the utility room, and up under the den floor. I took the boys to mom and Rich's, then Norman and I spent a lovely evening wet-vacing and drying things off. Welcome home, indeed! Nothing like a home repair issue to bring you right back into reality!

Funny sidebar, and a bit sad. I will preface this story by saying my all time favorite household helper is Downey's Wrinkle Releaser. The stuff is AMAZING and I LOVE it!! I no longer iron, not that I was a big ironer before, but that stuff eliminates the need to iron. Well, after the boys came home, they were checking out some of the things that were in the living room, waiting to be put back and there was the ironing board. Max walked up to it and looked and looked, and finally said "boat." No amount of discussion would persuade him that is was not a boat. Well, about 5 minutes after this discussion, Benjamin walked in and said "Is that a surfboard?" Why he thinks we would have a surfboard, I don't know, but I told Norman I may have to start ironing a couple of items each day, just to educate the children!! Oh well, I never claimed to be a great housekeeper! I'm way too busy chasing boys and buying 6 gallons of milk a week to iron!!

Sunday we decided to cap off our vacation week with a trip up to Kings Dominion. We met some friends there and Thomas went with the fellas to ride the BIG rides - Hypersonic XLC, Drop Zone, Shockwave, and Volcano, while Norman and I took the littles on their rides. Benjamin even rode his first roller coaster - once with me and once with Thomas! They grow up SO fast!!