Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Spring Break 2014!

This past winter I decided we needed to get away for a few days for Spring Break.  It was Jacob's first Spring Break, so I wanted to do something fun and make the week away from school exciting for him.  Hopefully this was the start of a tradition where we go away for Spring Break every year.

So anyway, Jacob had a soccer game that Saturday (day 1 of Spring Break), so after his game was over we packed the van and headed South to Williamsburg.  We were going to Busch Gardens!!  We have season passes, so the big expense was already taken care of.  My parents got their time share for us, so we didn't have a hotel expense.  The only thing we had to pay for, really, was food, gas and extras.  Love me some low budget trips like that!!  By the time we got to Williamsburg that first day we basically just had time to check in at the time share, unpack and have some dinner.  I think we may have taken the kids swimming that evening because that's our thing (we take them "night swimming" when we're on vacation), but I can't remember.  Lol

The next morning after we got up and had breakfast, we got ready and headed to Busch Gardens for the day!!


We headed straight to Sesame Street's Forest of Fun, so the boys could ride some of the smaller rides in the park.  Jacob was just about the right height for some of the rides outside of SSFoF, but Henry was not, sadly.




It took Henry a long time to get in to riding rides, practically most of the day, but once he got in to it he was riding anything and everything he was tall enough to ride!




Something we got to do this time that we had never done before was the Elmo Dinner Theatre.  My mom bought us all tickets so we could go, and I really think the kids enjoyed it!  Henry was SOOOO tired from walking (this was the first time we didn't take a stroller with us, so he had to walk everywhere).  At one point he actually fell asleep at the dinner table.  Lol  Jacob was loving getting to meet all the characters, while Henry sat quietly at the table taking it all in.





On our second day to Busch Gardens we decided we wouldn't stay the entire day like we had on our first day.  We were really wanting some Captain George's for dinner. Lol.  But we got some cool photo ops.  The boys got to "stomp grapes" in Italy, and I was loving all the cool Easter decorations (this was the fist time I'd ever been to Busch in the Spring ... I've been there in the Summer, Fall for Halloween and Winter for Christmas, but never Spring!).




We spent 4 days in Williamsburg.  When we got home I wanted to continue on the fun, so I had a few other things planned.  We were getting new windows that Thursday, and so we had to vacate the premises for several hours that day, so I took the kids to Frying Pan Farm to see all the new babies!!






And, finally that Saturday we decided to take the kids to Skyline Caverns.  We'd never been and we had passes Jacob had won at a school function earlier in the year, so we figured "why not?!"  It was so cool!  Definitely smaller then Luray Caverns, but still really fun to explore the caverns with the boys.





After we were done exploring, the kids got to ride on the train! So cute!



So that was our trip!  I hope each year we can continue to do something fun and exciting with the kids for Spring Break.













Monday, August 11, 2014

Jacob's First Soccer Season!


This past Winter we FINALLY got Jacob all signed up for his first Soccer season.  We kept missing the deadline to enroll him, so he missed it two seasons in a row.  :(  But we checked it early, got it on our calendar and were finally able to get him signed up to play.  Thank goodness we did because he LOVED it and has proven to be quite the little athlete!

His first practice was right at the beginning of April and it was really chilly!  His practice was held at the Community Center, so we were able to just walk from our house to practice.



That following Saturday Jacob had his first game!  All his games were on Saturdays and at the Community Center.  The league he played in went for 6-8 weeks ending in mid-June.




John originally wasn't going to coach Jacob's soccer team, but after the first practice, Jacob's coach reached out to John asking him to help for just one game.  Well ... he ended up being an assistant coach the entire season, and loved it so much that he signed up again to coach his own team in the Fall.


At the end of the season, Jacob's team had a little luncheon and awards ceremony after their last game.  And, Jacob got the coolest trophy!  




He had so much fun and it was a great first-sport experience for him and for us.  We're so excited for the next season!