Williamsburg Trip!!

The first weekend in December is the Grand Illumination weekend in Williamsburg.  I've been a few times, but never really seemed to care too much for the actual Grand Illumination festivities.  I just want to go to Busch Gardens to Christmas Town!  Lol  This year I really wanted John to be able to go with us because the last time we went he was out of town on business.  He ended up not having to go out of town for work this year, so he was able to go with us.  Yay!!

We took that Friday off, picked Jacob up early from school and left town around lunch time.  It was a beautiful day out, but it was pretty cold.  When we got down there we checked in to our room and then went to Hooters for dinner.  Yum!

The next morning we got up to .... RAIN. :(  Christmas Town doesn't open for business until the afternoon, so we went to breakfast and then stopped at the Christmas Mouse where I got our family's Christmas ornament for 2014.  :)

It's cute, no?  And, different than anything else we have in our collection.  John also spotted Advent calendars for the boys .... something I've been wanting to do with them for a few years now and I just never remember to look for them.  They really loved them, though I think they still missed the Christmas story because they were more interested in the daily morning candy.  Lol

After the Christmas Mouse we went to the giant Yankee Candle store!  I loooove that place!!

We browsed all the different sections, checked out the awesome decorations, listened to some carolers and the boys even got to write and MAIL letters to Santa.

So ... after the Yankee Candle store we decided to drive out to Busch Gardens and try it in the rain.  We got in, got parked and then ... it POURED.  Worse than it had all day.  We waited a few minutes to see if it would let up, but no such luck. :(  Time to call it ... we left and we never did get to go to Christmas Town this year.  Well, John and I didn't.  The boys and my parents went back down the weekend before Christmas, so at least SOMEONE got to go.  :-/

To kill some time we decided to check out the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum as none of us had ever been to that one.  I'm glad I can say I've been, but I don't think I'll be going back any time soon.  Lol  It was just .. ehh .. okay.

Jacob enjoyed the giant Iron Man and Transformer.  And, I personally thought the tallest man was pretty neat ... 

And, since I'm really intrigued by the Titanic, I liked seeing a piece of coal from the Titanic.

But, then there was some stuff I wish I could UNsee.  Like this double headed goat.  WTH?

There were some games that the boys enjoyed like this shooting game.  And, there was a "mission impossible" type game that *I* really enjoyed. Lol  You had to make it across and room and back without breaking any of the lasers.  I did pretty good even on the "hard" setting when my husband turned it up and didn't tell me.  Lol

Probably my favorite part was this 3D movie we got to see when it was over.  It felt almost like a motion simulator  yet the seats didn't move, so it was safe for the kids.  Henry, however, FREAKED OUT about halfway through and I had to hold him so he couldn't see the screen while he cried through the rest of the movie.  Thankfully it wasn't a very long movie!

That night we had dinner at Captain George's ... our consolation prize. Lol  After that we just went back to the hotel and hung out the rest of the night.  John and I had to get up early and leave to come home the next day, but the kids stayed and hung out with my parents.  They got home later that night in time for dinner.  We had fun quality family time, but I'm still bummed over not getting to go to Busch Gardens!  Lol

Halloween Festivities!

Halloween this year was jam packed with fun stuff going on!!!  Although I will say that we almost missed carving pumpkins because I was just so focused on my own grief over missing my sister all month long.  I snapped out of it (sort of) a few days before Halloween, and went to buy the boys their pumpkins.  Yes, we totally went to the pumpkin patch yet didn't buy their carving pumpkins there.  I got them at Giant for a fraction of the cost of what they charge for them at the pumpkin patch!

Anyway, one evening a few days before Halloween, we set out to carve their pumpkins and John even helped us out this year.  Usually I just do it with them, but now there are two and they're not quite strong enough to physically carve it themselves, so they need a little help from us.  I usually do the cleaning out of the "guts".  That's my favorite job!!  Lol

After they were cleaned out, the boys picked their patterns (coincidentally, I'm pretty sure they chose the same two they chose last year - I have reusable stencils - I'm pretty sure the same boy chose the same pattern, even, lol)  And, no ... we did not cut a 4 and 6 year old loose with giant butcher knives like the picture above shows.  That was staged. :)

And, here are their finished products.  I think we did a pretty good job on these two ... we work well as a team!!

The day of Halloween Jacob's school had an Imagination Parade in the morning.  All the kids and teachers were invited to dress up as a storybook character or something they wanted to be when they grew up.  It was so fun to see all the cool costumes!! Some kids were able to wear their actual Halloween costumes.  While others, like Jacob, couldn't because it couldn't be something with a mask.  What did our little guy go as?? A soccer player, of course. Lol  He wore his uniform from the Fall soccer season.  I'm not sure how he didn't freeze to death that morning because it was soooo cold out!

And, check out his teacher, Mrs. Geyer!  She was Chester the raccoon. :)

That afternoon John's parents and nephew arrived for the weekend!!  It was soooo much fun to go trick-or-treating with the three of them. Check out our trick-or-treaters.

Jacob was the headless horseman.  See why he wasn't able to wear his costume to school? Lol

Henry couldn't decide on a costume, so instead of buying him something this year we let him choose from our bin of costumes/dress-up clothes.  He went with Batman!

Our nephew, Josh, was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!

Look how cute they were all trick-or-treating together.  I'm so glad they had that opportunity because I'm not sure when they will again.

Happy Halloween (late) everyone!

Ashlee's 2nd Angel-versary

This is the day all Fall/October that I anticipate and dread the most.  October 20th.  It's so difficult to get through the months and weeks leading up to that day.  I'm hoping and praying that as the years pass, it'll get easier, but I'm not really sold on that.  Last year, the first anniversary, was no where near as bad as I had thought it would be.  So, I'm thinking maybe I wasn't preparing myself as much as I should have been because on the night before the 2nd anniversary.  I had the WORST anxiety attack I think I've ever had.  My doctor had JUST given me a prescription for Xanax, and so I took one at bedtime.  I was already in the middle of the anxiety attack, so I laid down and waited to drift off to sleep, but sleep never came.  I kind of drifted in and out of consciousness all night.  I'm sure I looked like I had been run over by a truck the next day. Lol  The day of her angel-versary wasn't anywhere NEAR as bad as the night before was.  That was the trend that entire first year, too.  The week leading up to an anniversary/holiday and the day before were absolutely horrible.  The day of?  Not so much.

Anyway, that night John took me and the kids out to eat.  I was still pretty emotional and cried off and on, but we made it through dinner.  It was a sweet gesture.  I just don't know how to get through that month in one piece anymore.  :(  It's so sad.  It's my baby's birth month.  But my sister dying 6 days after his birthday has completely stolen the feeling I SHOULD have around his birthday.  If anyone has any tips on how to survive a month like that, I'd love to hear them!

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

October is always such a crummy month in our family now that my sister passed away that month, but it's also Henry's birth month.  So, we try to make it as fun and memorable as we can.  I don't always succeed, but I sure try.

That said, Henry's birthday is 6 days before my sister's angel-versary, so the weekend before his birthday, we took the boys to the Pumpkin Patch.  We took them to Pumpkinville in Leesburg.  The last time we went there, it was the week before she died.  Last year we went to Great Country Farms to try something different.  It was fun, but really far away!

So, this year we took them to one that was much closer.  It was a long day for Jacob and myself.  We went to church in the morning, the pumpkin patch all day and then Awana that night.

When we got there immediately we went to all the fun stuff and figured we'd save the animal park for last.  Jacob wanted to go down the big hay slide right away, so we were happy to oblige.  I wish Henry would have gone, as well, but he's a lot more timid than his brother, and I'm not about to push him.

We met up with some friends there who have a son that's the same age as Jacob.  They actually go to the same school and were in the same class for a few weeks last year.

While my parents were hanging out with Henry, Jacob and I talked to and hung out with our friends.

We checked out a fish pond that I had never seen before on my other visits.  Some kids were there feeding them, so it was a frenzy!

After we were only there about 20 minutes or so, our friends left.  They had been there all morning and we're tired, so they excused themselves  and we went on to enjoy the rest of our day.

We took the hayride next!!  It wasn't busy, which was nice, so we were able to get right on with no wait.

We rode this around the entire park, and then when we got back, the boys wanted to check out the maze (made of hay).

After they were done in here, they checked out a few of the moon bounces, and then when started working our way back to the front of the park.  On our way back up the hill, Jacob saw the zip line and decided he wanted to give it a whirl.  I know he likes to try new things and he's super athletic, but I really didn't expect him to go through with it.

But, he did!

That was pretty much the highlight of my day!

After that there wasn't much left to see, so we headed out to the Animal Park.  I LOVED seeing all the animals, as did the kids!!  There is one area where you can go in and pet/get up close and personal with the animals.  That's where I fell in love with this beautiful little goat!

There were also soooommme ... not so beautiful animals.

Most of them were friendly enough, though.

This next one just made chuckle ... 

Then we just cruise through checking out the rest, and then we pretty much left.  Henry stayed with my parents the rest of the day, but Jacob and I headed straight to Awana.

The Pumpkin Patch is one of our favorite things to do, especially as a family, so we'll continue to do the same thing year after year.  We may just change up the location from time time.  Ironically enough .. we took the kids to the *pumpkin* patch, but didn't actually buy a pumpkin there. Lol