Mountain Getaway

Bryan started a new job last week which is really, really great news for us.  He's spent the past month at the old job working early mornings, late nights, and weekends to finish up all his projects.  So when he had a few days off between jobs we jumped at the opportunity to take a little family trip.

The plan was to go camping in Southern Virginia for a couple nights, but the weather was looking lousy (lots of rain and chilly) and hardcore campers we are not so just a few days before the trip Bryan found an Airbnb that was absolutely perfect.  It was a little two bedroom cottage (with a kitchen and family room!) that was on a beautiful property.  

We got there late Thursday afternoon and drove around Buena Vista.  We died laughing when we realized it was 5:00, so we were experiencing "rush hour" traffic in this little town.  The few trucks on the road were a far cry from the Baltimore traffic we're used to.  When we got to the cottage we were all excited to walk around and explore- there was an old structure as well as a barn full of animals.  

Back inside, we found Twister, which the girls had never played before.  It was a hit, and I don't mean to brag, but I dominated.  It was Cinco de Mayo so we had brought along everything we needed for tacos (we made carnitas the night before and these were some delicious tacos!) 

In the morning we walked back over to the barn to see the animals and collect some fresh eggs.  I scrambled them and we all scarfed them down- delicious!

We went to the Natural Bridge Caverns and lucked out- we were the only ones in our tour, which was very convenient and fun.  Then we went to the Natural Bridge.  Part of the hike was blocked off because of flooding from all the rain but we walked under the bridge and to the Indian exhibit.

The girls were exhausted from all the walking (and not enough sleep the night before!) so they napped while we drove around Lexington.  It's a town full of historical sites (Stonewall Jackson's home, Robert E. Lee chapel, and a few others.)  We also drove through VMI Campus which has some really cool architecture.  Back at the cottage we had dinner (leftover tacos) and hung out with Duke the cat.  When it got dark we drove back to Natural Bridge to watch the light show.  They've been doing the same show since 1927 and it was a little old-fashioned but fun to see.  

On Saturday morning we had more fresh eggs (I usually scramble 6 eggs for our family but I got 9 and we ate every bite.) Then we packed up and left the cottage.  My parents and Tyler met us for a little more hiking (and when I say hiking I mean baby hikes, I think the longest we did was a mile.)  Jilly was a little billy goat scrambling over all the rocks and crashed when we got back in the car to drive home.  It was such a fun weekend all together and away from regular life.  And I'm not a bit sad that we didn't end up camping. ;)