History Vacation

For the longest time I have wanted to go to Colonial Williamsburg. We planned on going last year and even booked a hotel but then Hurricane Florence decided to show up and change all of our plans, although the Smokey Mountains were an awesome change. So when I found out that our good friends from medical school would be in DC for a week I suggested we meet up there. Because I don't plan ahead very well I assumed Colonial Williamsburg was only half an hour away from DC. It wasn't until our friends had already booked a hotel there that I realized it was over three hours from DC. That made me a little apprehensive but Tanner was a good sport and we got a hotel room there as well.

We met up with the Hills at Mt. Vernon because I decided we might as well go all in on History. It was so fun to see our children meet each other again/for the first time. The last time they had seen each other (besides Facetime) was over three years ago. But they were instant buddies, not that they had a choice. By the end of the trip Mariah and Max were planning their wedding. They had a song and Max declared, "We're going to have fourteen children; ten boys and four girls." Chet followed that up with, "Mariah is going to be really tired." Oh you have no idea...

 If Max and Mariah don't hit it off in the future, we still have three more chances...even Norah and Austin got a little cozy. 

 We made friends with a friendly bull who liked getting his head scratched. 

 Checking out the pigs. 

 This was George Washington's view off his back porch; no wonder he never wanted to leave. 

After Mt. Vernon we headed out for Williamsburg in awful traffic. Thankfully we had the third Harry Potter on audio that kept the kids entertained. We had a pretty good night of sleep in our hotel and then woke up early and headed to Colonial Williamsburg. I really wanted to get something to remind us of our trip so Tanner humored me and let me get some hats...I have no regrets. 

 We walked around the historical part of town for a while.

 The carriage horses were a big hit. Mariah wanted to know all of their names. 

 Our favorite part was the fife and drums parade. There were several different bands and they were all so good. The kids had to do their own parade at the end. 

 After that we headed to a pizza place (I'm sure that's what the colonists ate) and caught up. 

 The back of the Governor's Mansion had a stage where we were able to see some amazing performances from the Crossley and Hill children and it even had a little maze that the kids had so much fun in. Even though they had been walking around all day they ran around in the gardens for a long time. 

 Finally we headed to the original site of Jamestown, mainly for the adults. Our kids were done by this point and had decided that they really just wanted to go to a beach. 

 Thats Chet's done pose...luckily for him we were just minutes from a beach on the river so the kids had fun in the water for an hour before we said goodbye to the Hills. I'm so grateful they humored me with this trip. We just love that family so much and are so grateful for their friendship that we know will last forever. 

 That night we headed to the Wunderli's and went to church with them the next day (Our third Stake Conference in the last three months). It was fun to see our cousins and Solo again before we move. 

Our good friend Serge stopped by as well. 

 The kids had to show him their rocking climbing skills in the Wunderli's awesome rock climbing room. 

The trip was short but we are so glad we got to see some special people.