Our Shenandoah Trip

This is a long post about our weekend away ... with just a sampling of my favorite photos from all the ones I took ... I'm almost finished with the video montage of the trip which has more photos and some funny videos ...

We set out for our big weekend away at 9:30 (that is after getting coffee of course) ... so we did fairly well ... we put Lincoln's big car seat in the car which he was thrilled about (he never ever really liked the infant seat) and we hooked up Skye's movie player to the seat in front of her and she got a new movie for the trip ... Mickey Mouse Playhouse in Wonderland ... I also remembered to bring headphones which schwoooo for that one ... she watched the movie the entire trip ... never changed the DVD ... we only had a 2 hour car trip and all in all we had a great time on the road ...

When we got to the caverns we had planned to visit I decided it wasn't the right one ... it was deserted and very cheesy looking ... just didn't feel like it was going to be good ... and we saw tons of signs for Luray Caverns and I had seen commercials for the place before ... so we looked up the address on the Pre (have I mentioned before I am in LOVE with this phone) and plugged it into the GPS ...

Once we got there everyone was a bit hungry and needed a bit of a break ...

After lunch we headed into the Cavern ... and it was AMAZING ... a little tough getting down all the stairs with a stroller and an excited 3 year old but we made it without any stumbles or falls ... Skye was worried it would be really dark down there so we got her a head lamp and she was way excited to get that puppy on ... let me tell you it was a big hit with everyone down there ... she got so many comments about how cute it was and what a great idea and not once did anyone get annoyed that she was shinning that thing right in their eyes ...

The formations were gorgeous ... Skye thought it looked like a cave from Dragon Tails ... and she oohhhed and aahhhed the whole way through ... so did David and myself ... even Lincoln stayed awake the whole time craning his neck to get a look at everything ...

We stopped for a quick push-up break when we got out of the caverns ... and to get a look at the garden maze we were about to enter ... it looked amazing from up above and we couldn't wait to get inside ...

The maze was so cool ... there were cute butterfly and bee wind socks that spun around ... and misters all over the maze ... tons of dead ends ... and 4 stamp stations ... I think that was Skye's favorite part because she got to stamp her card herself ... so each time we would finally find one she ran to stamp her card ... we did pretty good ... and no one got frustrated even though it could easily happen ... and the secret message from all of Skye's stamps ... "Mazes Around The World" ...

After the maze it was time to head to our hotel ... Skye has stayed in a hotel before but doesn't remember at all ... she thought it was so cool that it was "her home for tonight" ... she checked everything out and was excited to find out there was a playground right outside our room ... after a bit of rest we decided to take a drive around town and through the countryside ... saw lots of farms and the most amazing full moon ever ...

After our drive we wound up back at our hotel at the Johnny Appleseed restaurant ... Saturday night was Prime Rib night and David can't miss that ... he got the biggest piece of prime rib ... even the waitress was impressed with the weight of the plate ... Skye was just excited to get some strawberry ice cream as a vacation treat ...

Once back in the room we all just hung out having fun ... lots of tickling going on ... movies to watch ... snuggling ... it was awesome ... everyone was just so happy to be together ... hanging out ... new scenery ... it just rocked ...

I loved seeing Linc and Skye hanging out together in the morning while I got everything together ... they are going to have such a great time when he is finally big enough to play with her ...

After a quick breakfast at Burger King (where they had what I can only say was a 3 story play land area with the longest slide) ... we hit the road to drive through the Shenandoah National Park ... we were really hoping the trees would have changed more and that fall was more apparent ... but regardless it was gorgeous ... the drive was wonderful and peaceful and beautiful ... you can't go over 35 MPH while on Skyline drive so it was just a nice relaxing Sunday drive ... we stopped at several of the lookout points and the view just takes your breath away ...

After our drive through the park we all got situated again for our ride home ... several times on the way home Skye would just proclaim, "I had a good time!!" ... which made me so happy to hear ...

I did post to the blog from my phone on Sunday morning ... I am going to start planning these little trips more often ... it is good for all of us to get out and do something different and fun ...