Beautiful Charlottesville

Just a few words about Charlottesville and a few cute photos of my kids to close out our Virgina vacation. I LOVED Charlottesville. It had a small town feel with larger city amentites. It was in one of the most beautiful parts of the country that I've ever visited. We were in the Shenandoah valley, sandwiched in by gorgeous mountains. I could live there. Literally. We were quite seriously considering a yearlong mobilization there until this Afghanistan mission happened. Who knows, we may end up there(probably just temporarily, Mom!) in the future. All I know is that we really enjoyed our time there and we're looking forward to next summer when we'll get to visit again!

It was fun, fun, fun the whole time we were there. Eating out, swimming almost every day, the kids were in 7th heaven! Tristan really became a good swimmer while we were there. He was able to swim around the 3ft area without difficulty and only required minimal assistance in the deeper water. Looks like we have another swimmer in the family!

Glamour shots, pool style. The kids begged me to take their photo EVERY TIME they jumped in. I'll admit, I pretended to take a lot of photos, but I thought a few were blog worthy.

Yes, even Bennett got in on the action. He loved pitching Maura's shoes into the water. And himself. Just after I snapped this photo, I had to throw my camera on a nearby chair and rescue my baby from the pool. He came up gasping, but never cried. Awesome mom here!

We were fortunate to hook up with some old friends while in Charlottesville. We knew the Barans when they lived in Lexington and they were kind enough to invite us to dinner and for playdates while we were there. Our kids loved their beautiful park like home and backyard. It was wonderful to be in a home after so many days in a hotel. Thanks Dan and Sarah! After this, it was home again. We were so glad to be home after our crazy summer travels!