Virginia wrap-up

We're back from our trip to Virginia, and oh how good it is to be out of the car and with access to food that doesn't come in combo form. The kids spent lots of quality time with my parents, and Pat and I took advantage of the free childcare and enjoyed a much-needed date night out or two while we were at it :)

Our 4th of July morning was spent in Colonial Williamsburg, which is an absolutely gorgeous area. I think one of the things I miss most about Virginia is the scenery. Memphis is a concrete jungle, but Williamsburg is covered with trees and history just about everywhere. You can't even walk into the Food Lion without seeing someone dressed in colonial garb.

The colonial houses lining Duke of Gloucester Street were gorgeous as always. Sometimes I forget people actually live in the historic area among the costumed actors.

(PS, I want a stream running through my backyard!)

We also got to see the Fife and Drum Corps perform while we were there. They shot off cannons to recognize each individual state, then marched down the main street. I just kept thinking about how I was glad not to be wearing all the heavy clothes they were wearing in the 90 degree heat.

I lived in Colonial Williamsburg for over 8 years, so while it was all fun to watch, it was stuff I'm used to seeing. At the beginning, it was cool to see all the costumed actors walking around acting like people from the 1700's. Now, I just think about how glad I am not to have to wear all the clothes they were sporting in the 90 degree weather. And it's always fun to watch the tourists. They followed the poor fife and drummers wherever they went.

The night of the 4th, it rained so no fireworks for us. It worked out though because the show was going to be way after Connor and Haley's bedtime, and I knew they would be little zombie children if we took them with us, and lots of loud fireworks going off probably wasn't going to help either.

We pretty much spent the entire weekend eating our way through Williamsburg (which we tend to do ANYtime we visit family) and the extra couple pounds I found were totally worth the delicious food. Oh, and Haley came up with new names for my parents. They originally wanted to be called "Nana" and "Pap," which Haley decided to change to "Nina" and "Map" this past weekend for some reason. 

We tried to teach my dad to sing the "I'm the Map" song from Dora the Explorer, but he wasn't going for it. We'll keep working on that one though, I mean, the man could have his own theme song!

Haley and "Map"

How was your 4th?