Long time, no blog

Sorry to be MIA for the last MONTH, but we are back in the swing of things following vacation and birthday celebration. We had a great time in the Shenandoah Valley/Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with Bebe, Papa, Dana and "Eeeen" (as Sadie likes to call Ian). We had beautiful weather, it rained on either side of the week that we were there, once we finally got to the condo. It was a little longer drive from Baltimore than we expected, but Sadie did great in her "new car, new carseat" that we rented for the week (brand-new Saturn Outlook). There were some firsts for Sadie on the trip, including getting to have her own seat on the airplane on the way there (there were no extra seats on the way back, and we just made it before she turned 2 and couldn't be a lap-child anymore...3 tickets from now on. Sigh.) She also got to face forward in her carseat for the first time, which opened up a whole world of seeing the sights as we drove through Maryland, West Virginia and finally Virginia (it was a long way, including crossing the Potomac River.) The Massanutten Resort near Harrisonburg, VA, was perfect for our large group. We had a 3 bedroom, 3 bath condo over 3 levels with 2 living rooms, 2 kitchens and several decks. There was the little challenge of keeping the unit at a comfortable temperature for all. There had to have been a 30 degree difference in temp from the top floor (so hot in the afternoon sun) to the basement bedroom that was as cold as a freezer, most of the time. Sadie slept in the closet again. We have found that she does better in her own space, and don't worry there were louvered doors for ventillation. The resort had lots of wildlife and plenty of activities with gorgeous scenery. Check out the geese and goslings that we found as soon as we got there.

There were also groundhogs, or woodchucks, which we found out are same thing...who knew? We went to the Shenandoah National Park on the coldest day, not too smart. But, the views of the mountains and valley were beautiful.

We visited Charlottesville and went to Monticello and UVA. Matt and I had done this part of the trip years ago when we went to DC to visit Lane, and it was just as fun the second time getting to share it with Sadie and the fam. I love the gardens at Monticello. They are gorgeous. Sadie was running around pretending to take pictures with Bebe's camera...monkey see, monkey do.

All in all, we had a nice, relaxing time. Including the amazing chocolate peanut butter pie at Jess' Quick Lunch, which we had twice.