Fun Weekend!

This weekend, thanks to an invite from my friend Kate, we headed to The Shenandoah Valley to Lexington, VA.  

  

By the time we arrived Friday night it was really dark, but it was nice to open my eyes and wake up to this view :) 

Saturday afternoon we went out for a little walk - the kids and Aaron had been out exploring and making sure we could get Alex around.

Me and Kate

Zach and Kate's son Ryan

At the end of the property there was a river where the boys tried out some fishing.

It was a beautiful day and a great backdrop for some family pics.

Alex really wanted no part in our picture taking! :) 

Kate and Ryan

Alex was quite content to just sit and stare at all the trees!

Too cool for school!

It was great getting out and enjoying the scenery - but getting Alex back up to the house was another story!  It took 3 people to get her back up the hill (in Kate's defense, she walked the property at sunrise and told us it wasn't going to be easy!)   Too bad somebody had to stay behind to take pictures :) 

Our view from the house

Kate being silly :)

Looks like 3 weeks of intensive physical therapy is paying off - Alex was standing some and trying to support her weight!

She seems pretty proud of herself too!

Too much work for her so some hammock time was needed ;)

Zach was in his glory.  He's such an outdoors kid.  He absolutely loves being in the woods.  He took his pellet gun with him to work on some target practice.

For some reason Alex got REALLY upset at one point and started crying.  Zach came over to see her and all she wanted was a hug from him.

Once it got dark out we turned up the radio and had a dance party with Alex - we danced and acted super silly...

...and Alex thought it was super funny!

Showing off her own dance moves :) 

The boys challenged us to a ping pong game.

I think it's safe to say that I am THE worst ping pong player there is!

I decided to leave it to the experts and head back upstairs for some additional dancing :) 

Here's the ONLY bad thing about the weekend!

How would you like to be brushing your teeth and notice this?!?

Yeah, Kate didn't really like it either!  That is the hugest spider any of us have ever seen! I thought it looked like a star fish!  Ironically enough it's called a Dark Fishing Spider and it has suction cups on the underside of it's legs....EEEK!!!!

Kate and I thought it would be fun to theme the menu for the weekend - here's some fun pics of some of the stuff we made :) 

Mummy dogs and brains, Graveyard pudding, Pumpkin Oranges, Orange Pumpkin Pancakes,       Creepy Spider Crackers, Ghoulish Pizzas,  Green Monster Toes and Popcorn Candy Hands

  

 

  
     

I think I had more fun with it than the kids did :) 

It was a relaxing, much needed weekend away and the kids really had a good time.  Aaron had taken Saturday off of work so he could come with us but he had to be back at work on Sunday - I wish we could have stayed and enjoyed more of the day but we had to leave early so he could be back in time. Zach didn't want to leave and it's all he's talked about since we got home. I see another trip to the mountains in our future - thank you again Kate for the invite!!