Wrapping Up, Heading Home

Our last full day of the retreat was a day of no plans. We slept in, I tackled most of the laundry (again), and started the packing process. We continued to watch basketball (did I mention that having 4 televisions with cable helped tremendously with a fun opening weekend for the NCAA tournament? It would have been a real bummer at home since they took so many games off of CBS and we don't have cable!). We also took a drive and made some time to see the "glass house" - highly recommended by the MOMYS family from Iowa that we had gotten to know a little during the week. The glass house is near Historic Jamestowne and is a replica of a glass-making set up that was found there. Two men were stoking the kiln (fire?) and working with the glass. They would take what looked like a little "ball" of hot glass out of the fire, and blow, roll, contort it into large vases, pitchers and more. Truly amazing, and truly hot. I can't imagine what it is like for them in the heat of summer.

Side note: Eric and I got a date-night Saturday! We ate at Panera - yummmmmmm. We had both eaten there separately but never had a chance to together. Once again, highly recommend taking grandparents on a vacation!

Sunday morning was stuffing everything into the vans and trying to get on the road as early as possible. I got up early to cook the cinnamon rolls that I had bought but never used during the week, thinking that would be a nice way to ease the "we're leaving" morning blues. However, the best-laid plans...etc. I put the rolls into two pans that were in the townhouse kitchen. Timer beeped, I got them out, set them on the stove-top, turned around to look for a knife to spread the icing on, PAN EXPLODED. Yeah, not cool. Glass everywhere. Thankfully, the kids were not awake yet and I didn't get cut or anything. Eric and I cleaned it all up, dumped the rolls in the trash and he went and got donuts. : )

We had a pretty nice ride home -- the kids did absolutely GREAT the whole trip in the van, barely any arguing and "are we there yet"s. The two negatives were detouring to Monticello for a "drive-by" and realizing that you couldn't see it from your car and it cost an arm and a leg to see it, and my incident at a gas station in SE Ohio where the van-lock alarm went off and Eric was in the bathroom and I could NOT get that thing to go off no matter what we tried. : ) Those are the memory makers, though!

We did stop at a great attraction in WV, and got a good workout climbing down quite a few stairs to see the old and new bridges. The kids didn't think it would be anything to climb back up, (even after reading the warning signs), but we were all quite winded.

We got home at around 9:30 p.m. or so, ready to be home but sad to be ending our adventures. Many, many request of "Can we go back next year?" I'm sure we would enjoy it, but if I know us, I think we will have to strike out somewhere we've never been.

The Beach-Ball Day

Eric had looked ahead at the weather forecast and thought Friday would be our best Atlantic Ocean day. He was right! We all headed to Virginia Beach, parked right by the boardwalk, had the beach practically to ourselves for most of the time we were there, and had beautiful sunny 80+ degree weather. It was exactly what we all needed.

Long walks on the beach...they're such romantics...

Always the engineer...even made his own beach chair...

Their first time at the Atlantic Ocean...

Someone had to be buried!

After the sun had started turning our skin pretty red, and the sand had made it's way into every thing we brought, we headed back to the resort (again, through crazy-slow Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Newport News traffic) to shower and get ready for The King's Ball. All the families were dressing up (either in period garb or just nice clothing) and putting our newly-learned colonial dance skills to use. Sara was nervous from Monday until Friday at the ball, worried, she told us, that she might forget some of the moves for the dances, or not remember their names and that she knew them. She really, really, liked the dancing. : ) Levi asked me to dance - so sweet! - and Delaney, yet again, rejected invitations from young men to dance with her. She is going to be a tough one for some young man someday.

We weren't too great with our cameras Friday night, but I have a few pics, plus the "big reveal" - pics from Monday night including the parents' and grandparents' outfits!

Separate But Equally Fun

Thankfully, we had front-loaded most of the planned stops/activities into the first part of the trip, and left free time at the end. This worked well (I think) because given our usual propensity not to be "boxed in" on any vacation, we were pretty worn out from scheduled activities by the end of our day at Colonial Williamsburg. We had a few things that we knew we wanted to fit in, but because we only had 3 days left, it was looking a little crowded and that was causing a little, ahem, tension. We made a good decision: we went our separate ways for most of Thursday and everyone had more time to relax. Mom and I and Delaney and Sara rolled down the windows and enjoyed the beautiful, sunny 70-degree day by hitting the many outlet malls and Yankee Candle Flagship store. The Yankee store was really entertainment in a very, very large store, and the girls got to make their own candle, eat some chocolate-covered popcorn, watch the "snow" come down in the year-round Christmas section, and peruse the toy shop while I picked out some great new votive candle scents (lemonade! yum!). Alas, I have no pictures of shopping. : )

Dad, Eric, Leah, Jesse and Levi headed south to Norfolk, the Nauticus Museum, and the Wisconsin Battleship tour. Other than the traffic on the way back, they had a great day and said the museum was really hands-on and worth the trip. Eric remembers his dad taking him on a real battleship when he was a young boy and had been looking forward to doing the same with his kids for a long time.

Colonial Williamsburg

Wagon Trails....Or "How to Make History Real for Your Children"

When I was in high school, my parents took us on a trip out west. My mother, the schoolteacher (also just a generally interested-in-history-person), kept throwing in "extras" along the way. Like, museums. One late afternoon, on which I remember being particularly anxious to move along and get to the hotel (pool), we made a "detour" and drove to the site marking the start (portion?) of a famous wagon trail, where many pioneer families made the journey west. Quite literally, there was a small area in which to park, and then you got out and looked at a large grassy plain, and then you walked to the spot where you could see some ruts in the ground, and a sign. Now, my mother will stop the story at the point and tell you that - ahem - it is worth noting that I remember the wagon trail. This is true. It is also true that experiences such as those has made me somewhat conscientious of how we present "history" to our children, and made it very interesting to see how they did on what was really our first history-type trip. On Tuesday of the trip we went with some others from the MOMYS group and got a tour of the Jamestown Settlement - the reenacted Jamestown site that is more kid-friendly than the actual historical Jamestowne. Levi hung in and seemed to retain quite a bit from our private tour guide, but the others faded quickly as it involved standing for long periods in the wind, just listening. They were also distracted a bit because they could see the Indian homes and the large ships and the fort, but we weren't going in them yet! They did really enjoy it all once we started exploring and it was great to see them connect what they were seeing to some of the things we had learned.

Jesse, grinding corn the old way.

One of the replica ships - the Susan Constant (note: random girl walked into picture beside Eric at the last second!)

Tuesday's hands-on history wasn't done, however, as the retreat organizers had planned a girls/mothers tea and a militia drill for the boys/dads in the afternoon back at the resort. Our outside picnic/tea was cold but absolutely beautiful in its set-up and planning. Each lady got a custom-made mug with raspberry lemonade plus wonderful "crumpets" in a basket.

The boys had their replica muskets and LOVED the drill instruction time. We had quite the time the rest of the trip getting them to stop "drilling" and remember that the dear people of Virginia Beach/Norfolk/West Virginia/Ohio did not know they were pretending to be minutemen.

Monday, Monday

So, because we attempt this whole literature-based, Charlotte Mason-influenced, global curriculum around here, the kiddos never get the pleasure of pop quizzes, except when they are in the van with their father, or when my dad checks to see if they are actually learning math. Therefore, to satisfy my deeply-ingrained love of multiple choice questions, and to cover more ground, I'm blog-quizzing.

1. Did you survive dressing up in your colonial outfits and meeting the other families?

a. No, we took one look at ourselves and fled.
b. Yes, our outfits were 100% authentic and everyone complemented my exceptional sewing skills.

c. No, the kids were desperate to put their regular clothes back on and flee far from the dancing.

d. Yes, everyone was so welcoming and we were pleasantly surprised at what a fun evening we had.

Answer: d. The kids looked great. We adults? Well, we tried! I will hold off on the "big reveal" of all pics of our colonial wear until the end of these posts, but will give a few glimpses now. Some of the families were completely authentic and that was neat to see, and some didn't dress up and that was great, too. The best thing was that it was all good and everyone had so much fun as one of the dads, who is a well-versed dance caller, taught us all many customs of the dancing and many dances. All ages were on the dance floor and it was a blast. Eric, who looked quite comfortable in his chair against the wall, did not disappoint his three daughters, and was a willing dance partner for each of them. The real joy was watching the twins, who took to colonial dancing like nothing you've ever seen. When Jesse was completely lost, Sara would just grab his hand and drag him through it all. But he caught on, and when the rest of us were too tired to keep learning, they would just grab each other's hands and head back out for the next one.

2. What desserts did Brenda and Heather pick at The Trellis, a wonderful restaurant in historic Williamsburg?

a. White Chocolate Truffles

b. Dark Chocolate Tart with sea salt and pecans

c. Turtle Pudding with Toffee Cream topping

d. Seven-layer Death by Chocolate

Answer: b (Mom) and d (me). I was headed for the dark chocolate but the waiter talked many of us at the table (all the moms' went out for an evening dessert after the larger get together and we got to know some wonderful ladies) into their award-winning death by chocolate. It was huge, it was decadent, very glad I got it.

3. What's the strangest difference between the Williamsburg, VA walmart and the Richmond, IN walmart?

a. A much bigger store

b. You couldn't find it from the road - like everything else in this very-zoned city

c. Nearly all the "junk" food was compartmentalized into its own area between the grocery and clothing sections.

d. The bread section.

Answer: d. I know, I know, analysis on Wal-mart differences is totally not pertinent to our trip and anything historic. But I have never seen a bread section with so little wheat bread. And I have not seen that much white bread since the 1980s. Seriously, people, the bread was IN the junk food section with the chips and candy.

As promised, a few pics from the Monday get-together:

The Retreat

Would you like to hear about how we were all pretty worn down by now from the drives, living out of the clothing tub, and managing the pig-sty level in the van? No? How about how, by the time we were headed to our resort on the 1st Sunday of our trip, I was about to throw up if I had to bend down one more time and scour my bag (or under the van seats) for the right map or more gum or a pencil, and Eric was probably ready to throw me and the GPS out the window? Yes?

Well, too bad, because we're going to do positive highlights and happy pictures.

This Williamsburg retreat has been going on for about 10 years through an email group of which I am a member: MOMYS - Mothers of Many Young Siblings. You have to have at least 4 children within 8 years to be a member; we are one of the smaller families, and in fact, had one of the few minivans in the parking lots. Most were 12- or 15-passenger. My mom and dad joined us on the road when we were heading to Williamsburg, and the kids happily separated into 2 vans. : )

We checked in that evening at the Historic Powhatan Resort between Williamsburg and Jamestown, and we have to say that the accomodations were great. Spring was springing, and we all spread out into the 4-bedroom, 4-bath townhome, and then explored the grounds a bit. It had indoor pools, game rooms, tennis, a historic manor, a general store and many ponds in which to fish (I think Levi caught a stick). Some of the week's planned activities (militia drill, tea party, dad's breakfast, etc.) were on site, and others (tours, mom's dessert, etc.) were in historic Williamsburg or surrounding areas. One of the great parts of the week was meeting the families in the buildings beside us (all MOMYS families had their names on their doors) and watching as the kids took over the parking lots/grassy areas through the week and played together.

We didn't remember to take a lot of pics at the resort, but you can get some idea of what it looked like.

While waiting for check-in time, we took the Colonial Parkway and hit the "beach" on the James River. Similarly, we found no gold.

We did find rocks.

On our "street" at the resort, our first day there.

Washington D.C. Meets the Nortons

So, the whole trip was really set for this year because the kids and I have spent the year studying history between the explorers and the early 1800s. Before the trip, we had just finished up the Revolutionary War and the creation of the Constitution. AND, the selection of a large tract of land from both Maryland and Virginia to be the home of the nation's capitol; you know, a spot in the "middle" of the country. Such foresight. ; )

So, considering we took one day and saw the Smithsonian American History museum, Union Station, the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Senate and Supreme Court buildings, and the Botanical Gardens, what do you think the kids' favorite memory of D.C. is? Only if you guessed the mode of transporation that took us to all of those places (or if I've talked to you) would you have the correct answer! Yes, they love the Metro. Seven one-day passes to ride the subway was money well spent, let me tell 'ya. The rest was just icing on the cake for them.

The excitement of the day produced well-seasoned Metro riders.

What are we most interested in at the Smithsonian? Hmmm... I blame Eric.

We really, really want this Liberty Bell replica to ring.

No taxation without representation!

The irresistible urge to touch the cactus was only magnified when the mother said, "No, for goodness sake! Don't touch the cactus." The Botanical Gardens was an unplanned (Dad, looking for a shortcut) but very lovely stop.

Home Again, Home Again, Fiddle-Dee-Dee

I'm sure it's obvious to my huge reader base by now that blogging the vacation didn't go so well! Once I couldn't get pictures to post on here through Eric's phone, and once the wi-fi service at the resort was spotty at best, and...anyway, you get the point.

I am going to try to get a few stories/pics on here for posterity. A lot of our pictures ended up being on my mom's camera and Eric's phone, and I don't have all those on my computer yet, so I'll get that organized first and then tell the vacation in order. The pics I do have ready are of the wonderful friends we stayed with along the first few days of our trip. Thanks again, Carters and Cassadys!

Leaving our house on 1st day...ready to ride!

"NLC" back together...music could happen at any moment.


Everything we need to know we learned in 3rd grade.