Shenandoah National Park

Monday of our spring break trip (April 4th) dawned warm, windy, and sunny. We started the day with a nice breakfast and tour of the resort, along with a sales pitch for the time shares there . . . . so we could earn our free water park tickets! We weren't going to go ($38 per person- ouch!), but with four free tickets . . . . Anyway, we actually enjoyed ourselves, and it was easy to turn down buying a time share in Virginia, even if it IS a cool resort.

We spent the afternoon at Shenandoah National Park. Although it was still pretty barren, there were some wonderful views of the GREEN valley and we enjoyed the visitor center and a hike to a nice waterfall.

The visitor Center had a window covered in lady bugs - - the kids had so much fun with them! Ick! Of course, the very first think Tyler tried to do was eat one . . . One even flew right onto Marcus' nose!





Our little hike was to Dark Hollow Falls. It's funny after being at other national parks such as Mount Rainier where the "easy" hikes are still a bit of climbing- this one seemed pretty tame despite the warnings of the park ranger that said it would be a bit of a climb back up with little kids. I guess we have a tougher family than I thought- at the same time, we did have to take several nice rest breaks by the beautiful little stream that wasn't too cold or fast to wade in (another difference from other parks we have been too).



In fact, the water was so inviting, Cynthia decided to take a little swim . . . well, not really on purpose- she slipped! Luckily it was over 80 degrees that day so we wasn't really cold, just WET.


The hike was worth it though! We had so much fun exploring the scenery and watching the wildlife (we even saw Monarch butterflies) of very early spring. The waterfall was nice too.

Spring Break in Virginia- friends

For spring break this year, we took an amazing family trip to Virginia and Washington DC. I figure we will only be within a days drive for a short time, so we better take advantage of it! So we used our exchange certificate from RCI and booked Massanutten Resort in Virginia (near Harrisonburg in the Shenandoah Valley). With the several rec centers with pools, playgrounds, and of course the indoor water park (we went there later in the week), we had an amazing time.

I loved the drive down to the Shenandoah Valley- after a night in Columbus, OH with my sister's family, we drove down into West Virginia and then into Virginia. It was GORGEOUS. As we went south, spring was also more evident with flowering trees and a bit more green. Michigan was still pretty wintery that first week of April (even now the leaves are JUST starting to peek out- and it is only a few days from May!), so it was awesome to be where it was a little farther ahead in the season. We listened to General Conference using Jon's iphone on the drive.

Sunday we listened to conference and hung out at the resort. Mostly, we spent time with some friends of ours from when I worked in Florida 14 years ago!! My old roommate Courtney and my friend Chris, who are married and have two fun boys drove over from Richmond, VA so we could visit. I hadn't seen them in over a decade . . . so it was super fun to catch up.

Happy Birthday, Laura!

On our way to and from Virginia for our spring break trip, we stopped in Columbus to stay with the Coons. We were there just a day after Laura's birthday- so we had fun celebrating with a cake! Chris made this amazing cake . . .

Pinewood Derby

Marcus loves Club Penguin- - so he decided to do a Penguin Car this year. He and Jon carved it out and sanded it together, then Jon melted some lead to fill in the "belly"- then Marcus paited it. It was actually really fast and came in second! Go Marcus!