Our American History Themed Jasper Family Vacation

We haven't even been back from Vacation for a whole 24 hours yet, and here I am forcing one of my good friends to go to dinner and a movie with me.   I missed her!
It's nice to be back in Elizabethtown.

Last night we got back into town at around 2am.  We made quite a few stops on the way back from Williamsburg, Virginia.  On the way there we made hardly any stops, eating peanut butter sandwiches in the car when we got hungry, only stopping to fill the gas tank.  

The drive home was different.  We decided to stop whenever the urge hit... or we saw something cool.

random snow man on the side of the road in West Virginia

on the campus of Marshall University having a coffee and snack

at our house in Winchester, ky that we can't manage to sell but needed to check on

As we were driving through Georgetown we stopped by to see Roger's little sister Layla and her  husband Aaron

While on vacation both of the children learned to swim. 

yes, I was shocked!

 Especially with Anna.  

At the beginning of this summer little Anna was TERRIFIED of the water, clinging to me anytime she got into the pool, digging her nails into my back.  The swimming pool began to take on the look of a torturing devise for me.  I wanted to avoid it at all cost.  

I have worked with her a BUNCH to get her comfortable with swimming (I missed actually getting to swim).  While on vacation BOTH of the kids demanded for me to show them how to swim and succeeded in learning.  I spent many days after swimming laps in the pool with the kids.  

FANTASTIC!!

We chose Williamsburg, Virginia as our destination because we thought Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg would be great fun for the kids.  They are at that perfect age in which American History is becoming quite fascinating for them. We had the opportunity to stay in a condo that would normally be out of our means.

The first day of our trip was spent meeting up with 2 dear friends of ours that are currently CBF commissioned missionaries in Intercity Danville, Virginia.

 At 6pm on thursday we met Jessica and Josh in the basement of the church for a community meal that is open to the homeless population. We then took a small tour of the church that has opened their doors to Jessica and Josh's house church to use for their meal.

As I was walking through the choir loft I fell in the organ.

YEP!

Leave it to me to fall in the..... ORGAN.

Let me explain. It was down in a hole in the choir loft, I didn't see the hole as I was walking in the choir loft and plum fell in the organ.  Roger said "Wait, hold on.  First, are you ok?"  I said yes.  He then went on to question whether or not the organ was ok.

Hilarious!  I totally fell in an organ.

Who does that?

ME!

On the first official day at the condo we spent the morning chilling, and the afternoon with this lovely woman.

Yes, we did.  

We totally signed up to listen to one of those long "you need to buy a condo and here is why" speeches so that we could get 70 dollars in free gas cards!

It was awesome.

Paul got to chill out in the kids area eating Oreos and playing mario cart, while Anna drew a LOT of pictures.  Roger and I enjoyed being able to sit in the cool nice room partaking in the complimentary drinks and snacks.  It was a win-win situation. We even took drinks and snacks "for the road" as we left. 

The psychology major part of me loved observing the psychological manipulation tactics that they use.

I was my own case study!!!!

The next day was Sunday.  

While I was in mid sip of the lovely coffee that my husband brought to me on the balcony, I heard "Do you mind if I go to church?"  My heart dropped a little bit.  the last thing I wanted to do while on vacation was be left alone with 2 children while the preacher man went to church. I was pretty convinced to give him the thumbs up after he said "I never get to GO to church."

The kids and I spent the morning in a wonderful way;

I read my Bible on the balcony, Paul played legos in the living room, and Anna pretended to be a yoga instructor in the corner.  

Then we went to the pool!

enjoying their "pool side" slushies

Roger joined us once church was over.

The Jamestown Settlement was seriously INCREDIBLE!
Seriously, it was well worth it. It was intriguing to our children because they were invited to touch and play with anything they saw, as well as interact with the characters. It was intriguing to Roger and I because there was a lot of history to read about throughout.

We were given a heads up about Colonial Williamsburg so we opted NOT to buy the REALLY expensive tickets. (you have to pay to go inside the houses but are FREE to walk through the town and in the old shops)  Instead we just walked around the town, snuck into as many stories as we could, peaked in the windows and had a picnic lunch.

It was beautiful!

the carriage driver was kind enough to give us a free ride through the town

archeological dig

This diabetic squirrel ket stealing pieces of Anna's cookie.

We also went to The College of William and Mary, one of the oldest universities in America, to explore.  It was beautiful.  Maybe Roger should get a teaching job here when he retires! I could open a counseling clinic close to the market square.

Yoga in the Great Hall.  Anna's idea.

This vacation was pretty darn amazing!  

We had lots and lots of down time since we made sure not to cram too much stuff into the week/day so that we could just BE.  We are a family that likes to just BE.

we looked over to see Anna REALLY relaxing in the water

he helps me with the kids AND makes me laugh. I love my pirate preacher dude.

i know, Roger and I look like little kids.

girl time

game night

I like doing random things to make the kids laugh and Roger get wide eyed

every night they made a fort to sleep in

Mom, when I get older can you PLEASE get me this dress and THOSE shoes?

vacation reading. which one do you think is mine?

 School starts back the second week of August; Paul will be in the 1st grade, Anna in preschool and I will be back to full time Seminary.  It feels so surreal that the diaper days have long been over.
We have CHILDREN now. I have given birth to little PEOPLE.

I'm a tad bit nervous about heading back to seminary this fall.
Stepping back out into the world after 7 years of being the momma at home is a bit intimidating.
Can I handle the work load AND still be an attentive mom and minister's wife?

After this last vacation, all the rest I got and how much fun I had with this bunch, I am pretty pumped up about life!  We have a great little existence here in Etown.  Who would of thunk it?