Idyllic Virginia Moments

My mom has been harassing me to post "cute photos" of my kids over here. She acts as if we didn't just get back from a 9-day vacation to Virginia, as if I have nothing better to do than sift through the billions of pictures we took for darling photos of my children.

She's really good at guilting, y'all.

Anyway, Virginia. My husband's sister and her husband live in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, and we had a marvelous time. (Aside from me getting a wicked virus halfway through the trip, and also the kids developing raging colds toward the end, from which they have yet to recover. Aside from that, it was marvelous.) We took our time getting there, relaxed while we were there, and then took our time getting back.

We took the Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky-West Virginia-Virginia route, and let me tell you, that was a wise decision. Every bit of it, even Indiana, was beautiful. You can't fully appreciate hills and mountains and drop-off gorges and misty vistas until you've lived in northern Illinois for an appreciable amount of time, and we are Midwesterners to the core. So we drank it all in, at every opportunity. I cannot tell you how many times one of us would exclaim, "Oh, look! It's so beautiful!" as if we'd never seen a mountain before. Probably a million.

I have some fun photos of a waterfall we happened upon in West Virginia, but those don't feature kids, so I'll forgo those today in favor of kid-centric pictures. One day we found a local lavender farm (so beautiful!) that also had lots of animals for the kids to pet and watch. Needless to say, it was a hit.

This might be my favorite photo. Ever. In the history of the world.

Also: J loved his Uncle Ryan's drums.

I'll post photos of the waterfall soon. For now, I'm reveling in a home that is FINALLY clean and kids who are FINALLY down for a nap.

Also, I have a new phone, you guys! It's a smartphone! I just sent my first text EVER! I am so humbled to be a part of the 21st century.