just google it

madelyn asked us if hamsters have tails. matt and i couldn't quite remember, so she said, "i can just google it. that's what i do at school." and that is just what she did - all on her own. love.

spring break - mountain hiking

not intentionally, but i was up to see the sunrise over the mountains this morning. we also saw some deer behind the condo. since we were going to be relatively isolated, i had packed up pancake ingredients and brought our griddle with us to make breakfast. however, i did not account for altitude. yep, those were some dense pancakes. oh well. we had a lazy morning around the condo and ate some lunch before heading out to hike some of the local trails.

i had picked up some notebooks for the kids to draw their observations during our hike. we stopped several times for the kids to draw rocks, mosses and mountains.

an awkward photo of mommy and a reluctant manning

nothing but blue skies

once again mason was the most interested in pictures

 more exquisite views in every direction. there was still some man-made snow on the slopes.

stopping at an outlook for sketching

look at this happy guy! enjoying a much needed relaxing vacation.

maddux asked for a picture with the first flowers we found.

it doesn't quite show how steep things got for us.

stopping to rest

looking back at the incline that left manning in tears.

we gave up on our trail and cut through some yards when the trail became very narrow and very steep - way too much for manning to handle. we decided to walk back on the roads but manning was done. so matt left us to sit and enjoy the sunshine while he ran (he said it was very generous to call it "running") up the mountain to where we had left the car.

"king of the stump"

another outlook along the road up to the condo

playing "war" as we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

madelyn's "frozen" pedi to match mommy's

after dinner we drove around trying to find another playground we had seen earlier but couldn't find it. instead we found a double rainbow! you could even see how it went in front of the trees. i had never seen anything like that before.

we did finally find the park and played a little catch before it got too dark to be out.

snuggling up as four kids in a bed for our last night of vacation. so much fun! love.

spring break - happy birthday to me!

happy birthday to me! i got up to watch the sunrise over the ocean with the dolphins jumping - a perfect start to my day! it was overcast but the colors were amazing. the pictures do not do it justice at all.

we did a job on the free hot breakfast again before hitting the road. our first stop was the virginia zoo. it was supposed to be free with our zoo pass, but it only ended up being half price. matt had run back to the van for my tennis shoes (i was freezing in the cold rain in my flip flops) or we may not have even gone in. but it was my birthday, we were already there, and we had umbrellas.

mason became my model for the zoo because he was the only one willing to stop for pictures - he even requested several of them.

we spent some time in the elephant building so that we could warm up a little. it wasn't raining hard, just a drizzle, but it definitely made it feel a lot colder than it actually was out. we all thought that the paintings by elephants on display were pretty cool.

a highlight of our time was manning trying to befriend a peacock. he wasn't the slightest bit afraid, although i was a little afraid that the peacock might not like being hassled while it hid from the rain. thankfully, there was no aggression by either party.

a few of my happy, wet peanuts before we loaded back up towards our next stop - the mountains!

it only rained for the two hours we were at the zoo. of course. but a few hours later we were back to blue skies and beautiful views! this is the view from the condo we rented in the wintergreen ski resort.

it was about 30 minutes of nothingness up the mountain but then there was an entire community at the top. really beautiful. we took pictures while we waited for my birthday dinner in the sky.

we really did have the most beautiful, clear skies our whole trip. you can just see the moon above the sunset.

after dinner we found a playground where we let the kids burn off a little sitting-in-the-car energy before it got too cold to be out any more.

the resort lobby had this cute peeps display

the coffee table in our condo had this topographical map of the mountains. there is a flag showing where we are but it didn't capture in the picture - it was sort of in the middle.

the kids were in love with the condo. it was stocked with toys, board games, and cable. they were fine with not leaving the condo at all. this was a pretty perfect birthday. love.