Summer Vacation 2011

We spent a nice week in Virginia with Kyle's family. We had a lot of fun. We went to different places around town and experienced new things. We also hung out in town and at the house. The kids loved having their first experience climbing a tree in the backyard.

With a ladder. Barefooted.
They are an adventurous bunch.

I had to help Elijah up. The funniest thing he said to me as soon as he sat on that limb... "Mom, get me down." Poor guy is terribly afraid of heights.

We went to Amazement Square which is the local children's museum. That place can wear you out!

Elijah got to milk a cow ;)

He played the drums to Life is a Highway.

This was really cool. They both heard their own heartbeats.

Ella got to do a zip-line.

Elijah would have played in this area all day. It was a replica of the rivers around there and it showed how the boats flowed to where they needed to go. You could control the water level and the direction of the boats.

We went up into the mountains. It is beautiful up there.

The kids tried skipping rocks.

Then we went on the funniest, craziest adventure. An animal safari. It was hilarious, haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

The llama's freaked me out.

So the window on my side, stayed up!

Check out the moose ahead! Glad it was on Kelsie's side.

She was brave enough to feed him.

This little guy was so sweet. The antlers are velvety soft.

This moose was relaxing under a tree in the distance and Kyle beckoned it over with his bucket of

food. The moose promptly knocked the bucket out of his hand! It was almost completely full. 

Funniest thing is Kyle thought he would sneak out and grab it real quick and as soon as he started to open the door that moose started forward with his big antlers. It was scary. 

Needless to say we left the bucket with him. 

I didn't get pictures but Kyle, Ella, Elijah, and I went to visit Thomas Jefferson's summer home, Poplar Forest. Ella really enjoyed that and surprisingly Elijah seemed interested in it all as well. It was a real-deal tour so I wasn't sure if they would be bored. I'm so glad we did it, I think it is something they won't forget. And the coolest thing is that the house is less than 5 miles from Kyle's parents' house. 

The safari was probably my favorite of our adventures though. 

Great family memories.