Memorial Day - the girls

Chris headed out to Colorado for Memorial Day weekend so Eleanor, Jane, and I headed up to Leesburg to spend the weekend at Grandma's. We hadn't been to Grandma's house since Christmas, so there were lots of new things to discover! Grandma had gotten a swing in the backyard (huge hit throughout the weekend) and a couple of new toys to play with - the biggest hit there being a fishing pole that Eleanor essentially used her imagination with all weekend long planning trips to go fishing and driving everyone around in her imaginary car to get there. Pretty much half to more of these pictures were taken by my sister, Lauren (thanks!!!).

My mom had offered to watch the girls Friday night so my sister and I could take my dad out for his 60th birthday! Happy birthday dad/Shug!!!! Eleanor and Jane gave him a little scrapbook gift they made before dinner and then we went to Tuscarora Mill and had a great time. Good food and great company - what more can you ask for?

We also had lots of down time throughout the weekend...slow mornings, slow evenings, and busy days.

On Saturday we went to Ida Lee pool. Eleanor loved it last year and after taking a couple hours to warm up to it again this year, she loved it again! She did the water slides, the lazy river, and had a blast jumping into peoples' arms in the pool. We stayed well past nap time.

We did a bit of relaxing that evening and everyone ended up going to bed early. The next morning we headed out to Bluemont to Great Country Farms. I wish we had known before going how much there is to do once you're inside! We didn't get there until 11, which if you know Eleanor, she has been up for 5 hours at that point and is nearing the end of her easy-going time. It is a little pricey but if you plan for the day there, definitely worth it! I was amazed at all there was in there and if it hadn't been so hot and we had planned for lunch we probably would have stayed longer. I felt like we rushed through. There were slides (galore!), farm equipment to play on, playground equipment throughout the woods, a huge bubble thing that you could jump on, animals you could meet and play with, and numerous other random activities, including a strawberry princess and live music. You could easily spend the entire day in there. We started finding one little slide, then we would find a bigger one, then a bigger one, until we came across this monstrous slide. Eleanor loved it! She even got to take her picture with the strawberry princess. There were a few minor injuries, including a particularly traumatic chin injury, but that's par for the course at a place like this, I'm sure.

After we ate lunch, we had a little ice cream break.

Then we decided to head over to the local pool just to cool off for an hour before dinner, though we got drizzled on while we swam.

Swimming from Katie Stratton on Vimeo.

We headed back to Williamsburg Monday after stopping to have lunch at Chick-fil-A. It was a great weekend and we had a wonderful time. Happy Memorial Day, and a huge thank you to all of those who have given their lives serving our country and their families for their sacrifice.