Virginia

We went to Virginia over the 4th of July weekend to visit Marty's family who lives in the beautiful mountains.  Marty's family, except his brother Mark, where all there.  Marty's Grandma, who will be 100 in December, recently had to go into a nursing home so we wanted to visit her.  The kids had a great time playing with their cousins, who are all boys and ages 6, 9, 10 and almost 14.  (Yes, we have the only girls on Marty's side. Marty's mom was so excited when we had our girls.  Actually, both Mike and Melody's families love getting to play with our girls also.)  We hung out at the house the whole time so I didn't take a whole bunch of pics, but I did get a few of our kids at least.  We did take a group pic of all the cousins, but I couldn't find my camera so I will have to get the pics from Mike or Melody. 

Aunt Melody bought some fun toys to play with outside.  This was one of them.  You sat in it and rolled down a hill.  The boys loved it!  Abbie would never try it and Molly just loved playing inside it.  She thought it was her own little fort.

One of the other games Melody bought was a ring toss game.  The kids never played the game but they played with these parts the whole time, pretending they were light sabers. 

Abbie and Molly absolutely loved picking all the "flowers."  They kept asking me to hold them so this was what was in my pocket pretty much the whole time.  Molly actually asked me this morning about her "flowers from Memaw's house" and so I had to tell her we left them there for Memaw to enjoy:)

  

The first two days there was a nest on the porch with three baby birds in it.  The kids loved watching the mommy bird come feed the babies, so did us adults.  The boys also thought it was really funny to watch the birds poop out the nest!  The third day when we came out they had flown away and somehow in the process knocked down the nest. 

This is right behind their backyard.  In the evening the cows would come up the hill and graze.  Molly loves animals and really enjoyed going out and watching the cows.  There were also a few calves that she really liked.  

Another view of some of the cows that came up every evening. 

Memaw and Papaw gave the girls matching dresses for the 4th of July.  (Notice Abbie carrying one of the "lightsabers."  They had them in their hands the whole time.)

Molly and her Daddy making the Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles nervous:)  Molly loves it though!

Graham and Aunt Melodie (there is an Aunt Melody and an Aunt Melodie, confusing I know) went and found trash around the yards and the kids made some fun "trash robots" out of them.  I really wish I had pictures of what they made because they were all so different and fun!

We all went to see fireworks in Wytheville, which is a very small town.  They were great fireworks though, which really surprised me.  I expected "small town" fireworks but the adults and kids both loved them.  Molly on the other hand missed all of them because she fell asleep on the way there. (I guess 9pm is too late when she has been playing hard all day) We tried to wake her up but we couldn't. 

The kids have already asked when they can go back to Memaw and Papaws house in Virginia.  They just love getting to play outside all day with their cousins.  It was cooler than normal when we were there so it was perfect to play outside all day!  The first night we got there we were cold and the next night Graham actually wore a long sleeved shirt - it was so nice to not have hot and humid for a few day!