Williamsburg Days #2-3: Colonial Williamsburg

On Tuesday and Wednesday of our trip to Williamsburg, we spent two full days at Colonial Williamsburg in order to see and do everything and in what Chuck calls, "southern style," which means at a speed where you don't feel rushed and you enjoy the journey.

The whole gang (minus Mike M. who was working).

The re-enactments and everyone dressing and talking like they were in the 18th century was pretty neat. Each day the area turns into Revolutionary City where there is an outdoor drama production.
My cute husband - (top left, clockwise) played a lawyer in the royal court. He was allowed to pass the bar! 3 years and enormous debt was worth it! Marching in the militia with Papa and Hock. Learning the proper way to greet the ladies. Chuck sitting out on the lawn with 5 of the 7 kids so that the rest of us could enjoy a tour of the Capitol building.All locked up. Everybody took their turn as criminals. I have pictures of me as a kid in these stocks.
We love to explore new places, take tours, and sight see. We realize that our children do not always have the same fondness. We had 7 kids 5 years old and younger in tow. Chuck's dream is to compile and write a tourism book for families with young children. It was hot, so plenty of water and snacks were a must.

When we visit places I'm going to start tracking what the kids loved and what the kids did not love. The Williamsburg list of daily activities did have "kid-friendly" symbols listed. They loved - picnics on the lawn, going in the shops and learning about how guns, wigs, spoons, and other things were made in colonial times, walking (running) around trying not to step in the horse poop, and the gardens. The maze behind the Governor's Palace was a lot of fun. The kids loved running around trying to find each other and trying to get to the center. The tradition is to kiss when you meet in the middle. This was their favorite place and asked several times to run around the maze.
Lucy was in heaven with all the rocks and shells on all the walkways. She had all sorts of collections.Some of the things the kids could have done without include anything indoors sitting down, such as the conversations with George Washington and Patrick Henry. They liked the outdoors guided tours, but not the indoor ones. Colonial Williamsburg is definitely a huge retirees vacation spot, so we tried to be respectful of those who probably are not used to having kids in tow during vacation. Most people were very friendly and understanding of the kids, but there were a few yankees sitting behind us during the conversation with George Washington who were cranky; maybe somebody from the northeast can explain why y'all are like that. And why y'all also root for Duke.

Williamsburg Day #1: Fun at "home" away from home

When we travel, where we are staying becomes "home". The kids (and adults) loved where we stayed in the Historic Triangle (Williamsburg Plantation). We had 2 two-bedroom condos in a town home layout with one right on top of the other connected by a private, indoor staircase. The kids could run up and down the stairs and not bother anybody else. Across the driveway was a playground. There were also tennis courts and an indoor pool. All of which we used several times, unlike last year in Florida.

We started our trip with a day of relaxing at the resort. We also spent many evenings playing at our new home. Tennis matches, swim lessons, pedicures, card playing, digital scrapbooking, movie watching, story telling and lots of cooking. It was great having more time to relax and hang out rather than just run from one site to another.
I love when the whole group wears matching shirts. Strangers talk to you about it and asks about our family. The pink/blue shirts are from last year's Bodell reunion. Many people asked about Charlotte's blue shirt - the reunion shirts were ordered before she was born last year and we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl. They figured blue can go on a boy or a girl, pink most people would only put on a girl.

Our Week in Williamsburg

During the week of May 9, we had an east coast partial-family vacation. Two of Chuck's sisters (Mitzi and Lani) brought their families to join ourselves and Grammy & Papa in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was a week full of U.S. history as we toured Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. We love that we are Virginians now, so one of the highlights was seeing a quote by William Byrd, the founder of Richmond, who said, "In the beginning, all America was Virginia." It was amazing to revisit so much history and fun to play with family.

Hocks in Richmond

Chuck's sister, Lani, her husband Michael, and their son Houston came to Richmond for a few days before our week long part-family reunion in Williamsburg.

We love having family visit and we love showing them around our fun city. We strolled around Maymont, flew kites at Chimborazo Visitor's Center (National Park), toured the State Capitol, and ate dinner on our back porch. The girls especially loved all the attention from their Uncle Hock.Houston and Charly are only 5 months apart, but he has about 20 lbs on her. They were very cute playing together. The best was while walking around Maymont, Charly would stick out her arm and try to get his attention and hold his hand. It was so cute. Notice the bottom left picture - he's going for the neck, but she is still all smiles. She loves attention!More cousin fun - picnics, cuddles, flying kites.
Grammy and Papa came to Richmond the night before heading to Williamsburg, so the girls got a little extra cuddle time. Chuck also took everyone on a driving tour of Richmond before church. They hit Hollywood Cemetery, Monument Ave Historic District, and some views of the James River.

New Skills and Being Positive

I think it is important to gain new skills and try to learn more to better myself. I've been trying a few new things lately.

Baking bread - I'm on my 5th try. We'll see if we eat this whole loaf before it goes bad. (It was delicious and I actually made another one that was good too, so I think I have figured it out.)

Gardening - We have one little spot of sun in our yard, where I am trying to grow upside-down tomatoes. The plant is growing, so that's a good sign. We also have strawberries coming in and basil.

Canning - We got a great deal on some produce at a local grocery chain that was bought out. I made applesauce and froze some green beans. The applesauce was fun to make. I made 8 quarts. The girls enjoyed helping until hot applesauce splattered onto Leland's legs.

Photoshop - Taking pictures is hard, especially with kids. We are the "set-the-point-and-shoot-on-a-tripod" kind of family picture takers. So the pictures usually need some tweeking. After I posted my family's before and after on our cousins' digital scrapbooking blog, I got some requests to fix others' pictures.

In this first example, I moved Leland closer to me a bit and then added in the grass and bushes. (before on the left, after on the right.)


In this next one, check out Cole's face, who is in the center of this picture of the Johnson family. (before on the left, after right.) I pulled his face in from another picture.


In this picture of the Morrises, I removed the sunspot.


I know I'm not great at any of these things yet, but the key is yet.

On to my goal on being positive -

I took Charly to a weigh-in this week. She gained almost a full pound in the last 2 weeks, so she is at 15 lbs. 10 oz now, but still not hitting the growth curve at all. I was very excited. In talking to the doctor I decided that I am going to request an evaluation for her gross motor skills. Now that she is 10 1/2 months old, she should really be trying to crawl and stand/cruise right now. So in combination of her size and not doing those things yet, I think she could benefit from those services. I'm not as stressed about her being so little anymore, but I will be glad to meet with a pediatric GI doctor next week just to be sure. So here are some things I'm grateful for that she is so little:

1. I can still carry her in my baby wrap because she's such a light weight.


2. She still stays in the same place that I put her down.


3. My 3-6 month clothes that my other girls grew out of so quickly, Charly is getting lots of wear out of.

I often find Leland and Lucy in Charly's crib playing with her when she wakes up from a nap. Oh how I love these girls so much. On days that I'm feeling flustered, I need to remember moments like this.