Meet Virginia

 

We had a whirlwind of a weekend! On Friday afternoon, we headed to Winchester, Virginia to meet my blog friend Astleigh! Seeing her in person was well-worth the trip! She is as sweet and creative as I knew she would be :)

Here's a run-down of the past few days!

On Friday, we stopped once on the way down to Virginia, and my silly husband passed a Dunkin Donuts and a Starbucks (neither of which we have at home) to get his black coffee from Sheetz! ;)

The landscapes were beautiful! The iPhone never seems to be able to capture the height and wow-factor of the blue mountains. I hadn't been to Virginia in thirteen years, and it was our boys' first time in the state!

We checked into the aLoft Hotel--a new chain that I hadn't heard of, but seems to be growing fast. Steve called it the "Ikea" of hotels, as everything was super modern and fun, but not pricey or necessarily fancy. I snapped a few photos before the boys started to tear the place apart :)

Chick-Fil-A was the dinner of choice, and it was delicious as always! The pool at the hotel was calling our names, so we took a quick dip before bed. Ephraim wanted nothing to do with the water, but it was a major highlight for Nolan!

Ephraim has only slept in his Pack-N-Play a handful of times, so I was really glad that he got a good night's sleep without much fuss!

In the morning, we headed to Lowe's for the Build & Grow workshop. We didn't want to miss Captain America motorcycle day!

Ephraim found his entertainment with the caulk bottles.

Winchester was RAINY, so we spent some time browsing Target. I convinced Steve to get some Starbucks while we were in there ;)

Ham and cheese sandwiches at Jimmy John's fueled us for the afternoon!

We spent about an hour driving around Winchester to get to know the area. We found the prettiest high school I've ever seen. It was Patsy Cline's high school, and also Jon Huertas (Esposito on "Castle")!

Winchester was founded in 1753, and the historic district, "Old Town", is really neat!

We drove through a super old cemetery, and got some glimpses of a national Civil War cemetery.

And then it was time to meet Astleigh and her husband Pete at an orchard outside of the city!

 

 It was raining fairly heavily, but we enjoyed some time out on the playground.

There was an indoor market, and we splurged on some famous Winchester apples and delicious cherries (my favorite summer fruit!)

After the orchard, we drove back to "Old Town" for dinner. We chose a wood-fired pizza place, and had some good food and fun conversation with the Hills.

Nolan never turns down ice cream after dinner! The "Red Fox Creamery" had S'mores ice cream, which is one of the best summer flavors.

The smart ice cream shoppe had Duplos :)  Nolan made an E, and announced to all of us that "E is for Ephraim!"

 

We were sad to say goodbye to Astleigh and Pete! We are hoping that our paths can cross again soon :)

The trip home was a little rough with rain and crying boys, so we were happy to crash in our beds a little after midnight!

Yesterday morning after church, Nolan decided to try on his Hulk goggles from Lowe's.

 

We had lunch with my in-laws, and then my friend Ashley and I went on a little drive to an antique warehouse that is open on Sundays. There were so many treasures to look at, including tons of furniture! I didn't buy anything, but Ashley got a fun mirror with a decorative frame that she's going to spray-paint and turn into a chalkboard.

We finished our Sunday night with a walk around the block before bed. It has been a chilly weekend, so hopefully the sun will warm us up this week!

 Thanks for stopping by today! Happy Monday to you all!