So we were lucky and had the chance to have a last minute trip back to Charlottesville, our old stomping grounds, for a little weekend trip to go to the BYU/UVA football game! And the weekend was SO PERFECT!!! (minus the part where the BYU team blew their win and gave the game away - but lets not dwell on the negative!) Anyhow, Chip called late Tuesday night and said 2 seats had opened up on the company jet and if we wanted to go we could have them! HECK YES!!!!!
A few phone calls later, a lot of stress and anxiety about what I was going to do with my kids all weekend when Emma wasn't around, and then a yes from my bro, we had booked him a ticket out here for Wednesday, booked our tickets home on Sunday, and I was dreaming of what I would do with the 5 hour flights where all I had to decide was what I wanted to drink, read, eat, and if I wanted to sleep or not?! This has NOT happened in 5 years, and I was SOOOOOO excited!
Not to mention the fact I have always dreamed of flying on a private plane but never in a million years thought I would ever have the chance - so I was way excited! I still was actually really sad to say goodbye to the kids and for about the first 10 minutes after leaving the house I shed a few tears and started debating if I had actually made the right choice and if I should really been doing this?! And then, realizing they were super happy with uncle Sam and aunt Emma and everything was going to be fine, I relaxed, and for the rest of the weekend enjoyed doing everything on my own schedule and the way we wanted. How AMAZING was that - to sleep when we wanted, eat when and what and where we wanted, hang out til late not thinking we had to be up super early - ahhhhhh! I wish it were last week all over again! Totally missing it already! It seriously was such a fun vacation and I have now decided we need to do it more. I felt refreshed as a mom, even excited to come back to the kids and get back into my routine of laundry (ok maybe not that far) but kiddo things and love and hug on my kiddos and be a mom! I feel rejuvenated and it was great to get more then a quick 5 minutes here and there to talk to Chip and get to just have adult conversation!
Thanks to all who made the trip possible! Quite possibly I will nominate this as one of my favorite weekends of the year!
A quick pic of the jet - I couldn't let anyone see how overly excited I was to travel on this and how big a deal it was to me! ;)
The men who made the trip safely for us and somehow know what to do with ALL those buttons - it was interesting to see a little peek of what they deal with! Overwhelmed just looking at the buttons!
The pic of the clouds from my window - simply breathtaking!
The flight I got to sit and get my nose stuck in the book of my choice and read, something I haven't done in SO long and was so refreshing and fun!
The weekend was full of reuniting with old friends and BYU had SO many fans come in from out of town. Here is one of my BFF Cheryl and I hanging out Friday night (yes it's late and we had horrible lighting but oh well!) So fun catching up as if we haven't ever been apart even tho it's been 3 years since she moved from CVILLE! (thanks to web cams we stay pretty caught up!)
Driving in the morning on the highways made me miss VA and the beautiful trees and green and space there!
So glad Cheryl was there and is a friend who I can always count on to want to do workouts and crazy things even if they are early. We decided last minute (as in 30 minutes before the race started) to try and jump in and run the Women's 4 miler in Cville! We got there 10 minutes after the race started, and since the roads were closed had to run 1.5 miles to get to the halfway point in the race, then ran the next 2 miles with the race, saw a friend and enjoyed the foxfield event, and then had to jog back to the car! So total probably ran about 5-6 miles, but it was totally worth it and SO much fun! Great too because we got to talk and just hang out the 2 of us and I realize once again how great our friendship is! Love this girl and she inspires me in SO many ways - pretty much in EVERY way - from her amazing physical rocking hard body, to her mothering and patience, to her testimony and kindness - she really is one in a million and I am so glad I can call her my bestie!!! Thanks Cheryl for a great great morning! PS we saw 4 snakes on the way and I was super proud of myself that I hardly freaked out that bad at all - gotta love the black snakes VA has!
After the race at Foxfield - a TON of people do this! It is always sold out! Really cool to get to do an all women's race for once!
We ran into Melissa Dunn, another old friend from our CVILLE ward and it was so fun because I ran this race with her a few years back!
Taking a pic with the end of the race in the back! We felt a little bad crossing the finish line without bibs as we hadn't registered, but still it was so fun! The humidity definitely was hard for me once again to get used to and it was a SUPER hot day!!! Beautiful tho and made me long to be back in our home here with all our old friends!
A dreamy house along the run - SO amazing these houses and land are. This picture doesn't do anything justice!
Chip and I were so lucky to stay with one of Chip's former co-workers from Quad-C! They have the most beautiful house and were such awesome hosts and we had a great time visiting with them, meeting their cute little son and hanging out here! Wish we could live next door!
A view from their front porch - isn't it simply breathtaking?! And Chip and I in our BYU garb, all ready to cheer for the cougars - we thought since we were sitting in the box we better just wear Navy and white, so as to fit in with all our UVA fans and not be too obvious who we were cheering for!
Another view from their house! I couldn't stop just looking out windows and enjoying every direction the views they have!
Their AMAZINGLY GORGEOUS home! It seriously is a dream house! I want! And the backyard is amazing too! My kids would be in heaven with a fourth of their yard, or maybe even an 1/8!
At the game when it first started, before the craziness got started! Go cougars!
It was so fun to see how much support BYU had - at least 1/3-1/2 of the fans were BYU fans, and it was crazy to be able to walk around and keep running into people we knew from all over - including NC, Texas, Pittsburgh, Ohio, Northern VA, Richmond, Utah, etc! It was such a fun reunion seeing so many fun faces all there to enjoy a fun event! It started off well too, and then the craziest thing ever happened - they stopped the game and cleared the field due to lightning and a storm watch!
We all were very confused and people at first weren't willing to leave, but they kept at it and actually did get the entire stadium cleared -and good thing too as shortly thereafter a HUGE storm hit - torrential rains, tons of lightning - it was SO crazy! When we walked to the stadium it was about 100 degrees and 1000% humidity and so hot I was melting. There wasn't a cloud in the sky or anything! So when they called it we were all confused and thinking it was crazy! Good thing they did tho because there was a very big storm and I wouldn't have wanted to be out in the pouring downpour that ensued after. We were ok and had to stay in the box - and so here is a pic of everyone just hanging out waiting for the game to come back on!
Here is Chip when the stadium had cleared - pretty impressive of the workers to get that many people out!
Here is a pic of the empty stadium - so crazy after not even 30 minutes prior it was SO full! You can't see how the clouds really were dark at this point!
And here the rain was a coming down!
For awhile they wouldn't let us leave the box but finally we were able to convince them and we went and found these cool peeps! Love seeing my cousins and aunt, and my cool uncle Greg who photobombed this pic in the background! They all drove up from NC and Suzie came from Richmond! Great time catching up with them!
Chip and Jordan chatting it up - business talk I am sure!!!
Since the game went on for so long - as in we were there for 7+ hours - we didn't get to go out and eat after with friends as we had planned because we had to get to Richmond to our hotel so we could catch the early flight home! So instead we went to Richmond and got to eat at one or our favorite places - Bonefish Grill! We were about the only peeps in and it tasted as great as I remember! Love the bread, love the ENTIRE menu (think I have had almost everything on it at some point!) Tonight went with the Bang Bang tacos - So yummy!
Chip had the crab corn chowder - Also a favorite!!!
Made us miss Kevin and Hollie as this is directly below the building they used to live in! Wished they were here with us!
It was so fun to come home to these happy crazy munchkins tho! They had SO MUCH FUN with Uncle Sam, and he was amazing with them - taking them all by himself to the beach, McDonalds, etc (they love him so much they didn't even care so much once I was home about me - just wanted him - at least Ivy did!) He is so awesome and learned a bunch about parenting this weekend he said - he will be an amazing dad one day! We are SO GRATEFUL he came and that the kids got to have as much fun as we did - and how it made me not stress out about them at all!
We went on a drive to PV sunday night to one of our favorite spots and it was, as always, breathtaking and beautiful too! From coast to coast, and beauty on both - feeling lucky to have lived where we have!
That one time your child climbed through the fence and almost jumped straight to his death! (not even a daredevil child and so glad Chip realized what he was doing - could have been a very sad ending!)
Hanging out enjoying the sunset!
My loves!
Ivy LOVES uncle Sam and just kept wanting him to hold her!
How cute is she?!!!!
The boys found their own slide and were having a blast and Ivy decided she must join too!
Watch the sliding!
Sam and Cash with the lighthouse!
Cash: "take a picture of me doing this mom!" I am not sure why he did this but we were all laughing pretty hard! He is such a funny kid!
One of the best weekends ever! Thanks again Sammy and Emma for watching the kiddos, Rob and Lisa for hosting, and all our fun friends we got to hang out with for a great great GREAT trip!!!
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