Memorial Day weekend: Last weekend in Virginia

Our last weekend in Virginia was Memorial Day weekend.  So we needed to celebrate, because the next week we would be busy cleaning, packing up, and hitting the road heading towards Colorado (with a few detours).

 One of our first stops was James Town...the first settlement in Virginia.

As the story goes, the Colonists really struggled, but they were saved by Pocahontas and her tribe.

I have a picture of the girls with this statue of Pocahontas, but wanted to complete it with the boys!

 Cute boys!

 Next we hopped over to the Revolutionary War era and toured Yorktown.

Here we are at Surrender's field....where the Revolutionary war pretty much came to an end, and the New America was born.

 There is a cool base at the mouth of the Chesapeake bay, called Ft. Monroe.  We stopped to check it out.

 The boys of course, found some stick guns and started defending the Fort.

 After that we headed to our favorite beach of all time...Virginia Beach!

We have been coming here since Hannah was a baby...so 12 years now.

We should probably buy real estate here...ha ha.

 Jack loves a good watermelon.

Anya scored on this trip and found a mostly in tact conk shell.

Pretty rare in these parts!

 Love these boys and their "ogles".

They love a good beach!

 One of our Virginia Beach traditions is dinner at our favorite pizza joint.

Planet Pizza!

Complete with alien decor.

We discovered this joint our first trip to VA beach...so we have been coming here off and on for 12 years now.  The kids love it and get excited for dinner every time.

 After dinner we walk up the street and browse the souvenir shops...eventually ending up at our favorite frozen Custard place.  The best in the world besides Rita's Italian Ice and Custard....its a close race for first!  Anyway, we get our Kohr Bros. cones and then walk back up the boardwalk along the beach back to our car.

It's one of our favorite family destinations...and we are sad we probably won't be back for some time.

It sure has treated us well, and it sure made our last weekend in Virginia special!

Dad's Graduation!

We are Done!

Our whole purpose for living in Virginia for 9 short months, was for Matt to attend "law school" again.

He went back to school for a Master of Laws.

 Getting ready for graduation.

No cap and gown this time, but he dressed in his formal Blues

 His diploma awaits....

 Hannah decided that while we were waiting for graduation was the perfect time to compose a piece of music...

 Finally his name is called!

Diploma recieved!

Successful!

He is now the recipient of a Master of Laws degree with a special emphasis in Administrative Law

It was a very sunny spot for a photo.  The kids couldn't stand it!

 Matt and "Malcolm". 

They actually went to OSU together.

Small world!!

 So proud of this guy!  He worked really hard, and his hard work paid off.

His final academic article or "Thesis" that he had to write to complete graduation was picked up for publication in a law journal.  It should be published sometime in 2015.

Braces are off!!! and Hannah has a concert!!!

On Cinco de Mayo, Anya got her braces off!  This was a very happy day!!

Especially for mom and dad, because that meant we did not have to transfer to another Orthodontist in Colorado!  Yay for finishing treatments!!

Before and After.

Our orthodontist, Dr. Cloth, was seriously the best!

He always had a funny story, ran a tight ship so we were always seen on time, and when we left he gave Anya this awesome gift package.  It was full of all the things your not supposed to eat with braces on.  So fun, she loved it!

First bite into a carrot.  This girl loves carrots, and she missed not eating them.

That night, after dinner, we had a "Braces Off" party!

We had an assortment of nuts, popcorn, caramel apples, gummy and sticky candy...everything off limits is now back on the menu. 

 Dig in!

 Hannah's last concert of the year.

We will miss this Orchestra program.  Mrs. Finnegan was awesome!

 Good job playing beautifully and being so dedicated to practicing Hannah!

Some cute pics...

Here are just some random pics, that I felt like give a little peek into our lives.  At least my life with the boys...

 Our house was very cold!  I mean freezing.  So we always cuddled in the mornings under warm blankets until we were warmed up enough to eat breakfast.  Here is one of our early morning selfies.

 Hunter is our builder.

He built this building all on his own, I was very impressed.

 Moving day arrived.  Hoping they take care of all my pottery!

 Dinner time with no furniture :)

We lived in our house for about 3 weeks with only camp chairs, air mattresses, and 1 old T.V. (I'm talking its over 20 years old and still kicking).  We had an awesome friend take mercy on us and bring over some bean bag chairs for us to use...which was perfect!

 got to take advantage of the summer days before we move!

All tuckered out.  With no couch to lay on to rest, a camp chair will do just fine.

We're back...

Since this is our families journal, I guess I better get back to it.  We have completed our "cross country" move, and school has started, so I do need something to occupy my time until our next adventure!  So here we go...

For a youth activity the girls at our church did a daddy/daughter rappelling day.  Matt had gone before, but this was the first time for Anya.  She was super excited, did very well and had a great time...Until...

 see what I mean, looking like a pro...Until

 ...

Her awesome mom, me, forgot to braid her long hair.  She had about waist length at this time, and they left very early in the morning.  I didn't even think about it!  She had put it in a pony tail, but still...lots of loose ends.  She got all jammed up in the ropes with her hair.  It was seriously tangled all the way to her neck, she couldn't even turn her head.

 Thankfully, this all happened where she was close to this little out cropping of a ledge.  I mean, it was barely big enough for her to kneel on.  

 Now, she was jammed up with all the ropes our group had.  So there was really no way for anyone to rappel down to her, so they were discussing climbing up or down to her.  She was about in the middle of this particular cliff's face.

 The Lord was really looking out for her that day.  There just happened to be a group of scouts rock climbing just a ways over on the same cliff.  They saw Anya in trouble, and moved their ropes over.  Then they climbed down to assist her.  For awhile there were snippets of "who had a knife?", "we need to cut her hair...".  But come on?! They are scouts, well versed in knots...right?  They were able to untangle Anya's hair from her ropes, get her all straightened out and back down the cliff.  She was even brave enough to go one more time...this time with her hair stuck down her shirt :)

Yay for Scouts!