Yorktown, VA

The next morning, after our breakfast and swim at the hotel pool, we packed up and headed out on our 4 1/2 hour drive north.  Next stop...

YORKTOWN, VA

Our good friends, the Middels, used to live near us and Cory worked with us for a little while at Kaiser.  He's a PT for the Airforce, and since they left us they have been stationed in San Antonio and now recently relocated to Yorktown, VA.  We miss them dearly, and I have vowed to visit them at least once in every place they move to.  So why not now?  We had already met their daughter Hannah, who is 5 1/2, but had not yet met their twin boys Aaron and James, who are 4.  So we invaded every inch of their space, and spent 4 days catching up and hanging out.   Laura cooked up some fabulous meals.  Hannah was so gracious and let us all take over her room...Eddy and I slept in her bed, Kaitlyn slept in the closet in the pack n play, and Ryan slept on the floor...surrounded by a huge princess castle tent.  It was a great few days!

Cory and Eddy got in a round of golf, and we even managed to leave all 5 kids with the 2 teenage girls who live next door one night so we could have an adult dinner out.  It was such a treat!  We may have scarred Ryan for life, as it was a bit traumatic for him (but apparently 5 minutes after we left he was fine, as we knew he would be).  

soccer on the 11th hole -- right behind the Middel's house

 They live about 20 minutes from colonial Williamsburg, so we thought we'd go check it out and see as much as we could see with kids and their short attention spans.  Turns out, attention spans didn't matter much, for about an hour after we got there we got stuck in a heavy rainstorm (I swear the weather forecast said it would be sunny!)....and after 15 minutes of shivering under a souvenir tent and no signs of it letting up, we decided to make a run back to the car.  We all got pretty soaked...but we all kept smiles on our faces, and not one of us was whining about it.  

Those are the things memories are made of!  

in the main square

Ryan and James running down main street

the hitching post...and our rain shelter/souvenir tent in the background

entertaining ourselves during the rainstorm

The next day the sun was out, and we ventured out on the Noland trail...a great little nature walk around a lake, filled with turtles!

the Middel five....really hard to get kids (and Cory) to smile apparently  

I gave Ryan the camera for this shot, and think he did a great job framing the shot...even as Aaron walked into it

And back at the house....the kids did a great job playing together.  It didn't even matter that James called Ry "Brian" for the majority of our visit.  By the end I kind of think he was doing it on purpose.  

Eddy helped Cory put together some patio furniture, and the kids loved playing in their new fort.  

Hannah, James and Ryan

and Kaitlyn wanted to be right in the mix as well

Thanks so much Cory & Laura!  We had a great time, and it felt good to fill up our friend cup by spending time with you all.  

 And as all good things must come to an end, so did our great adventure on the east coast.  We packed up our goods, said goodbye, and began the long trip home.  2 airplanes, and once again schlepping all of our stuff from point A to point B.  But once again the kids did really well and we made it home safely without any major hiccups.  It felt really good to be home and all in our own beds.  

But it also made me wonder...where to next???