Hurrah for Vacation

I have decided...




That family vacations...



are worth their weight...




in gold.




Because this week, we traded this...



for this...



And traded this...



for this.



and it was...well,



wonderful.



We headed to Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Virginia to hit the water slides, but I think the beautiful, warm sunshine...



was every bit as much of a blessing to us.



Favorite slide of everyone OVER the age of five...(yes, it really is a six story drop swirling around inside a huge funnel)...



the Howling Tornado





General consensus among everyone but Daddy...Daddy's howling made the Howling Tornado even worse.



Daddy, Mitchell, Matthew, and Christian

For little Miss Five and Under...



It was everything BUT the tornado.



After all, she's not over four feet tall yet!



And Gracie-Lou (why is it kid's REAL names are not what usually comes out of Momma's mouths?)



Gracie...



Who I could tell is growing up when I went in the bathroom after she had unpacked and found this:



Gracie, who thought Momma should ride the Tornado in the dark at night like she did.



I did not.
I stuck to daylight.






There was the surf rider



the surf rider that Christian spent so many hours conquering, that he needed help to get his shirt on because his shoulders were so sore. How is it that I don't have one photo of him riding it? It was a Momma slip-up. So here he is doing, well, other things.





Matthew and Faith


Matthew, Mitchell, Christian, Anna Grace


There was the bakery with the mammoth cupcakes that were too rich for our blood pocketbooks.



There were big boys eating hot wings.



REALLY HOT wings!



And then it was time to head back north









But not with out two very special stops.

First stop, and oh-so-very special to me, meeting my sweet blog friend Mandy from over at "adoptedandappointed.blogspot". We'd been talking for a number of months via our blogs and email and what a sweet joy it was to meet up in person. If I remember correctly, what first spurred our interest was that we both have an "Anna Grace" and are both homeschool moms. It was so sweet to meet up.



Faith and adorable little Lily, who looks like a little doll baby.



All the girls: Faith, Anna Grace, Anna Grace, Lily, & Ally



and finally, just before the home stretch, it was our "travel treat". We don't have them at home so we look for them when we travel.

Steak and Shake









love this photo so much!

Oh, these boys. What in the world would I do without them.



and this boy too...