Massanutten, VA with my Parents

 My dad treated us to a 4 bedroom (two unit) condo in Massanutten for a week.  The kids were so excited to miss school.  I thought they haven't really done much all summer, and had been stuck in our small 2 bedroom apartment most of the summer, so I was okay with them missing school.  

Here are the highlights of the trip:

Shenandoah National Park: Josh was able to join us for the weekend, and then I dropped him off at the train station Sunday afternoon/evening, so he could go back to our Arlington apartment for more Portuguese training.  We had a great Saturday frolicking in the meadow, and hiking around the creek on a pretty steep elevation drop. We saw deer on the trail, and a lot of deer through-out the week.  

Monday was our chill day.  We just went to Dollar General to gather supplies, and my mom and the kids did balloon experiments.  Later that day we explored the area and went swimming one of the indoor pools.  Thankfully, we mostly had the pool to ourselves because Trex Joy pooped in his swim diaper, but the swim diaper didn't do what it was suppose to do... the poop went everywhere, and it took the workers a very long time to clean it up.  I felt so bad. Before the pooping incident, Payson had fun jumping off the diving board, and Avenly made several attempts to jump off, but wigged herself out every time. 

The littles (and me) got to go to the Zoo in DC on Friday while with Grandma and Grandpa on Friday while the bigs were in school. Here are a few pictures from the zoo: 

 

Since the littles got to go on their special date Friday, my parents took the two older kids on their special date to the Family Fun park, where the kids each got to pan for cool rocks.  Payson said this was his favorite part of the whole trip.  I am not sure if my parents took pictures, but I don't have any...

Besides Shenandoah National Park, my favorite activity was going to Grande Caverns.  At one point in time, these caves were the biggest and most famous.  They were also used during the Civil War as a hideout and we saw many soldiers'

 names engraved on the walls of the caves.   Our tour guide was loud and boisterous  and almost scary at times, but he was great and very friendly.  I think the kids weren't sure if he was kidding or serious. lol  These caves were unique because they had many plates/discs that other caves don't have, and the ceiling was sort-of sideway textured.  We learned about how strong the earthquakes must have been in pre-historic times to create some of the broken formations.

On the way back to Arlington, we stopped at Battle of New Market.  It was fascinating to learn about the young cadets who fought and died.  Zaylee took my phone in the museum and had a great time taking pictures of everything, so I had to include a few in this post. 

We went out to dinner with Josh when we got back to Arlington.  We had a great time.  Thanks, Dad, for the fun week.  We always love when our parents come to visit!