Mandatory Fun

This past weekend we got to go on a retreat to Williamsburg, VA with Mike's fellow interns.
For the most part we all did our own thing, but each day of the retreat the inters were required to do at least one thing together. We all drove up Friday and that evening we all got together for dinner. Well, not all of us. Steph flew out to go on this trip with us and was nice enough to babysit for us so Mike and I could go out and have a kid free evening. We went to a fun restaurant that I forget the name of, but we had some pretty cool live entertainment.

I tried to get a picture of the whole group of people playing, but Terry decided he wanted in the picture and all the light from the flash ended up reflecting off his head, thus making it impossible to see behind him. But it made for a funny picture anyways. :)


Had to get a picture of us.

Minus the red eyes, this is the only NORMAL picture of me on this trip. (There is another picture of me featured later on in this post that you are sure to enjoy, so keep reading.)

Day 2 of the trip we went to Busch Gardens. We had a lot of fun. Here are some highlights.



Jacobs favorite parts...


Playing in the water. Of course. This kid LOVES playing in water.



Lizzie preferred to just watch.

Jacob's first roller coaster ride. He and Mike are in the second to last car.


Can't see them?? Here's a close up. You can't really tell from this picture but he LOVED it and asked to go again. He inherited his dads love for roller coasters. According to Mike it went pretty fast for a kids roller coaster too.
Lulu's favorites...

Oscar's Whirly Worms. I was going to go with the kids on this one, until I saw that it went in circles. (I know, the "whirly" part should have been a dead give away. What can I say? I'm slow.) Since anything that goes in circles makes me want to hurl, I ended up volunteering Steph to go on this one. Lizzie loved it and smiled and giggled the whole time. I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but I'm not real good with moving objects.

Of COURSE Elmo was her VERY favorite. She was soooooooo excited to see him. She held out her arms and yelled, "Elmo, ELMO!!", over and over again...until we got up close. Then all the sudden all she could do is stare at him. She wouldn't let him give her a hug but she did give him high five. I wish the photographer would have gotten a picture of that. Unfortunately, the stupid lady refused to snap a picture unless she was looking at the camera. Lizzie is stubborn though and this is all we got.

Both kids loved this part (even though, once again, you would never guess from the look on Jacob's face). A few times a day they turn off the water and the whole Sesame Street gang comes out and does a little song and dance show. Jacob and Lizzie were pretty excited to see life sized Sesame Street characters singing and dancing.
Although we spent the majority of the time in the kids portion of the park, we did get to go on a couple real roller coasters. Actually, Steph and I each went on one and Mike went on both. And here my friends, is the moment you've all been waiting for. Behold...Michelle meets Nessie.

As you can see from my face, it was truly terrifying, and I am pretty sure I really was praying not to die and leave my children motherless. Mike liked this picture so much he paid 20 bucks for it and got 2 key chains of it. (Jerk!) I am glad I didn't go on the other one with him. Steph went with him instead. It looked a hundred times scarier and I am sure I would have lost control of my bodily functions had I attempted it. I think I may have peed a little just watching it. Okay, not really. But, (as my friend Brittany would say) sweet merciful crap! SCARY!!

Lizzie was pretty tired and ended up taking a nap while we went on our roller coaster rides.

Here is Jacob posing with the large Elmo we bought for Lizzie. The only Elmo that they had that was smaller than this was almost microscopic. So we forked out 40 bucks for this one. Jacob found a smaller cookie monster and we only paid $10 for it. Why they didn't have the same size for Elmo I have no idea. Totally annoying though. (Yes that is a black eye, and no we don't really beat our children. He had a run in with the sleeper sofa he was on in the middle of the night...long story.)

After all that fun we headed over to Leigh-Anne's Parent's home for a nice bbq. Unfortunately, we ended up having to eat and run because by that point our kids (okay mainly Jacob) were tired and cranky and being impossible, so we had to take them back to the hotel and get them to bed. Later that evening Steph was, once again, our hero and volunteered to stay at the hotel with the kids while we went shopping at the outlet mall. Retail therapy...what a great way to end the day.

I couldn't resist snapping some pictures from the hotel we stayed at. Whoever designed this place had a very interesting style. Some parts were kind of creepy, like the carpet in the elevators that looked like blood splatter and the creepy hands coming out of the wall.

As weird as this was, it made for a very cool picture.

I think Mike will forever get flak for choosing this hotel.

The next day we hit the road after breakfast. We stopped long enough to go to church then we headed home. It was such a fun weekend. I LOVE mandatory fun. :)