field trip to daddy's work

Jason's company just built a new building downtown and moved his office from the suburbs to the big city!  It has all the bells and whistles so we took a field trip to check it out.

The revolving door at the entrance was a favorite. 

The views of the city from his 18th floor office were pretty amazing.  Can you see the James River down there?

The biggest favorite was the magnetic "marble run" wall.  We spent a lot of time in there and so does Jason on a daily basis, ha!

A LEGO wall! 

 There was also a large scrabble board on the wall in this room.  

After exploring the inside, we headed to the rooftop deck for ping pong!  There was a pool table inside on this level too.  

I'm not certain as much work is getting done in the new building, but they're having fun doing it!  There are also amenities like a gym, cafeteria, smoothie/snack bar, etc.   

rivah

Our neighbors recently bought a house at the river (rivah) and invited a bunch of us down for the day on Saturday.  Unfortunately we were the only family able to go, but it was still lots of fun. 

They have a pool/mini water park so we hit that first.

When we were done swimming the kids fished and crabbed.

Emmy fell in love with hand crabbin'.

She was quite proud of her efforts.

They ended up getting 5-8 more to add to the ones already in the crab pots.

This has been a summer we won't soon forget.  So many great memories.

They fed us like kings with a country boil before we headed out.

One of these days we're going to have to remember what bed times are so we can start getting up at a reasonable hour.  But we sure are having fun!

a fun week

As summer vacation comes to a close, we're trying to do all the fun things before time is up.  After being in Philadelphia Friday and Saturday, there was no rest for the weary on Sunday afternoon.  We headed to Kings Dominion after church to check out the Monster Jam exhibit/ride.  We enjoyed it.  I didn't get any pictures of it, but later on ended up being the highlight of the day (for Bryce at least).

Emmy wanted to ride one of the kiddie rides and Bryce was going to sit it out and then Jason ended up asking him to ride with her.  They measured him before he got on and told him he was too big.  This sent all kinds of emotions/reactions through him.  With this information, he knew he had finally hit the last height requirement for a few more rides he wanted to try so he and Jason went straight to the intimidator.

He loved it!

This particular ride doesn't go upside down, but it is the tallest ride in the park with an incredible drop/hill.

MeMa took the kids to the Virginia Living Museum in Newport News on Monday and they had a great time.

Tuesday was our annual trip to Yorktown Beach with the Shipleys.

After swimming all day, we get cleaned up for a ride on the trolley and a Ben and Jerry's treat!  

It was pretty hot this week, but Wednesday was cloudy on and off so we headed to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens and enjoyed the flowers and LEGO exhibit.  

There's a good deal of shade so weren't too hot.

These love signs are popping up all over the place.

I didn't feel like this year's LEGO exhibit was as good as one they had a couple of years ago, but the statues are still pretty impressive.

We've eaten at the café before (cafeteria style) but I've always wanted to eat at the tea house.  We happened to be there on a day they were opened and it did not disappoint!

We were back at Kings Dominion today.  Now that Bryce is tall enough, he wanted a chance to ride all of the roller coasters he hadn't done yet.  We went with my mom and the Shipleys and lucky for me, Gracie rode quite a few rides with Bryce, but I manned up and did a few with him too.

Fun with friends. 

I don't actually mind a roller coaster, I just don't love how some are so jerky.  I do however, despise rides that go in a circle or spin.  And of course, those are Emmy's favorite since she's too short for most of the roller coasters she wants to ride.

This was mine and Bryce's first time riding the dominator and we both loved it.  We declared it our favorite.

No trip to Kings Dominion is complete without a trip to Rita's!

It's supposed to rain tomorrow so I'm kind of hoping we can have a low key day at home after all of our fun this week!

philly

While we're on a mission to hit all of the major league ball parks (we've now been to 11 out of 30), Jason and Bryce do have their favorite teams.  Jason grew up an Orioles fan so Bryce hopped on the bandwagon.  Bryce also became a fan of the Nationals when Bryce Harper joined their team.  Now that the Orioles are basically the worst team in baseball (their words, not mine) and Bryce Harper has moved to the Phillies, Bryce is changing teams.  Because of this, we knew we had to get to a Phillies game this year!

   

Just four days after getting off a plane from the west coast, we hopped in the car and headed to Philadelphia on Friday!

I was worried the game could get rained out because the weather wasn't looking promising so at the last minute we packed bathing suits in case we needed to spend the evening swimming in the hotel pool which I was assuming would be inside.  We ended up getting there early enough to swim in the outdoor pool and there was no rain for the game.  Win Win!

Park number 4 for the summer, number 11 total.

We cut the bottom off of Bryce's SCA president campaign poster and took it to the game in hopes of getting on the big screen or tv.  

Philly Phanatic!

Jason got us seats in right field so we'd be behind Bryce Harper.

When the outfielders were done warming up before the innings, Harper threw the ball into the stands.  Bryce said he looked right at him and threw it to him.  He had to lean in to the guy beside him a little, but he got it!

Big memory he'll never forget right there!

This stadium had a great kids area with lots of fun and free activities.  The rock climbing wall was their favorite.  

We spent the night on Friday and did a little touring on Saturday morning.  We were a little late looking into tickets for Independence Hall so we ended up visiting the Liberty Bell and the Benjamin Franklin museum and then headed home.  

seattle

We ended our trip in Seattle so we could go to a Mariners game.  It was an evening game so we spent our day exploring the city.

You know us, we're donut people and we have to find the local spots.

Of course we hade to visit Pike Place Market.  

We knew we had to catch some fish throwing!  We didn't really know what to expect, but it was pretty interesting and they attracted lots of crowds! 

The flower arrangements were so big and beautiful and so inexpensive!

Ready for a ride on the Great Wheel.

After shopping, dining, and people watching, we checked out of our hotel and headed to the game.  

This girl loves pretzels.  Can you tell?!?

Third game, third ball!  We got one from every game during batting practice. 

Jason and I found some great food and drinks at the stadiums we visited.  He prefers weird things like spicy grasshoppers.

I go for drinks like a Prosecco float!

We left the game and headed to the airport for our red eye home!

This was a spectacular trip with many great memories made!  Our kids are such good travelers and so fun to take on trips!