T-Town

August in Tazewell, VA is just beautiful. We were able to go up there for a visit this past weekend and had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends.

the boys at Abby's house

We got in late Friday night and pretty much unloaded the car and went straight to bed (well, there may have been a little Olympics watching going on but the boys went straight to bed). The update here is that Stokes and William slept in their Aunt Ashley's old bed. We had pool noodles in the car that we tucked inside the fitted sheet to potentially prevent any rolling out of the bed. Either the pool noodles worked, or the boys were just not rolling around too much because neither of them fell out of the bed. I was a bit worried about it and was so relieved that they made it through the night without any injury! This was the first time they've slept in a bed for real. At the beach, they slept on a mattress on the floor - not quite the same thing. I was glad for a little bed experience for them, because changes are a'coming.

Anyway, on Saturday in Tazewell, we went to visit Davis, Joey and Lisa after eating breakfast. Davis has lots of fun toys to play with so the boys were in heaven!

Davis and Stokes playing on tractors and such

Ryan at the climbing wall

Inside the playhouse (making hamburgers, I think)

More tractor riding

procession of big machines

Ryan on the tricycle

Go Ryan!

Davis's birthday was just a few weeks ago so we
all exchanged gifts!

These were the biggest HIT! The boys love The Little
Blue Truck books and Lisa was able to find some diecast
blue trucks for them. It was pure mania!

 After playing for a while, Lisa, Ryan and I went to The Retail Therapist, which is the cutest little store, to do a bit of shopping. Then we met back up with all the other guys to have lunch. Lunch was a little crazy with four toddlers, but we made it through...somehow. Then we went back to Abby's house for nap time. It wasn't too long after we got the boys down that Fifi, Jerry, Mag, Granddad and Gran-O came by for a visit. I hated that the boys weren't awake for the whole time they were there, but it was nice to have some adult convo before the kids were back on the scene. They were napping really well, but eventually I woke them up to hang out with some of their favorite people and we spent the next few hours just having fun outside.

Jerry and Ryan

William in the hammock

Mag playing with  Stokes

Da-da with Stokes and William

checking out the pond

William playing in the grass

time for life jackets!

We took the paddle boat out on the pond - first riders
were Stokes and William

Fifi and Ryan

Hanging out on the dock
and watching the paddle boat

Family fun

We did a switch-a-roo and got Ryan out on the paddle
boat with us!

Cutie boy in the yard

Fifi was an angel to help with the tractor

They would fight over who was driving!

Fifi and Ryan

Thomas, Stokes, William and Abby in the Polaris

Time to go over the hill!

They love being at Abby's house!

And they're OFF!

My little angel

That night we got takeout from Cuz's and had dinner at home before the bedtime routine. After the boys went to bed, Thomas and I got to watch some more Olympics and by that time we were exhausted! There were so many highlights of the day, but one of my favorite parts was the boys going on the Polaris. They had an absolute ball on that thing! Abby was driving most of the time and after each round, William would grab his hand and walk him back to the Polaris and say, "Abby, let's go again!" And he would pat the seat of the Polaris to show him where to sit. It was seriously so cute. Abby kept caving too, because how can you turn that down?

Sunday morning, we got on the road fairly early and got back to Greenville during the afternoon. Although it was a brief visit, we crammed a lot in to a short amount of time and got to see some of the people that mean so much to us. I know the boys had fun because they keep talking about going back to Abby's house! They also tell me that they like Abby's house. They're so funny. Hopefully we'll get a chance to get back up there at some point before Christmas.

Side story: the boys do not know the difference between Virginia, the place, and Virginia, the person. It was quite confusing to them when we would talk about going to Virginia and then they would start asking about Abigail. Remember the cousins, V &A? If not - check out this post from the beach. They boys sure love them some Virginia and Abigail! ;)