Winter Getaway

We took a mini-vacation this week, but before we headed out, we had to get the Valentines ready for school.  This year, the kids decided they wanted to hand out punch balloons.  So, I stuffed a balloon in goodie bags for all of RJ's and Ryleigh's classmates.  I cut out the heart shapes and arrows for the tops of the goodie bags.  RJ's classroom wanted their Valentine's cards addressed to each kid, so RJ wrote his classmates' names on the arrows.  Ryleigh's classroom did not want their cards addressed so handing them out would go much faster.  But, Ryleigh still signed each of the 23 cards.  I'd say it was another fun, non-food Valentine's gift/card this year!

We left after Jip got home from work on Wednesday and headed up to Massanutten Resort in the Shenandoah Mountains.  Our villa had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  One bathroom had an extra large jacuzzi, but I think the kids were more excited about the housekeeping staff's artistic talent.

 
We had a leisurely Thursday morning.  After lunch, we headed to the indoor water park.  It turns out that Thursday afternoon is a great time to go--the park is far from crowded and we were able to enjoy nearly every aspect of the park.  Ryleigh didn't get to do the tubes on the really big slides because she was too short, so Mom hung out with her while Dad and RJ tried out each of the three slides.

Friday morning was another leisurely morning.  Jip took the kids to one of the resort's playgrounds because they needed to burn energy and Friday was supposed to be the warmest day of all our days there--25 degrees!  In the afternoon, we headed up to the mountain and went tubing.  Massanutten got a couple of feet of snow during the big snow a couple weeks ago, but you wouldn't have known that when we were there.  But, they have some pretty good snow-making equipment and helped us make sure we got some winter as part of our winter getaway.

Ryleigh was super excited to go tubing, but RJ wasn't once he was told that the hill was running too fast that day for him to be tied to a grown up (Ryleigh was small enough that she got to be tied to Jip).  The first time down was okay, but the second time down, an awesome staff member was so helpful with RJ and helped him "win" the race by starting him farther down the chute.  RJ ended up going down 4 times and then just wanted to play in the snow.  Dad and Ryleigh went down a few times without RJ and me.  Then, Ryleigh decided it was time to play in the snow.  We only used 90 minutes of our 120 minute window, but that's okay.  It was starting to get crowded and I really do think the kids had more fun playing on a barely snow-covered hill.

The kids were exhausted that afternoon, but only Ryleigh actually took advantage and took a nap.

On Saturday, it was miserably cold.  So, rather than tubing again, we decided to take a trek to Luray Caverns.  It may have been in the teens above ground, but it was a very comfortable mid-50s below ground.  This was another activity RJ wasn't too sure about at first.

I was worried that he might be claustrophobic, but it turns out that he was worried it was going to cave in.  Once he saw that it was brick walk-ways and railings through the whole thing, he got a little more excited.  Then, when the tour guide started talking about rock types he recognized from playing Minecraft, RJ was more than fine with being there.  By the time we got 164 feet below the earth, both kids were looking around and up and I think almost delighted to be having some PBS-type fun.

Yep, that's an organ console in the last photo.  It is called the Great Stalacpipe Organ.  The organ makes it sound by electrical pulses causing mallets to hit various stalactites in the cave to create the different tones.  (Find more info here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Stalacpipe_Organ)  I didn't find the tune particularly recognizable as the tune the guide said it was  (A Mighty Fortress is Our God), but it was still neat.  They have hosted over 500 weddings by the organ, so I presume that Hear Comes the Bride or Wedding Recessional may be played on it, too.  Jip recorded a video so you can hear it for yourselves.

After lunch at a restaurant that smelled just like the GPI in Stratton or Birdie's in Granby, we headed up to Shenandoah National Park so that we could drive the Skyline Drive back toward our resort.  Jip and I enjoyed the drive.  The kids enjoyed a nap and getting the cancellation stamps (well, Jip running into the visitors' center to get them) in their National Park passport books.

We hit our regular resort pool after we returned. Then it was time to break out the ice luminaries I made on Thursday.  We didn't have any snow to put the LED candles in and then put the luminaries on top, so Jip  had to chip out holes for the LED candles.  Still, it was a successful endeavor and made our back balcony so pretty.

We headed home on Sunday.  The kids were tickled that we found a Which Wich in Richmond.  It capped off a nice winter getaway for us!  Now, it is back to the grind.  We hope we can do another little getaway when Jip is in DC for meetings in a couple months.  So, stay tuned.  As always, pics to come.

Cheers!