Day 2 of Spring Break started off with banana pancakes. Shane and I would need the energy for the adventure ahead!
Stocked with library books and CDs, we said good-bye to Mommy and headed north to Northern Virginia.
I planned a couple stops to break up the two-hour journey. Our first stop was at Yoder's: A Mennonite Grocery store with all-natural butterscotch peanut butter, the cleanest bathrooms around, and a petting zoo.
An odd combination, I know, but it works. Don't knock it until you try it. I bought a few natural nut-butters for gifts and got change for feed.
Unfortunately, it was 30-some-odd degrees outside. The wind stripped more body heat as it whipped by. Shane was fascinated by the goat skywalk, but the goats were more concerned with sleeping and laying low.
There weren't any other kids on the playground, either. We didn't stay for long. I had Shane take a picture or two to extend the break with mixed results.
Our next stop was a detour through Culpepper. We've driven by many, many times, but never detoured through main street. Today, we fixed that. We stopped at a thrift store to spend the leftover feed change. There was a panaderia down the way where we grabbed a road snack, too.
An hour later, we arrived at our first stop: Daniel's house! The boys recognized each other straight away. Jessica said Daniel had been asking about Shane lately. Shane asked about Daniel himself when he heard we were going north.
Meanwhile, I recognized moving boxes. Daniel's family is going to move to Austin, Texas!
We don't live in NOVA anymore, but that's still a bummer. I mean, look at these kids.
We'd been away too long, but the boys went back to playing like no time had passed. Jessica and I talked while they played in the living room or ran outside.
I went out back to check on them once and got a quick video.
Wait, has it really been almost a year? I thought we'd visited in August or September. Geez. Daniel's grown into the biggest four year old, I've ever seen.
And Eleanor, Daniel's little sister, has gotten mobile!
I enjoyed catching up with Jessica while she packed and everyone played. Mike was in Austin, so I missed out on seeing him. I found out that Leo, our old Muay Thai coach, moved into the neighborhood and led a small group through our church! Small world! It made me nostalgic.
I snapped a quick picture of our old house to show Carrie. Ben, the new owner, used to work construction and made several additions Carrie would have approved of.
After getting used to Charlottesville, all the roads and houses in Northern Virginia seemed more spaced out than necessary. Bigger, but colder. All the yards looked perfect and empty, because everyone has to work to afford the place (their spring break was last week). Maybe that's how Carrie saw it from the start. I adapt quickly to wherever I am, so I never really noticed.
But, I digress. Our next stop was to surprise Jama. I told Jessica I was coming to make sure we could catch them. Jama had no clue.
She was happy to see us, though!
Shane was pumped. He loves family AND Jama gave him candy. He jumped and rolled all over. I'm sure Jama's neighbor below started to write a formal complaint about the noise (mwa ha ha!).
After a while, we let Shane turn on the TV so we could talk. Jama told me about her dinner reservation with a Harvard PhD.
Meanwhile, Shane transformed into a drooling zombie.
We left when Jama went down for dinner. Our next stop was at John's library. "Daddy, I don't want any more books! We have a lot!"
"We're not here for the books," I replied.
"Then why?!?"
"Think about libraries and who we may know in Northern Virginia that works at libraries."
".....JOHN!"
Side note: It's not a trip to a library if I don't randomly find some odd book. Maybe I'll check it out six years from now...
At that moment, Shane was only interested in tornadoes.
John got off at 6:00 PM, and we rendezvoused at Matt and Renee's. Any doubts about whether or not Shane remembered their laundry chute were put to rest immediately. The stink charged up while the adults greeted each other. He would have gotten John's shoes if John hadn't stopped him (Of course, John then volunteered mine).
We ordered "It's-cheaper-and-tastier-than-a-cheap-hotel-room" Chinese to thank Matt and Renee for putting us up for the night and sat around.
Shane played with some Highlights magazines Daniel's mom gave us.
Unless someone laughed.
Then Shane wanted in on it.
I brought a whole stack of board games with us. I had hoped we could all play one, but everyone else was too brain-dead from work. After I put Shane to bed, Matt and Renee tried to sell John and I on The Office instead.
In the end, John left and I went to bed earlier than usual. Shane and I had to share a bed, so I had a hunch I wouldn't get to sleep in...
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