NOVA Trip

Shane and I made our third trip up to NOVA this school year! Our last was over winter break and the time before that was Jama's 90th birthday. 

The goal was to meet Matt and Renee's new baby, Graham Owen, and have some fun!

Our first stop at John's creature workshop. We drove to meet him at his place, collect some models, and head to Matt's together.

If Shane ever shows an interest in models, I know who to talk to! Shane liked browsing around.

John's made a lot more progress with painting. Normally, he comes up with intricate conversions and backstories, but moves on before a paintbrush applies details.

I think these look really good. He applied a pattern to the pauldrons to make them appear more like marble.

On a more personal note, John showed Shane Captain Roy G Biv of the Rainbow Raiders! He wasn't done yet, but the evolution from the original drawing is fun!

John really needs to move closer to Charlottesville, so we can geek out with Shane more. Maybe he could move within horseback riding distance...

John was taking a bit to pack up, so Shane and I left ahead of him to go to Matt and Renee's. We weren't the only set of relatives to show up.

Megan and her boys were already on the scene! She'd gone to Einstein Bros and brought bagels for everyone to have for lunch (because she's awesome).

Aiden was happy to have all the company. He was funny, too.

Aiden and Sam tended to stay around all the toys and adults. Shane and B, however, started running laps around the house after each other. Matt had some fun by jumping out and roaring whenever B and Shane weren't expecting it.

Aiden's face would light up and he'd hop off the couch and start running to wherever the roar came from. He knew what was up!

Renee brought down Graham when he was done feeding for all the kids to meet. They all took a glance and then ran off again making mischief while the adults showed more interest!

John arrived about that time!

Renee offered to let people hold Graham and then Matt got to work swaddling him to prep for nap time.

Wrestling and pandemonium resumed after Graham was taken upstairs. Bagels were consumed and we all left when it was time for Aiden to take his nap, too.

Our next stop was at Jama's where the boys continued to snack.

This begs to be captioned:

Jama has lots of snacks and treats.

And even presents! Jama had a grab bag of sorts to spoil any great-grandkids who stopped by.

Gift giving is clearly a primary love language for her.

She armed the older boys with suction cup dart guns right as Nana called Megan. 

I don't know how it started, but B really wanted Jama to give him some hand lotion.

He put it on his hands the first time. The second time, Jama convinced him to apply it on his belly button!

Nana got to be in on the fun!

I got a text from John that he was on the scene. Agents S and B accompanied me to the rendezvous.

The suspect was in the bathroom and had no idea an ambush awaited him.

After "surprising" John, we went down the hall to where we usually play. The boys discovered their darts could stick to cabinets.....when I stuck one out of reach.

Don't worry. It fell right off when they banged the door shut a few times.

John had brought his Gaslands models, so that we could test out the rules.

B picked out his favorite. John replied it was a "Boss vehicle."

Not that either boy stuck around to learn any rules. They were racing around, gunning for each other!

Jama, Megan, and Sam came down to join us.

Sam didn't run around with the older boys. He opted for hide and seek.

Surprise!

He was so joyful (and Megan cheered so loud) the older boys all wanted to play, too!

I took my eyes off Shane for a moment and he was on top of the fridge trying to crawl into a cabinet.

"There's no way this is going to end well," I thought. I didn't know if A) he wouldn't fit, B) he'd get stuck, or C) he'd break something.

And yet, I didn't stop him. It was like watching a car wreck in the making. Shane was already so far into the process I decided to take out my camera and see what happened.

Amazingly, it worked.

Shane didn't stay up there for long, though. It was cramped!

John let the boys hop on his Switch to calm things down after the game. Jama had already gone back upstairs by that point, I think.

Megan offered to take all of the boys to a Ninja Warrior class she'd won an auction for at Springfield Mall. Normally, that would have been an instant "YES," but it would've meant another hour in the car for Shane. It's nearly a 2.5 hour drive one way from our new house to NOVA and we'd already spent near an hour driving to Matt's and then Jama's. The boys vegged out a little instead.

I made Shane put the Switch on pause to say goodbye when it was time for Megan's crew to move on. He got to hop back on for a little bit after they went on their way.

It let John and I finish our game. It took a while, but we figured out how to play Gaslands. John took out one of his cars and mine with a suicidal charge after he rebounded off a shipping container, but I managed to have one car left limping around his smoking wrecks.

 
John's models and terrain looked fantastic. We didn't have a playmat, but if John enjoyed the game enough I'm sure it's already on order. John's a bigger fan of the theme than me, but the mechanics were interesting.

We all hit up Chick-Fil-A for dinner. Shane went crazy in the kid's area while John and I talked.

I asked Shane to describe John in three words when we left. Shane replied "Cool, awesome, and tall!" I hope it was the pick me up John needed!

I asked Shane to describe me in three words, too, but I can't recall what he said for the life of me (I am writing this 15 days later!).

Shane and I hopped in the car a little after 6 PM to head home. We finished Spy Kids on the way (a fun book, by the way!). We made it home in time to rest for a little bit with Mommy before bed.

Having horses makes it a little harder to do an overnight trip, but I hope to spend some more time in NOVA this spring. I gotta get through wrestling season first.