A week with the fam in VA....

• Yesterday afternoon I dropped my fam off at the airport. It was a sad day.... They'd been here for a week and it went by too fast. It was a fantastic trip and one of the best ever.

• Where to begin the week....


• Mom, dad and Steph (her first trip!) arrived last Tuesday morning. After taking the red-eye from PDX, they slept most of the day. I went to work and Dustin got them at the airport. I got home early and started helping Dustin on the deck until they got up. (A side note: Dustin and my dad worked on extending our deck, doubling the size. More on that in a different post). Everyone was tired so we ordered pizza for dinner and it was nice to sit around the table and catch up.




• Wednesday, Dad and Dustin worked on the deck. I got off early and then Mom, Steph and I went grocery shopping for our trip to OBX the next day. Also spent the night packing as much as we could so we could throw everything in the cars in the morning and head out. Dustin cooked steak for dinner. I had Thursday and Friday off. We spent 3 nights in Hatteras, NC in the Outer Banks (or as locals call it: OBX). I will have to do a separate post on this trip. And once I get pics from everyone's cameras, I'll have some to post. I'll have to work off our pics for now.




• We got back Sunday afternoon. Again, Dad and Dustin worked on the deck. Mom and I made fajitas for dinner. Steph and Devan played :)




• Dustin left Monday for the Netherlands. After dropping Dustin off at the airport, they went to the Shirley Plantation while I worked. When I got home, Dad babysat Devan and us 3 girls headed up to Short Pump to go shopping :) Devan was having a bad night because he had been up since 4am. I felt bad for my dad. It's not fun babysitting a cranky toddler. But the trooper that he is, he stuck it out for several hours. Thanks dad!




• Tuesday, they went to see the famous Jefferson Hotel in Richmond. And we met at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to see the Picasso exhibit- a once-in-a-lifetime event! The Picasso exhibit is only in 3 US cities and 4 international cities, while the Paris museum is under renovation. I couldn't believe that Richmond, VA is one of the three US cities!!!! The other 2 are Seattle and San Francisco. How cool is that!??!?! The exhibit was amazing! It was great to see his progression as he aged. Sooooo worth the money. I left to get Devan and they checked out the other exhibits. When we all met at home, dad decided he really wanted BBQ for dinner. So we drove back up to work and had Q Barbeque. Delish! Just down the street was the mall. Steph and I went shopping for an hour before they closed and mom and dad took Devan to the little kiddy playground in the mall. We all got home at 9:30 and crashed.




• Wednesday I went to work early so I could leave early. I wanted to spend some time with them before I had to take them to the airport. I got home to a nice surprise- a clean house! Thanks mom! It was nice to hang around and talk- without other things going on (cooking dinner, playing with Devan, etc). It was hard dropping them at RIC. It was such a great visit and I didn't want it to end.... Miss you guys already! MWAH!