President's Day Weekend

This weekend, we celebrated Valentine's Day with pizza, or as we call it, God's food, and homemade raspberry tarts that were, in fact, overly tart

Someday I'll be like you, Joy the Baker, you cat lover.

The next morning, we left as early as possible (with a toddler) and drove to Massanutten for a small mini-break. Massanutten itself is a resort with skiing, snowboarding, hiking, etc. but we were there for the indoor water park. Our trip took us through the back roads of central Virginia. It was breathtaking, driving along the Blue Ridge Mountains. I kept saying to Amos, I can't wait to come back in the summer! I can't wait to come back in the summer! The landscape vacillated between sprawling ranches for horses and small towns with confederate flags (not beautiful). Seriously. And although we had a screaming toddler in tow for 1/2 of the trip (the other half she was sleeping after a lunch of a cheeseburger), it was a beautiful drive - other than the gun shops.

We arrived at the water park and I was initially confused by the unisex locker room. It was kind of weird that they didn't really have showers or more than five changing rooms, but I assume most people stay at the resort so don't necessarily need to drive in their wet suits. But it was strange nonetheless. The water park itself was bustling with children and their caretakers. It has a huge structure, as you can see in this photo, where you can climb through waterfalls and turn around and go down a mini water slide.

There are also larger slides within this structure as well as huge water slides on the edge of the park which made me too nervous. The slides within the structure were as Louisa-friendly as we could get. Unlike the pool at Club Sport with Tina and Shay where we were able to hold Louisa on our laps as we slid down a water slide, we couldn't take LJ on any of the larger water slides (the scary one would not be an option, but the tamer ones that fed out of the structure would've been okay). So we made due with these straight slides that had pools of water at the end that splashed into your face. Louisa loved them, of course, and was very proud to tell her dad that she went under whenever we'd go down. On our final trip down the slide, Louisa was struggling to free herself of my hands. I stopped and asked, do you not want to go down the slide? She said, no, Wee-ah by herself.

Of course, that's not an option with such a long slide but after that last ride, a lifeguard told me I couldn't take her on my lap anymore. Siiigh. Rules.

They also had a fun lazy river that we rode around multiple times. This was mainly because Louisa loved the thrill of the waterfalls and we'd all scream with delight as we approached them.

We stayed at a hotel in Harrisonburg, a town that is apparently the home of James Madison University. Who knew? I never even heard of the school. By the time we got to the hotel, Louisa was exhausted. While I initially was going to bathe her before dinner, we were all too tired to do anything and we hung out for a few minutes singing Frozen.

 

Louisa kept climbing under the covers saying, Mama, get a baba, time to sleep. So we thought this this may be a challenging dinner. We got to the restaurant and were told there'd be a 40 minute wait (!!!) but when we went to the waiting room we found a room full of tweens, cousins of a family that had gathered for the holiday weekend. As Louisa approached them we said, dance to the music Louisa, as there was loud music in the background. She immediately started swinging her hips and twirling around. Within minutes she was on someone's lap as two of the girls serenaded us with Frozen songs.

At dinner, we were lucky enough to be seated right next to the family, so Louisa sat with her girl, Emily, for most of the night. Emily's mom was a gas, so fun and excited about Louisa's love for her daughters. She kept turning to us saying, just enjoy your dinner! 

Emily!

 Finally, at the end of the night, we were reluctant to leave our new family and hugged everyone goodbye. I was worried Louisa would be sad to leave, but I think she was ready for bed. And sure enough she passed out nearly immediately when we arrived at the hotel.

The next morning we ate at a great breakfast diner that was called The Little Grill, an employee owned co-op. It was great, very St. Peter to me with college kids and their parents ensconced in a small theater. We headed home after breakfast and took a faster, less pretty way although LJ and I still looked for horses along the way. 

That afternoon we met Sarah and Tony so Tony and Amos could play ping pong and we could eat pizza.

And we finished the afternoon at Poets and Prose, a little bookshop down the street. I bough Life After Life because I need to read it after I finish my current book.

The next day, President's Day, we went to The Lego Movie. Not nearly as good as Frozen as far as I'm concerned, and Louisa lost interest quickly which resulted in LJ and me walking up and down the stairs of the cinema for 45 minutes. By the time we got home, though, a magical present had arrived, Louisa's Valentine's Day gift from her mother. As we opened it, she couldn't contain herself as she realized what it was!

"Kermy! Oh Kermy!" she exclaimed. So now Kermy is her best buddy (although the Tara Blankie is still necessary for any sort of sleep or snuggling). That evening we cuddled in the big bed and Louisa spent an hour talking to Kermit, telling him to "get under the covies" or that "it's time to sleep!" He may be a bit of a distraction.