Tabitha's 8th Birthday Party

Paris-themed, held at Wine and Design. Benji surprised us by loving the painting part (and doing a good job on the painting!):

Tabitha greeting Benji

Paris treats

Benji and Tabitha

Cub Scout Campout and Muse Paintbar

The weekend before our trip, Kevin and Benji headed to Lake Sherando for a Cub Scout campout. They ended up coming home because of a thunderstorm, but had fun at the campfire first:

During the campout, Abby and I tried out Muse Paintbar, a Wine and Design-type place, but without the pre-sketched canvasses:

We were pretty happy with how our paintings turned out and would definitely do it again.

Old Neighbors

Our next door neighbor from Falls Church was down in Charlottesville teaching a Latin Methods course at UVA. We arranged to meet her for dinner one night, and her husband came along as a surprise. It was a great night catching up at the rooftop restaurant at Heirloom (although the service was very slow and Jim still had to drive home to Falls Church afterwards):

Happy 42nd Birthday, Kevin!

Benji wanted to dress up. Abby chose this outfit, which I loved, but he eventually discarded

Ben and Jerry's cake

Heat Winner (at last!)

Benji really wanted to win a heat at a swim meet this year. We thought the chance had past after his last freestyle race, but he had an amazing last backstroke (shaving 4 seconds off his time) and took the ribbon handily:

Our Jules-cation

For Abby's birthday, we picked Julia up from JMU when her volleyball camp ended (coincidentally on Abby's birthday). She had a fun long weekend here (arriving Thursday  night and leaving Tuesday morning) and we packed in lots of stuff:

She kindly played many games of chess with Benji

On Friday night, our friends the Cohens also arrived from Arlington, so we had a double guest weekend:

At Onesty Pool. Abby and Ella were trying to teach Jules to dive

Arch's, by the Cohen's request

Despicable Me 3

We spent the last night at Massanutten, taking advantage of their 5-10pm twilight hours:

Abby and Jules at the top of the slide

The second time, Kevin went too

Benji really liked the wave pool

All worn out at the end of the night

Great American Road Trip Wrap-Up

On Saturday night, we stayed in Quincy, just up the road from Hingham, in a brand new Howard Johnson that was designed to look like it was from the 1960s. We took a picture in the giant chair to memorialize the visit:

When we got up on Sunday morning, we drove back to New York, arriving in the early afternoon. Grandma made a special (early) birthday dinner for Kevin and Abby and we had cake:

I jokingly told the boys that only people over 10 could have cake, so they quickly grouped up and announced that they were 31 years total:

There were some presents and some wiffle ball in the backyard, followed by an early-ish bedtime to get ready for Monday:

Abby trying on her new skirt from Grandma

We had intended to leave first thing Monday morning, but found out that Benji's friend Ruth was unexpectedly visiting NY from Australia. Benji has missed her terribly since her family moved to Melbourne, so we made plans to meet them in Riverside park Monday morning:

While the kids played, Kevin and I were able to catch up with Marla, which was also fun for us. We even took a selfie:

We finally made it home Monday night, looking forward to two and a half weeks in our own beds. I'll post pictures from those two weeks while we're on vacation #2 this week!