DC and Charlottesville fun!

We had a lot of fun on our trip with other activities before and after the wedding events!  

Swimming in the hotel pool was super fun.  Clare had gotten a new swim suit for her b-day in preparation for the trip. She had totally outgrown her summer swim suits. She is so long and tall!

We had a great lunch one day by the hotel at a place called Silver Diner. Best milkshake ever!


We had a wonderful trip down to charlottesville to see Scott/Abbey's house and Duane's farm. The farm was amazing. 65 acres of beautiful with several barns, a gorgeous house...words fail me.

Clare had been up all night barfing but was mostly better (although needing lots of rest) when we drove down to Charlottesville. She was ready to collapse she was so tired but didn't want to miss anything so she stayed with us. Poor thing.

Scott and Fox! haha

My hat. Everyone was making fun of my hat...that is until Pete asked where I got it and I said I got it from Mom who might have used it to keep her head warm while going through chemo.  No more joking about the ugly hat!! It was so cold at night ugly or not I had to wear it!

Pete and Jessica were feeling great by now -- glad they could come down and see Charlottesville. Look how cute and petite Jessica and Abbey are....

We went back to the farm the next day and by then Clare was all better and able to enjoy the farm to the max! Plus we had more daylight hours to really enjoy everything outside.

Kari and Clare are sitting on the front porch of the "guest house" at the farm. It is a log cabin originally built by slaves but restored to modern living with a kitchen, hot/cool air and indoor plumbing.

Lance and Clare put on some boots and tromped around in the rain and mud. It was fun. I borrowed these hunter boots from inside the house. They were amazing. If I ever live someplace cold and wet I will have a pair of these! :)

Clare tried on my boots.

Falconeering (not sure if that is the correct term)  is a hobby that requires much patience.

 cute dog Falcon

"the pond"

 cute bird house

 bunnies (aka hawk food)

Scotts house was amazing.  Beautiful, big, open, clean, wonderful! So happy for Scott and Abbey!

Scott's backyard is woods. So pretty

Front door is pretty too. Basically everything is pretty in Charlottesville! It is a great place!

We went to see UVA campus while we were in town. Such a beautiful campus! It is always fun to see the college campus' when traveling!

It was such a great trip minus the barfing and minus the person who rear ended Scott/Denise/Clare/Lance coming home from the night before wedding dinner. We were stopped behind a bus and the car behind us didn't stop and slammed into us pretty hard. Her car was totally wrecked. Luckily Scott's SUV body was pretty much fine as were all 4 of us. I am not sure what frame damage there ended up being. After we were hit and assesed what was going on Lance said, "if I had the power to put people in hell, I would put that lady there."  where does he come up with this stuff?

It was such a special treat to be away with just clare. She is such a special girl. We had no stress of siblings, piano, cleaning house, cooking, chores or anything while we were away. So wonderful! Special thanks to Dave for watching the other 3 while we were gone!