Newport News

After getting in town from Chicago last Thursday, we headed that night to Salem to see the Elmo Show (for our 3rd year in a row). Although the kids had a blast (Ethan obviously was at a much better age this year than last), I'd say the show itself was the worst of the last 3 years because the stage layout was different and the characters didn't come into the audience nearly as much. This was just fine with Ethan since he's afraid, but Blythe desperately wanted to hug them all (she did get to hug Telly Monster). Anyway, we all had a good time and the kids were exhausted afterwards.

On Friday we packed up and headed East. Clear across the state of Virginia over to Newport News (just a bit further than Williamsburg) to visit Ethan's godparents Tommy and Angie who just recently moved to a new house there. The house was beautiful and the kids loved playing with their dogs, a golden retriever named Goldie, and a chocolate lab mix that looked like a smaller version of our dog Juni. Doesn't matter what her real name is because our kids named her "mini Juni" for the weekend. Unfortunately the weather called for rain all day on Saturday (here in Blacksburg we missed the snow all day Saturday), so we were limited on our activities for the day. We decided to head to Virginia Beach to go to the Virginia Aquarium. Ethan LOVES aquariums and this one was no exception. Here he is in front of the seahorse exhibit.

Blythe loved it too because there were lots of big sea turtles (Marvin, Marvin's sister, Marvin's uncle, etc).

There is no Kohl's in our area, so after a trip to Kohl's in Newport News for some much needed Christmas shopping on Sunday, we packed up and headed home. Thanks to Tommy and Angie for a great weekend away!