family road trip to virginia part 1 {charlottesville} {a film!}

we made a little (ha, or not so little!) video of our family road trip to charlottesville, virginia from a few weeks ago. it's a little longer than our previous videos, so hopefully you aren't bored out of your minds. ;) it was so hard to edit our footage from four days! and actually we are planning to make a part 2 video of our sunday afternoon with j's family in roanoke. this was definitely a labor of love, and i adore having these little moments with my family captured on film. i'm pretty sure the kids are the stars of the show, as always. j's not too bad in those red sunglasses either. :)

hope you enjoy!

wilder's first (disposable) camera

for our charlottesville trip, wilder's aunt (tatie jamie) gave him a disposable camera to take his very own photos! it was such a sweet and thoughtful gift, and i think i was even more excited for him if that's possible. i don't know if he completely grasps the camera thing, although he does recognize that i am always taking photos because the other day he saw a character in one of his books holding a camera and he said it was mommy (ha!). i think it's so weird that kids these days will not really grow up with film and the whole having to take their roll of film to get it developed and not knowing what they will get back for like a whole week!

it's also weird to me to think that when j and i started dating (9 years ago last month!), we were still using film! i actually remember saying that i wouldn't ever go over to digital (ha! never say never!). photography is actually one of the things that we bonded over first, so it is a near and dear thing to our combined hearts. and even though i have only dabbled in photography over the last 10 years or so, i love it so much, so it was fun to see my little boy loving it too. but because all my cameras are digital now, it's a very different process to point and click at something and then not see your results right away. but i think he did a great job for his first try! most of the photos were not terribly exciting (or well lit) but i really love this one below of me, evie and j. and it's still thrilling to go pick up your photos weeks later. ;)

saturday morning at greenleaf park {charlottesville}

on saturday we had planned to go up to Carter Mountain to do an easter egg hunt with the kids, but reading about it the night before we found out that neither of the kids were old enough to participate. it actually was probably a good thing we changed our plans, because it allowed us to have a slower saturday after friday's outing-packed day. we still managed to do a lot though! we started out with breakfast at la taza in belmont. it's funny because since j grew up in charlottesville we did very little research and planning for our trip, other than picking a hotel (the graduate hotels are amazing! an absolute must if you are traveling there.). however, when we got there we realized that a lot has changed in charlottesville since j has lived there (almost 15 years!) and that some of the places have gotten super cool and interesting, like belmont. it is such a cute little area that we will have to go back and explore more one day. anyways, breakfast at la taza was really cute. right next door there is a fun little i love charlottesville a lot sign that we had to grab a family photo in front of.

after breakfast, j drove us around a little and we ended up at a park. the trees were out of control and everything was in full bloom. everywhere we went the beauty was nonstop in your face. i basically wanted to stay there forever.

a bunch of families were at the park and it was obvious that they had just had an egg hunt because there were still leftover (emptied) eggs on the ground that evie found. good thing she doesn't really know what they are for. wilder learned how to say "happy easter" and said it to everyone we met, which was funny since he also does not really know what that means and didn't get to hunt for any eggs this year, haha. next year! although really, both these kids had a lot more sugar on this trip than usual, so i don't think they missed out on anything.

a little boy kept coming up and aggressively talking nonsense in her face and i think this was her going into her shell face. such a sweetie.

jefferson vineyard

the last thing that we did in charlottesville sunday morning before driving to roanoke to visit j's grandparents (and some aunts, uncles, cousins), was stop at jefferson vineyards. we weren't even sure if it would be open, but luckily we got there almost at the same time that they opened. the grounds were beautiful and we would have liked to explore more, but not enough sleep at night for the kiddos coupled with the craziness of getting packed up and checked out of our hotel that morning made for a shorter visit than anticipated. so i just wanted to make sure and add that although i am gushing about this trip and even though the photos maybe make it seem like it was all blissful, trust me, it was a normal family trip. and by normal i mean there were plenty of breakdowns and angry faces sprinkled in with all the good times. ;) like that last photo of wilder with a tear in his eye because he just had had enough with all the picture taking. haha! poor guy. also, we bought two bottles of wine here and then when we were unpacking the car monday night back home in atlanta, i broke one of the bottles + a coffee cup we had bought as a souvenir. so no, it is not all perfection in our life. in case you were wondering. ;)

but part of me believes it would be if we lived in charlottesville. ;) jk!

afternoon on the UVA lawn

i think i mentioned that traveling with little kids is not exactly easy? but if we were able to just let them run free, sleep and eat wherever/whenever/however they wanted, it would be a breeze! the highlights of their trip were definitely the moments when we let them just run around and be kids. part of me felt really bad whenever we had to put them in the stroller or back in the car to get somewhere, because just look at their faces in these pics! they were so happy running around on the UVA grounds on friday afternoon after evie's nap. i wished we could just spend our whole trip right there, watching them glow:). this is basically evie's idea of heaven — freedom to roam, grass between her toes, and spring sunshine. but then i guess we probably all feel that way, huh? at one point evie just sat down in the grass and went into a little zone. it was so cute. i just love her at this age so, so, so much. and wilder is the biggest sweetheart right now. so inquisitive and learning so quickly and always coming up with something crazy and hilarious to talk about! i honestly can't keep up with him, and i adore his energy so much.

like everywhere we went, our time here was too short. we didn't do much besides see edgar allen poe's old dorm (which is kept behind glass, so cool and strange, right?) and run around a little on the lawn. then we got back in the stroller and went to dinner on the downtown mall. i didn't get any photos of that (mealtimes with kids is where the crazy really is, amiright?!), but we have lots of video footage that we will hopefully make into a little movie soon.

monticello!

we are back from our road trip to charlottesville, va! our first big family (of four) trip! and i have a newfound respect for everyone who travels with children and even more so for people who take photos + video of their travels with children. it is not an easy feat! we are still figuring it out. and while it was definitely a little crazy and the trip felt way too short for all that this area has to offer, i know that this is one of those trips that we will cherish in our memories. i can't tell you how much i fell more in love with my kids and our family on this trip. and even though having a baby sleep in the bathroom (in a travel crib) is not ideal, i think i could totally get used to living in one room as a family all together. it's so much fun! haha, of course it's also fun not having to prepare any meals in that room!;)

the kids were phenomenal on this trip, over all. for the amount of time we had them sitting in carseats alone, they deserve gold stars, and then they hardly even complained about it! which was like hallelujah! all that time spent driving to/around atlanta from the suburbs has paid off;) on the way up, we broke the drive up into two trips. wednesday night we drove up to charlotte, nc and stayed with j's sister and her family, which is always so much fun for all of us. wilder especially loves getting to see grandma, grandpa and his cousin beau who is only five days older than evie! tonight at bedtime i was telling him that grandma and grandpa were going to come stay in evie's room next weekend and then he asked where were great-grandma and great-granddaddy (who we visited in roanoke, va on sunday) going to sleep? i think he is like me and would prefer if all his family could just live all together in one big house! the highlight of his trip was definitely being around family. :)

on thursday we drove to charlottesville, got settled into our hotel and visited with one of j's childhood friends and had the best coffee of our trip at shenandoah coffee, which looked like nothing special on the outside but was really the best we had while we were there. then on friday morning, we drove out to see thomas jefferson's house, monticello. i was a little regretful at the time that i had done the tour of his house. haha! is that crazy or what? because now i'm definitely glad that i did. but at the time i felt so rushed and was worried that i hadn't really had time to take in the sites or enjoy playing with the kids there. the tour is forty minutes long, so evie and i went on the tour while j and wilder played on the grounds. i took a few photos of the grounds afterwards (no photos allowed inside and i'm not enough of a rebel to sneak some shots;), and then it was time to grab a quick lunch at michie's tavern (another cool—but overpriced—must-do there!) before we had to make it back for evie's nap. i was really strict about nap time because evie was already getting a lot less sleep than usual, and i felt so bad for her. so when we had to rush back after the tour, i was a little disappointed. now though i'm glad i did it. his house is so cool! and he was (obviously) such an amazing, interesting person. i highly, highly recommend visiting monticello and charlottesville in general. we had so much fun. (a lot of craziness and crabbiness ensued, too, don't you worry;). but overall, it was a really good trip.

quick photo before heading into our tour

looking at the picture he colored with papa

this girl is so spunky! i can't even handle it. i love her so much!

see?!

my sweetheart.

view of the dome at UVA

activities with papa

my cool dude.

she badly wanted to get into that dirt!

when i put her in this sling, she gets instantly calm and quiet. it's amazing!

running away, haha!