We traveled to Tucson to visit and celebrate Opa’s 70th birthday.  It was Alex’s first time in Arizona and Tucson.  While we were there we had a great time celebrating Opa’s 70th birthday with a walk, then lunch out at La Parilla Suiza where he got birthday margaritas and flan on the house, pool time with lots of fun splashing, and a dinner party with Christine and Jake.  The kids and I had a fun idea to use different numbers to make 70 since Opa loves science and math.  There were 12 different numbers that added to 70 on Opa’s birthday cake.  The next day we spent a day seeing old friends in the morning and then viewing Christine’s work and taking a tour of the UofA in the afternoon.  We hiked Sabino Canyon with Christine and Jake and Alex really enjoyed to cool mountain water that he jumped right in and had to ride home in a diaper.  That night we went to the UofA home game with Jackie and Derek who drove down from Phoenix to see us.  We hiked Douglas Spring Trail on our last day and bought some La Mesa Tortillas to take home with us, and saw a rainbow after bringing the Virginia rain with us to Tucson.

https://youtu.be/lAdhj7YiZsY

https://youtu.be/yZubGnCCEZg

We took time away to enjoy our family on a vacation in the mountains.  We took a stepping stone approach to get to our rental cabin and spent our first day at Water Country.  Everyone had a great time at the waterpark and after nap that day we had dinner at and walked around Colonial Williamsburg.  The next day we enjoyed lunch at Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall, a beautiful area with al fresco dining and boutique shops.  When we arrived at our cabin we didn’t waste anytime and got down to business- eating smores.  It was Alex’s first smore.  The next day we hiked 1.2 miles vertically up Crabtree Falls, had a picnic lunch, then hiked down.  Alex had to be carried most of the way because the trail was very steep with rock stairs but Brooke did amazing and would have gone farther if we could.  We cooled off that afternoon at Sherando Lake, swimming and running around.  The next day we took a ‘meadow trail’ so Alex could walk more around Upper Lake and the kids played at the campsite playground.  Then we had lunch at Sherando Lake and swam and splashed some more.  Brooke and I swam all the way to the island in the middle and AJ carried Alex to the island around the trail (and through a shallow bit of water) and we all walked around the island.  Everyone was very tired after our busy trip!

https://youtu.be/_5WOPx_jWt0

https://youtu.be/U84iJ45Ctrw

https://youtu.be/Hz7hMXpNXFw