Over this last week, Laura and I were able to get away for a toddler free vacation.  It was our first time leaving Brooke alone with someone else overnight, and she did really well with Oma.  We went to The Homestead, a nice resort in the Allegheny mountains of the western part of Virginia.  While we were there, not only did we relax and sleep for almost 12 hours the first night, but we also took advantage of all the outdoor activities they had.

The first day we went to the Jefferson Pools and soaked in them, caught afternoon tea, followed by some mini-golf, and then dinner at Canyon Ranch Cafe.  After a rejuvenating sleep, we went Skeet shooting, and for Laura’s first time she did quite well.  Afterwards we had a delicious lunch looking over the mountains and horseback riding.  It was so nice out we decided to take a 2 mile hike to our next destination which was archery.  I did pretty well and got them all in the center once.  We caught tea again with southern pimento sandwiches then decided to relax for the evening with an hour in the outdoor hot tub and heated pool.  This night we had dinner in the main dining room and got all dressed up to meet the dress code.  The third day we tried our hand at sport clays which were a lot of fun trying to shoot a target from the woods instead of seeing it from the tower.  Then we went on another hike and enjoyed the southern style porch while waiting on our second try at horseback riding.  I liked the slower pace of my second horse a little better than George from the first day.  Laura had booked us a treat that afternoon – we went to the Canyon Ranch Spa for time relaxing in their spa garden.  It was basically an outdoor pool, hot tub, sauna area, but also had rain showers and of course the natural hot springs that have been used since 1766.  Then we had a couples massage and enjoyed a relaxing dinner at Jefferson’s restaurant.  Our final day we checked out early and enjoyed a hike of the stream of hot springs that feeds the town of Hot Springs and Warm Springs before driving home to see our Brooke.

We had a wonderful time relaxing and Oma said Brooke was a perfect angel in our absence.  Oma was great and sent us no less than 6 pictures a day of what Brooke.  We regularly checked for photo updates between activities.  Oma didn’t mind us calling to see what Brooke was up to.  We even skyped with Brooke and she was so happy to see us.  By the 4th day, we were ready to leave and she was ready to have us home.  It was nice to take care of us for a short while, but it will be a long time before we leave our baby again, maybe when she is eight or ten years old.  It’s hard to leave a girl as wonderful as Brooke, but we are glad we had some fun alone time.

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