Menascos Visit Shades in VA

Michelle says:  My parents drove down from DE last week to spend the weekend with us. They arrived at about 10PM on Wednesday night, brining Katie with them as a surprise. We unloaded the car, talked for a while, and went through some of the clothes and things my mom brought for Isabelle.

On Thursday morning, Drew went to school and I took the family to some of the parks in the neighborhood. We walked to Food Lion and got some things for the visitors, went home and made lunch, put Isabelle down for a nap, and relaxed.

When Isabelle woke up, we went to the Caboose Park (Hand in Hand Park) here in Blacksburg. It is really nice. There are three different play areas. One is made out of wood and was created and made by citizens of Blacksburg. The other two are modern parks, one for older kids and one for younger. We had fun playing in the leaves and taking pictures.

After the park, we went to Christiansburg to buy Isabelle some new shoes. We met Drew at Texas Roadhouse and had a great dinner! Isabelle was a ham and a flirt, as usual, and attracted many people. Afterwards, we walked the mall for a little bit, Drew and I bought VT sweatshirts, and then Katie, Drew, and I went to the movies while my parents took Isabelle home for bed. We saw Eagle Eye, which was good. My mom made Isabelle's Little Red Riding Hood costume while we were out and my dad kicked it on the couch.

On Friday we had planned to walk around VT campus and show my family Drew's office and some other neat things. It was raining, but we decided to go anyways. We walked around as much as we could until it started to rain harder, then we decided it was time to go home and get warm. Everyone - especially my dad - was dripping wet in the car.

We went home and put Isabelle to bed. Katie made cinnamon rolls for her Home Ec. course while we watched the newly released Indiana Jones movie. Afterwards, I made dinner for everyone and then mom and I went to the Relief Society annual craft night. I had been asked to teach the sisters how to make name plaques.
I had made one in my first married BYU ward. It was a long night and a lot of work to put everything together, but I had a lot of help from other sisters in getting the boards and the vinyl cut, then I had a sister help me with the activity all night, and my mom was also super woman and helped me and all the other sisters at just about all the different craft tables. We were there from about 5-10PM. It was a long night, but it was fun.

The next morning we got up and went to the pumpkin patch at Sinkland Farms. There was a petting zoo, some pumpkins, a toddler maze, and tractors to climb on. Isabelle liked feeding the goats.

The bigger pumpkins were $7 and up, so grandma and grandpa bought Isabelle a small pumpkin for $1. She liked giving it kisses.

We all took pictures on the tractor. You can tell it was cold that day!

After going home for lunch and Isabelle's nap, we went out to Jefferson National Forest. It is about 6 miles up the road from us and is beautiful! There is a pond with a path that goes around it, with bridges and things in various places. There were also about 4 families of ducks with little ducklings that would walk right up to you and eat out of your hand. They followed us when we were done feeding them.

At the end of a busy day, we came home to nice home-made rolls, calzones, and maple bars - I learned how to make all these things at the RS cooking group and wanted to make them with my mom when she was here. We had a good time and all the baking was great!

On Sunday morning, Drew, Isabelle, and I went to Stake Conference about 20 minutes up the road and my family headed back to DE to get back to school and work by Monday. We were very glad that they were able to come visit! We had such a good time together and can't wait to see them for Thanksgiving! I know Isabelle will especially be excited to get 110% undivided attention again!