Family Farm

For our last full day of West Virginia family vacation, we had a nice chill morning and early afternoon at home.

We had some time out on the porch in the chilly quiet morning, and then as a team we made pancakes, bacon and eggs for breakfast.

There was just lots of lounging around time, playing with toys, phones & tablets, and resting together between breakfast and lunch. We did start cleaning up and packing up, and even did a load of laundry, so we’re only going home with a small amount of dirty clothes. We scrounged up a hodge podge of leftovers and things for lunch, and then Jeff and I took a nap after also getting the girls down for a nap.

We finally got everyone dressed and ready for the day around 3pm, and headed around the other side of the mountain to another family member’s house, for another big family dinner.

As you can see, they have an absolutely gorgeous property, with a barn out in the distance (with chickens, chicks, rabbits, beagles & bees) next to the vegetable garden, a little pond up near the house, and some fruit trees all around. The girls loved adventuring around there today, and really opened up to all the new people they’ve met this week.

Uncle John even taught Emerson how to drive the 4-wheeler!!! (Going super slowly of course, and helping her out when they were near anything or anyone.)

Both girls got to pet the baby bunnies, and we also got to see one that was literally just born this afternoon. Then, the girls got to pick up the eggs that the hens had laid!

And of course Emmie talked Uncle Randy into another 4-wheeler ride as well, and they checked out alllll the things around the farm together.

Emerson picked me this adorable tiny piece of lavender that smelled so nice, and also matched my nails. 💜

And finally on our last night, we remembered to get a picture of Nana Nita and her siblings. Far left is Uncle Alfred (who has been gracious enough to host the 8 extra people in his house this week), then Aunt Elaine, Nita (my MIL) and Aunt Becky (whose farm this is tonight).

Out of all these pictures from tonight so far, I can’t believe this is the first one with their dog, Lily, because Emerson was with her practically every minute we were there! The two of them were running WILD through the fields together, with emmie just squealing with laughter the whole time. Lily even knocked her down one time, and Emmie just laughed so hard and loved it so much.

On the way back home tonight, we had to stop in the middle of the road just to see these cows up close, since they were way up there right by the fence. The girls both unbuckled and stuck their heads out the window and mooooo-ed at them, and one cow moo-ed back at them!

When we got back home, we started furiously packing up all the bags, and loading as much as we could into the two vehicles, to get ready to head out at 8am tomorrow morning. During all of that, the baby sister just needed some snuggles from one of her big brothers.

And while we were busy taking multiple loads of stuff out to the cars, the Lord blessed our last night here with this gorgeous, full, vibrant double rainbow right over the top of us! And obviously this cell phone photo doesn’t fully do it justice. But this was literally the most vibrant rainbow, and it felt so close to us. I just sat and watched it fade away for about 30 minutes.

Tomorrow, we start the long drive back home to Tally. It’s over 600 miles to home though, which clocks about 11 hours of driving. But for us, with all the meals and potty breaks and stops and stuff, that can easily stretch out into 15-ish hours. So we’re actually splitting the drive home into two days, and staying in a hotel Friday night. We also still have one more surprise planned for the girls for Saturday!

We’ve truly had a great time in West Virginia on family “bay-cation” as Addie says, but we’re also looking forward to getting back to our own home, and our own beds, and seeing the family we miss back home, and starting the rest of the summer!