Again, it has been so long since I blogged and I am so behind, but I had to put the blog aside in order to focus on Christmas and everything that comes along with it. I am ready to get caught up as fast as possible in order to start the new year mostly caught up!
So, back to our Thanksgiving trip in Lexington, VA....
Friday after Thanksgiving Day, we wanted to do a family hike in order to see the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Brad and Elizabeth did research and had picked out a nice, easy 5 mile loop hike, but unfortunately Annie woke up at 4 am the night before and had a party in our bed until 7 am. I am not sure why this happens from time to time with Annie, but every once in a while, she will wake up and not want to go back to sleep for several hours. We play and eat in order to pass the time until she is sleepy again. This particular morning, I guess she was hungry so she ate goldfish and Fig Newtons in our bed and was a super, silly monkey! Needless to say, the 3 of us were exhausted and ended up sleeping until 10 once Annie finally went back to sleep. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to do such a long hike at that point because we had the Christmas parade and Tree Lighting to attend in Lexington that night. So, we found an abbreviated hike that was just okay. The sky was grey and the scenery on the actual hike was not great. We did manage to take a few good pictures and even some that ended up on our Christmas cards!
The hike started off by crossing the river on this very shaky, suspension bridge.
Annie mostly enjoyed being in the back pack carrier on Brad's back!
Not our best picture, but better than some of the other choices! :)
Along the way, Annie wanted to hold a hiking stick just like some of us were! She is so observant and cute! After the hike, we walked down to the edge of the river and took these pictures that I LOVE!
Annie posed just like this all on her own! How adorable is she?!
Annie loves her boots and is so proud of them! She also loves the vest that she is wearing that Grandmommy bought! She knows that I have a vest and boots, and she loves that we match if we are ever both wearing our boots and vests on the same day! Sweet baby girl!
After the hike, Mom and Dad went antiquing and the kids rode home all together. We noticed this gorgeous spot over looking the Virginia Equestrian Center along our drive home so we pulled over on the side of the road, used the van as our tripod, and took lots of pictures!
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| Front of our Christmas card! |
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| Part of their Christmas card! |
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| Love this group shot - part of Mom's Christmas card! |
I love this one of Emily!
The outtakes on this shoot had me cracking up so I wanted to include a few just for fun!
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| Annie makes this open mouth, excited face all the time when she is excited. Now we know just where she learned it :) |
Whose having fun?!
Too funny!!
After our hike and pictures, we all met at the top of Main Street for the Lexington Christmas parade and Lighting of the Tree. It was so much fun and such a wonderful experience in the beautiful, quaint, small town. Mom and Dad were there too, but just not in this picture!
Santa and Mrs. Clause were there too in a horse drawn carriage!
Annie was not a fan :(
It was a huge crowd!
The entire crowd walked down Main Street behind Santa and Mrs. Clause in their carriage and sang Christmas carols! It was amazing!
We ended up at the local park just off of Main Street for the Lighting of the Christmas tree!
All of us!
Annie loved the battery operated candles!
We had such a fun night and it was a magical start to the Christmas season!
