When the contract in Texas was up in February, Mike & I were headed for a week-long conference in West Virginia.  While we were there, my mom was going to keep the kids.  Because of our traveling, my parent's hadn't seen the kids in nearly 18 months, and weren't  very happy about that situation!  So, when we finished up in Texas, it was time to pack up the trailer again, and head east. 

My parent's moved to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia last fall.  So, they were in a new home, and a new neighborhood.  They invited us to park in their driveway, while Mike & I went to the conference in West Virginia, and to stay and visit a couple of weeks after...  

When we arrived, I pulled into the driveway in the van, looked at the driveway and the yard and said "There is NO WAY we are going to be able to get the RV in here!"  But, between Mike, my dad and my brother-in-law (and maybe some bacon grease and a shoe horn) they actually did manage to get us parked in my parent's driveway.  We take up the ENTIRE driveway, but there's lots of street parking available.  Good thing.

Mike & I went to our conference in West Virginia, while the kids stayed here with Grandma & Grandpa.  We ALL had a wonderful time.  Mike & I learned a lot, and the kids enjoyed spending time with their grandparents.  I left schoolwork for them to do, but came home to find that, although my mom had them DO their schoolwork, she hadn't bothered to look it over, or correct it.  Oh well! 

We find ourselves in another of those lulls in my specialty, and our couple of weeks has stretched into a couple of months.  I've been able to help my mom, by helping take care of my grandmother, who is now living with my parents.  Mike has been helping with a list of projects that needed to be done in the "new" house.  (Okay, new to them, it's an old farmhouse, which has LOTS of work, so we've been helping rip out carpet, clean up the yard, etc.  We know there will be another job, but the waiting gets to us after awhile.  Thank goodness we got our tax return back! 

One thing that has been fun, was we are close enough to visit some friend in North Carolina.  We drove down and spent a long weekend with them.  While we were there, we attended a Revolutionary War Reenactment, the Battle at Guilford Courthouse. 

Now, the guys in red are NOT British soldiers.  Apparently the musicians wore the opposite colors of the soldiers, so they could be found easily in the camp by the commanders, since they were the primary means of communication with the troops.

It was great fun, and the kids enjoyed walking through the camps after the battle was over, and visiting with the reenactors. 

Our friends have kids the same ages as each of ours, and the kids had a ball.  Hopefully we'll get to make another trip down to see them before we leave the area.  Right now, we are thinking about taking a "vacation" and going camping with the kids for a few days, maybe we'll be able to go camping near our friends, and get to visit with them again!.