Northern Virginia - Part One

Before I begin our journey to Virginia, I do want to acknowledge that while we absolutely love this lifestyle and are so extremely happy to be living it, we also miss out on things happening with family and friends. So, along the way, I'll talk about the people we miss and the life happenings that we miss. It's no different than moving far away and not being able to go back for these events.

Below are photos of our daughter and her family. We FaceTime with them as often as possible. We are looking forward to being with them for an entire month in December! As you can see, Parker is in all of them.... she just might run the household right now!

My friend Heather and her wife Kim were happily pregnant when I saw them last. They have recently had a beautiful baby boy!! He is a very lucky little man, to have such caring and loving parents. They are two of the most capable and loving people I know. We look forward to seeing him in person, in January!

On an overcast gray Monday morning, we packed up and moved our home to Luray, Virginia. What a wonderful lifestyle, to just move your home to a new location! We have a campsite at a campground that is surrounded by the Shenandoah River on two sides. The city of Luray itself sits in the Shenandoah Valley and is surrounded by the Shenandoah National Park on one side and the George Washington National Forest on the other. A beautiful setting!!

Our campsite at our campground.

Sunset in the mountains.

Tom fishing in the Shenandoah River at our campground.

He caught a fish early on... It's a Blue Gill, also known as a Rainbow fish.

Karis lives only 2 hours away so she came over one Saturday and spent the night here. She loves camping with us and is very flexible to living in a 5th wheel with us! It's so fun to see her more often while we live so close to her. We didn't do much. We ate lunch outside, went into Luray for ice cream and silly pictures. Then we went treasure hunting as Karis calls it. We went to a couple Flea Markets as they are called around here. 

This area needs rain and now it is certainly raining around here. But on clear days, we get out and see some of the beautiful areas around here. Here is a drive we took on the Skyline Parkway in  Shenandoah National Park. It had rained for a good 24 hours and must have gotten cold in the mountains because we came across snow! Our first snow of the season! And more beautiful sights.

That is the town of Luray, Virginia in the Valley.

And back at our campsite, the beautiful surroundings that we wake up to every day!

Check out that moon!

We are missing Halloween but we have some pictures!! Karis makes Parker's outfit every year and is so talented! Parker loves watching her brother Drew play baseball so Karis made her a baseball uniform worn by the City of Rockford - Peaches. It even has Drew's number on the back. Karis sewed it from scratch and also made the badges for the uniform and the hat!

And here are all three of our grand kids! 

And Karis had a costume party at work with the theme of the 1960's. She found a blue suit at a thrift store and altered it .... shortened the sleeves, took off a collar and added a collar etc. Then she bought fabric and made her hat and .... poof! She was a PanAm Airline Stewardess (as they used to say).

And..... Karis won First Place for her 60's costume at the Newseum!!! 

Some days we drive the short 8 miles to Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park. What a beautiful front yard! One day we hiked to Dark Hollow Falls.... I'll admit, it was a bit challenging. It was all downhill to the falls.... and then all uphill and I do mean UPHILL!! The falls themselves were not very exciting but the hike was beautiful! 

 The Shenandoah National Park has 75 places to pull over and look at the spectacular views!

On a beautiful Friday in November, we drove 1 hour and met Karis in Warrenton, Virginia. We shopped for fabric since Karis is making 2 tree skirts; one for Sasha and one for herself. We ate lunch in Warrenton at an old train depot in the old town area of Warrenton. We were excited to see lots of New England style homes and a quaint little shopping area. Then, we drove to Gainsville, Virginia and shopped at Wegman's... the largest grocery store ever!!! It's been so nice to live so close to Karis, for a change.

This is such a beautiful area. Sometimes I wonder if the people who live here or grew up here, know what they have. I grew up in Tacoma Washington and I know how beautiful that area is. I also know many of the people who have lived there all their lives, do not ever go to the ocean or to the mountains. They don't ski or hike or fish etc. They just live there. I wonder if that's the way it is with the people in this area. Do they go into the National Park and hike, bike, picnic or take pictures?

We feel lucky to have experienced a beautiful fall in the mountains of West Virginia in October. Lot's of beautiful colors and leaves falling. And then we moved to Luray, Virginia and we experience fall all over again. They say this year, the colors were not as brilliant as usual because they didn't have rain at the right time. But, it was still so beautiful!

And now, on to our next adventure!