.:A weekend in the Mountaineer State:.

A few weeks ago Brent and I decided that we would go and visit my grandparents Labor Day weekend so off we went this past Friday! We left around 9am Friday morning. It takes about 6 1/2 - 7 hours to get there. It's a pretty long trip but we made a few stops to break it up and plus we needed to get Rowen out of his seat so that he could stretch. He did so good on the road. Row played, listened while I read him stories, watched a cartoon or 2, and even took both of his naps! He was a happy boy the whole way!

  My grandparents live in a small town called Ripley. It's about 30 or so minutes north of Charleston. I like visiting them because it's what you think of when you think .small town. Houses on lots of acres, a city square, small local businesses, a small handful of restaurants, etc...It's a nice breath of fresh air. We arrived around 6pm and this is the view at the top of a hill on the road they live on. 

Isn't it so pretty? This is Holmes' land not my grandparents but it's what you see when going down the hill to get to my grandparents house. 

My grandparents live on 5 acres in the country and have tons of fruit trees, a rose garden, and a vegetable garden, and lots of other plants and flowers. They are quite the gardeners! We sat down to dinner shortly after arriving and had homemade chicken & dumplings...yum! Rowen crawled around and most of dinner he starred out the glass doors in the dining room at the stray cat that had just recently made my grandparents land its home and the hummingbirds that were enjoying their dinner as well. 

Prior to dinner, Papa took Rowen and Brent on a little gator ride around the yard...he was actually putting the gator up but took a detour through the yard so Rowen could have a ride. I think he liked it :)

After Rowen ate, I put him to bed in a brand new crib Granny and Papa bought just for him! He fell asleep instantly. Poor little guy was exhausted from the long drive. I joined everyone else in the tv room to watch the rest of the TN game and the Boise St/Michigan St game. I love relaxing in their tv room while watching football. I helped myself to a huge bowl of ice cream and Brent had some too. The games didn't end till 11:00pm-11:30pm and we hit the sack right after they ended....To Be Continued...