James and Jane: Spring Break

James had spring break last week. Did we go to Cancun? No, we did not. In fact, if he would not have told me that he had spring break, I might not even have known because he was away studying/working as much as he usually is! He had a midterm to complete, as well as his comprehensive exams to study for (comprehensive meaning everything he's learned in the two year program). But, there was one day that was spring break.

A very generous classmate invited all of James's classmates to his parents' lake house in Richmond. Only a handful could make it. We are always happy to stay at someone's lake/beach/anywhere vacation-like house. It was very relaxing and nice, but we had two "incidents." I usually expect one "incident" when traveling with children so I was not surprised by the first, but very much surprised by #2.

We were driving to Richmond (about a 3 hour drive) on Sunday afternoon. We were most of the way there. Then we took a wrong turn and had a difficult time getting back on track. Once we got back on track, we promptly took another wrong turn. Several of these wrong turns were on toll roads. After finally entering the subdivision, we were frustrated to find that pretty much all of the streets were named the same thing with different endings (Place, Blvd, Court, etc), and google maps was not being very clear about the whole thing. We were all reaching the end of our ropes: Charlie had started fussing, Lucy was crying because she was hungry, the adults were frustrated with the directions. James had to keep turning around, and was not doing so very slowly. Finally, we pulled into the right street.... and Lucy threw up.... several times. I am infinitely grateful that a burp cloth was conveniently nearby and I caught most of it, but oh boy. After recovering and laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, we turned our attention once again to finding the house... only to find that we had pulled right up to it. That's right, Lucy got motion sick exactly at the moment we arrived. And that was "incident" #1.

The house was beautiful: decorated mostly by family heirlooms and the lake was right in the backyard. Later in the evening, we realized that four of the people who were there made up a four-part harmony so they put on a little impromptu concert for the rest of us (who are very talented at clapping).

Katherine and Lucy at the piano.

Then we went to bed. Lucy, Charlie and I were the first ones up of course, and we were surprised to wake up to snow. It was quite a sight-- we just laid in bed for a while and watched it come down. Lucy was very excited. Now here comes incident #2. After everyone woke up, we ate breakfast. Our hostess had made a delicious breakfast, which included grapefruit among other things. So, we're sitting at the table having great conversation. Lucy's eating toast. Then she starts rubbing her eyes. Then she starts getting whiny. Then she starts rubbing her eyes so bad that they're getting red. Then she demands to sit on my lap. Then her eyes get puffy and start breaking out in hives. After thinking about everything, a quick call to our pediatrician, and some Benadryl, we're guessing she's allergic to grapefruit-- so allergic that just the juice being in the air from them being cut triggered a reaction, since she didn't touch or eat any. Even after two doses of Benadryl, her eyes were still a little puffy for a good two days. Yikes!

After everything got a little less exciting, we decided to go on a walk. The snow had melted.

Unfortunately, it started sleeting/raining while we were walking, but it did not really matter. It was so nice to be outside and walking. Lucy was enthralled by the lake and the ducks.

Lucy really enjoyed riding their exercise bike. Here she is getting mad at me because I am taking a picture instead of helping her. Lucy had a great time with Ben's dad, Mr. Petty. Very soon after we arrived, he asked her if she wanted to walk down to the lake with him with a flashlight and look for little fish. Every time she saw him after that, she would ask, "Do you want to get your shoes?" It was very sweet.

This truly was the oddest weather day I have seen in a while. After it snowed, the snow melted, it sleet/rained, it snowed again, then the sun came out. So, the sailboat came out too.

We were watching Ben and Katherine on the boat from the shore, when Lucy turned to me trembling with excitement and asked if she could ride the boat. I was a bit surprised because she's usually a little scared of things like this, but her tears at my "maybe" and Ben's reassurance that of course, she could take a little spin added up to Lucy taking a ride on the boat.