we loaded up the car and headed to NOVA this past weekend.\u00a0 we stayed for three nights with the mcconnells and visited with them and will’s sister’s family.\u00a0 we had three fun filled days full of great food, playing with the niece and nephew, and hanging out with some great friends!<\/p>\n
thursday night we finally got on the road out of wake forest around 7:50PM.\u00a0 we stopped to get gas and then headed up route 1 to 85 and made our way to 95, all the while making pretty excellent time.\u00a0 we did not really hit a snag until we screeched to a hault on 495 before the 66 interchange.\u00a0 seems they decided it would be a great idea to close the formerly 6 lane route down to 1 lane at nights.\u00a0 texted melanie and she confirmed we were in for a long stretch of stop and go, and that we had best avoid 66 for the exact same reason.\u00a0 will and i made our way off 495 at the next viable exit and were headed to fairfax via 236 LRT, when we had to make a quick change and head to annandale – WHY? – well, you see they decided they would also close the exit ramp off 495 to Fairfax via LRT, so we had to get off in the wrong direction and find some place to make a U-turn.\u00a0 What a mess?\u00a0 will and i just kept reminding ourselves why we moved away from all of this wonderfulness!\u00a0 we finally made it to centerville around 1am.<\/p>\n
melanie and nick greeted us with open arms and hot lasagna!\u00a0 delish!\u00a0 i could not believed they stayed up until we got there!\u00a0 i forced them to stay up even longer to listen to our traffic woes and then we all finally went to bed around 2am.\u00a0 you know me, i never sleep in a bed that is not my own, so i stayed up\u00a0 counting the hours till time to head to work.\u00a0 will went to spend friday with his sister and meridith while i worked at the office.\u00a0 all of the ops people headed to lunch at cee’s thai in fairfax, so we had a good ole time yapping it up before it was time to get back to the grind.\u00a0 work was good and after everything was wrapped up we headed out for some dinner at a steakhouse later.<\/p>\n
nick tried to convince us all that the restaurant we were at (Texas Roadhouse)\u00a0was the place where you sat on a saddle and got a huge “YEEEHAAWWW” for your birthday.\u00a0 unfortunately, we could not get anyone to saddle up and claim it was their birthday for the evening.\u00a0 on the way out the door we all got a good look at the saddle by the meat counter.\u00a0\u00a0 perhaps if we had consumed a frosty beverage we could have pulled it off!\u00a0 after dinner we headed to the movies.\u00a0 “the hangover” was playing at the $4 theatre and mel and nick were flabbergasted when they found out that will and i had not seen the movie before, so we made it to the theatre in time to laugh our butts off!\u00a0 (if you have not seen it, add it to your queue.)<\/p>\n
saturday morning we got up bright and early to make it over to the witwer’s in time for the kid’s soccer and baseball games.\u00a0 sadly, it started to rain just as we made it to the fields.\u00a0 the boys hung out at ethan’s baseball game while the girls drove across town to reston to watch meri kick around the soccer ball.\u00a0 after about 20 minutes out in the rain meri decided that this was not all it was cracked up to be and we headed back to herndon to meet up with the boys.\u00a0 apparently the rain was following the girls around town and after about 30 minutes of watching ethan’s team play ball this game was rained out.\u00a0 we all re-grouped and got the kids changed so we could run out to lunch.\u00a0 will and i voted for taste of saigon and lynne agreed that\u00a0would be delicious!\u00a0 beef in grape leaves, imperial rolls, and two orders of black pepper seafood really hit the spot!\u00a0 yummay!\u00a0 after lunch we headed out for some bowling.\u00a0 the kids really showed off their skills and we all ended up with pretty similar scores…\u00a0 meri decided that aunt anne and uncle will should really be “horsies” and should trot her on their laps between every bowl.\u00a0 by about round 5 our legs were wobbly like jello.\u00a0 after dashing through the rain, back out to the car we realized that will’s cell phone was mia.\u00a0\u00a0i called the number and we found that the phone was laying on the back bumper of the car the entire time we were bowling, while it was raining cats and dogs.\u00a0 luckily, by sunday night, his phone had dried out and was working again!\u00a0 (thank goodness considering it is the 4th phone of this model he has had since last year!)\u00a0 after bowling we headed back to lynne’s house for meri to open her belated birthday present.\u00a0 she opened the box and exclaimed “how did you know i love blue!?!?!”\u00a0 too cute!\u00a0 she was in love with her tiny treasure trove and proceeded to try everything in the box on and do some modeling for us.\u00a0 very reminiscent of lori.\u00a0 after the prizes we hit the trails to meet up with nick and mel for dinner reservations.<\/p>\n
after we got out of our waterlogged attire and redressed for dinner we headed to the melting pot in arlington.\u00a0 a fun fondue time was had by all as we tempted ourselves with the alpine big night out.\u00a0 dinner was full of cheesy, oooey, goooey, goodness!\u00a0 after dinner we met up with jason (baby BARE) over at artie’s in fairfax.\u00a0 he showed off his new car (after my insistance) and we all chatted to catch up.\u00a0 some people came in saying they had been across the street and it was a real “cougar den” at renee’s.\u00a0 melanie and jason were brave enough to go in and check it out, but after they found out there was a $10 cover charge, they made the next “legal u-turn” and we headed home.<\/p>\n
sunday morning we were exhausted and hit\u00a0snooze on the\u00a0proverbial alarm clock about 400 times!\u00a0 once we finally drug ourselves out of bed melanie treated us to a yummy breakfast in centerville.\u00a0 we all enjoyed waffles and pancakes with our cappuccinos that really hit the spot!\u00a0 once we made it back to melanie’s we loaded up the car, said our goodbye’s and scampered down the road as fast as we could so we could make it back to the boarding facility to pick up the sisters.\u00a0 we made it back just in time, with about 5 minutes to spare.<\/p>\n
now if we could just take a nap, we’d be good to go again soon!<\/p>\n\n\t\t