Family Visit

I mentioned a while back that my family came to visit me in Richmond (their first visit was in October, not the visit last week for the marathon). I finally have all the pictures from that weekend, so here's my really delayed blog post. :)

It's always fun to have people visit because I get to go do all the touristy things that I never do since I live there. Funny how when you visit a place, you see and do so much, but when you actually live there, you just do everyday stuff and never really explore. I want to be better at actually planning some sight-seeing trips on random weekends. I want to take advantage of opportunities around me!

Colonial Williamsburg
The first day my parents were here, we went to Colonial Williamsburg. We saw the Governor's Mansion, along with many other old historical houses.

 We got to take some pictures in the stocks, seems to be a favorite picture spot at these places.

This last one was really uncomfortable. You had to sit on a thin metal bar; my butt started hurting after a few minutes while my mom was taking the picture. I can't imagine sitting there for hours!

Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens
The next day my mom and I went to the Botanical Gardens while my dad and Bud went to the park to play frisbee golf. At the Botanical Garden it was the last day of their international butterfly exhibit. There were so many beautifully colored butterflies there; it was really cool! Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of the real butterflies, but we did get some of these pics:

We had fun walking around looking at the gardens and other exhibits. They were setting up for three weddings that day, so it was a little strange to be there while all this wedding set-up was happening. It was a beautiful day, so I'm sure all the brides that evening were pleased with the weather!

Monticello
On our last day together, we went to Carter Mountain to pick apples (that's why I posted all those apple recipes in October!) and visited Monticello. It was interesting to learn about Jefferson and his family and look around Monticello, and we had another gorgeous Fall day.

It was a lot of fun to do some sight-seeing in Williamsburg and Charlottesville. I love learning about the history of places and discovering how people lived back then. Looking back, we had such a good weekend together! I'm so thankful for time that I get to spend with my family.