Williamsburg, Virginia "Corner View- Replace"

I may have told this story before I am not sure, but a few years ago I went up north to visit a friend I hadn't seen since my collage days.  Anyways, a few days before I was to travel I was confirming up details of the trip with this friend and was met with a little resistance to our visit.  When I pressed further it came out that she was nervous to meet me because she was afraid that I would judge her home and her life because when she compared it to mine she felt they did not match up.  See, she was basing her idea of my life from what she had seen on my blog.  Blogs are kind of funny things along with social media in that the person releasing the information controls the image they want to portray.  They may or may not post a picture of themselves that is less than flattering or the true reality of what is going on in their life.  Some people do replace their true lives all together by sending out a life that is not truly theirs. In the end, I reassured my friend that it is not all rainbows and unicorns all the time and that we like many families are not eating steak every night for dinner. My children are not always cooperative, and while they are pretty good children they are far from perfect.  We have a teen in the house and one soon to be teen, so I am sure you can fill in the rest. Having come from humble beginnings, I could certainly understand a couple struggling through paying back collage loans and starting a life together.  Infact, I worry about this for my own children in that the way they are growing up is completely different from the way I grew up.  Will they appreciate what they have as much as I do? They have not had to struggle like my husband and I did growing up!  So in keeping my blog real, I am telling you this past week in Williamsburg kind of stunk. You may not see it in the photos, but it was a hard week for us!  I made an error when booking our accommodations. I booked too small of a condo unit for our family.  It was the first time we had all traveled together as a family of 7!  The little girls wouldn't go to bed because it was noisy and the two of them fed off of each other. There was a huge learning curve this week in that I learned having children of three different age groups leads to children with different needs that just could not all be met.  I will not go into all the details of the trip, but needless to say we are going to have to put traveling back to Europe with the children on the back burner until the girls are a bit older.  On a positive note, the bigger boys did have a good time going to Busch Gardens and even got me to go on a couple of rollercoasters with them.  Avery went to the beach for the first time and while she wasn't thrilled with the experience it is under her belt.  Her papa taught her how to jump off the side of the pool. She can now go in the water without crying and can kick her way across the pool using her floaty.  We did get to spend the week together as a family which is rare and the children were able to learn about American history by participating in the tours of Colonial Williamsburg-such a fun place to go for all ages.

Sadly, 5 minutes after just getting home Roman broke his arm in a double break (pictures soon to come.)  Also, I learned my grandfather had a small heart attack last night.  He is OK now, but we are still waiting for test to come back with more information on what is going on.  I want a summer re-do please.  I want to replace the bad and praying that the last few weeks of summer will bring nothing but good our way.