Wild Goose Chase, Pumpkin Patch and Scary Mexican Food!

When you move to a new state where you have no idea where anything is, I'd advise getting familiar with the 'Seasonal Attractions' within that area BEFORE you promise your kids a trip to the local pumpkin patch.. We found out that the words 'pumpkin patch' do not prove any results within a GPS search... the adventure begins...

Getting the troups ready

It's no Secret I'm Daddy's little Girl

we've adopted a neighbor kid and took him with us

After some driving aimlessly around Northern Viginia we stopped at a place that looked like a pumpkin patch but turned out to be only an over decorated nursery.. NO PUMPKINS! just flowers, trees and various colors of bark as well as 3 different types of compost.. It was our 1st attempt but we made the best of it with photo-ops and rock star poses.

After asking anybody who looked local where the flip the pumpkin patch was, we hit the road for another 40 minutes of.. 'are we there yet'..

Lo and behold we found the mother of all pumpkin patches called the Belvedere Plantation! This place is beautiful, kid friendly, fall festive, and they had pumpkins for sale. They actually had hay rides, musical groups and what-not but the price tag was too much for 'ol daddy cheapskat'e.. so we (I) opted for just getting some pumpkins in the FREE area.

 

 The cutest catipillar made from round hay stacks.

 

The pumpkins were the perfect size

After our Pumkin Patch fun we saw an old 80's van with a roach coach trailer hooked up to it strategically parked on the side of the road. The hand-made cardboard sign simply read - 'Mexican Food'. Uh huh!.. you better believe we stopped!.. Kids looked a little nervous but I assured them it had to be good!.. well... the kids were right.

Fancy road side cuisine.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Well, It was against my will that we continue to celebrate my birthday (it's so depressing when there seems to be more hair in the ears than on my head) but the kids will find any excuse to eat cake and ice cream!

Steven's birthday card he made

Joe's Last Minute Birthday Bash in VA.

Driving and moving cross country was hard enough but organizing a birthday on the fly can only be done by my awesome wife Marie. She whipped together a fun intimate birthday for joey complete with family & new neighborhood friends. Everybody had fun for a last minute birthday bash!

Happy 7th Birthday Joe!

Steven took this picture of us

Grandma & Grandpa Potter just drove in a few minutes before we started

George Washingtons Childhood Home and Our New Crib

HIP HIP HOORAY - GOD IS GOOD! -  We've been in Virginia for exactly 7 days and he found us a home!. The second day we got to Virginia we started to look at houses.. we had been looking online whenever we had a chance, but the 2nd day in VA we actually got to see them in person.

not exactly sure what Virginia's slogan means

After several days of driving around lookin at other homes, we ended up filing out an application for the first house we visited.. Out of all of the homes we saw, the first house we checked out Marie and I knew it was the one.. carzy huh?

3 Days later of not knowing if we would even qualify.. we got the thumbs up on the house and picked up the keys!! Yeah!

In those 3 days of waiting... sweating it.. and praying, we took the opportunity to check out more of the neighborhood and Fredericksburg Virgina.. One of the many stops in-between eating and napping was right outside the housing track. Here's a little historic gem!

We also ended up stopping at Ferry Farm. What's the Ferry Farm you ask? well it's the childhood home of the father of our Country.. George Washington!

What a cool place this is! No wonder George hung out here til he was 20. It's awesome! The actual 'home site' wasn't actually discovered until last year.. so this place is very alive in history and discovery. Once we paid the small admission price, the gal at the front entrance gave us a quick history lesson and some maps and let us loose on the 80+ acres!

Boy oh boy did the kids think that was cool. They were on a discovery adventure to see what it looked, felt and smelled like at George Washingtons childhood home. We walked trails, played old tymey games and hung out at places that young GW would have.. other than the trails.. the kids loved the feather in the corncob, thrown through the wicker hoop game!. well.. not as much as super nintendo... but what do you expect for the 1700's

Again, the trails leading to the river and ferry were awesome. Sari did so good walking and keeping along with the boys just about the whole time. I suppose being strapped in a mini van for 8 days probably helped build their energy for the trails.

To distract us from the 'waiting for our house approval' we also ran into a nearby park.. It was so cool! This puplic park had a kiddy area, soccer field, basketball courts and a free skatepark!.. Troy, where were you!

After the park and Ferry Farm we GPS'd some thai place for some home cookin'. We're not thai, but it's the closest to indo food I can think of... It was a little pricey, but what are you gonna do..

photo by Steven

It was an action packed waiting period and had a blast..God is so good to us.. it's ridiculous. these last three days have been so neat and I have learned so much from my kids. They don't care if we have a home or not and they don't worry about anything. They are just obedient with what they know is true. They know that they'll be takin care of and all will be okay.

I believe it was a perfect illustration of how God wants my walk to be with him..

Hey In and Out.. There's a new game in town!

YUMMM! - Well. we're finally in Virginia (fredericksburg to be exact) and all is well. We've hit the ground running and are activly looking for houses to accomodate our large family. We've seen so many beautiful houses and countrysides it's almost unreal.

The rolling hills, old barns, historic buildings, battlefields and more! It's really a beautiful state! or commonwealth as they like to call it.

We have our sights on one house in particular that's in historic fredericksburg. It's in a wooded area and very cute and perfect for our family. It's in a 'mature' neighboorhood! - guess that's just another word for old and falling apart - hey, just like me!. but we love it's charm. The owner is a master carpenter and electrician... he really did it right.

We're not sure if we'll get the place, but it's a start in the right direction. If we do get it we'll post photos and such.. pray for us! In the meantime here's the images i've ripped from the web for your viewing enjoyment:

In our house hunting we also get to see the in's and outs of Virginia and find cool places to eat.. speaking of In and Out.. there is NONE TO BE FOUND!

In and Out Burgers whilst in California was one of our favorite burger joints and shall be missed.. (head bowed in respect). But we discovered a new game in town called '5 Guys'. It's a burger, fries, hotdog joint... and it's D'licious! so-far we've been there twice and probably will go back today!

The burgers are scrumptous the fries are awesome and the hotdogs are amazing!.. they even have grilled cheese sandwiches that are Steven's and Saris' favorite dish...

So while in the east I highly reccomend 5 Guys... Sure, there will always be special place in my heart (or arteries) for In and Out Burgers, but 5 Guys will work out just fine.. or until my cardiologist tells me to lay-off.