a Richmond getaway

After Nate completed his last class at UVA Law (hip hip hooray!), we took a little trip to Richmond to celebrate. Also, I got to celebrate my 31st birthday on the 30th. Thanks for all the kind birthday greetings. It was such a nice getaway. Nate's bucket list had a few things left in Richmond that we both wanted to check off. Honest I love his love for history and beautiful things like gardens. Plus it was garden week here in Virginia and we didn't want to pass that up.

We both highly recommend Maymont Gardens (free and gorgeous - as well as great for kids) and Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens (not free but amazing gardens and exotic butterflies!). We also visited Petersburg Battlefield site as well as Grant's headquarters at City Point. Nate wanted to go to Byrd Theater as well, but we didn't quite get around to it. We also ate at Buz and Ned's real bbq. That was Nate's treat :). Of course we had to stop at Aldi's (my grocery story in the Netherlands I used to shop at with my bike). I'm telling you - the chocolate there (from Germany) is the best. We also got to take a tour of the Governor's mansion and Capital building. Last but not least, the huge Nascar car race was in town, so we were driving to our hotel and we saw these amazing old cars just lined up around Hardees for display. We kept saying how much our Grandparents would have enjoyed taking a walk down memory lane there. Mason and Stan like it too.

Here's a little video we took. Sorry the resolution is not the best - pics from Nate's ipod. I lost our camera on a trip (don't even get me started on how tragic that was for me), and we are waiting to invest in a new one. At the end Stanley was crying because we had seen a baby in an elevator and he had wanted to hold her. I thought it was so cute so I had Nate record it. That boy and babies. He's obsessed (just like his Mama). Also, we don't always eat this healthy ;). Mason had his first hamburger. Now he's a real American boy :). He just never wanted to try one before.