The Traxler Tribe: Massanutten

Dave's parents let us use a week at their Massanutten time share which made for a very affordable vacation. Massanutten, which I didn't know much about before, is resort in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia that has skiing in the winter and golfing, hiking, mountain biking and water parks in the summer. We were so excited to go and very much looking forward to having some time to relax with just the four of us.

I had to take a picture because I knew if I gave just a description I wouldn't be believed - this was the jumbo jacuzzi that was in the 2 bed, 2 bath condo we stay in all week...

can you believe how big it is?! This helped with my relaxation throughout the week and also made for some fun bath times with the twins. I have now added this as a must have item for any of our future houses.

There were some cooler days while we were there so we made the most of indoor activities. First we headed to Luray Caverns to check out the awesome stalactite and stalagmite formations. I thought it'd be a pretty cool temperature in the cave and having not packed any socks for Ian or Suzie (oops!) I decided footed fleece pajamas would work perfectly!

And then we found out it was not cool at all, but warm and humid. We both ended up taking our jackets off and taking the twins out of the carriers to cool down. Oh well, at least I tried to be prepared. It seemed like Ian and Suzie liked looking around. Suzie had fun making her squeals and hearing them echo and Ian kept making his low grunting sounds. We started calling him our little cave monster. There was a time when both of them were totally silent - when the stalacpipe organ was playing which was so cool to hear!

Our attempts at getting a family shot while in the cavern...

Everyone looking, but not everyone's face made it in the shot

A little better, but Ian is still out of the photo

And we did it! Everyone in the shot, mostly ;-)

We also enjoyed going to the indoor pool on the rainy days. At the resort there are a ton of pools and an awesome looking water park. We would've had to pay $60 to get into the water park so we opted for the free pools since at this age there really isn't too much of a difference for Ian and Suzette.

Believe it or not we had our first restaurant experience with the twins while on vacation. When they were younger/smaller it was just logistically harder to find room for 2 car seats at a table or booth and now that they're old enough to be in high chairs it was something I would only attempt having another adult with me to help. So Dave suggested Shoney's since he has fond memories of going there with his dad as a kid and it's a great family friendly place. It was also fun to get Suzie and Ian different things to try from the breakfast buffet. Peaches, yes. Cottage cheese, no. Cheerios, always! And when we left the floor under and around our table didn't even look that bad. The experience went so well we took them to Five Guys later in the week!

A little blurry and out of focus, but happy to document the twins first time at a restaurant.

There were so many awesome things to do outdoors that during the sunny days with perfect temperatures we spent as much time outside as we could! Our condo complex was right across from the driving range so during a few of the babies nap times Dave would walk over to practice his swing.

We had fun feeding the animals at the petting farm.

Suzie liked looking at the turkey and Ian liked watching the ducks.

Suzie was pretty excited after seeing all the animals!

Massanutten is known for having some awesome mountain biking trails so after going to the petting farm in the morning we drove to the overlook at the top of the mountain (yes, I realize in Utah these would all be called foothills) in the afternoon to take in the beautiful scenery...

drop Dave off at the trailhead...

then meet up with him 30 minutes later at the bottom of the mountain.

It took just about exactly the same amount of time for him to ride down the trail as it did for me to drive around to the other side of the mountain and pick him up. I loved driving along the back country roads and soaking up all the quaint sights of farm houses and rolling hills. And as a bonus I had some pretty cute faces to keep me company along the way!