...Hello Virginia!

After a whirlwind of preparations, we were finally ready to hit the road for Virginia! My parents were able to join us on our cross-country travel, which was a HUGE help. I planned and packed a ton of road trip snacks and activities for the kiddos, all in an effort to keep everyone entertained and happy on our 20-hour trek. Grandma and Papa drove the SUV we rented {for storage, really; for our stuff from the past week + the days on the road trip + the stuff we couldn't pack in a POD}. And our little family of 5, and Sasha, drove in the Babymobile. 

The first day, we headed out just after 7am {after a very sweet surprise send-off from Granny, Grumpz, Uncle Bryan, and Aunt Lindsay!}, and drove through Arkansas and Tennessee. The kiddos did great, since the excitement of being with Grandma and Papa and actually heading to Virginia was running pretty high. We only had to stop for meals and a few potty breaks in between, but overall we made really good time. We stayed at an Airbnb in Jackson, TN for the night to rest up for another long leg of the trip.

The second day, we got up bright and early again, this time driving through the rest of Tennessee to Blacksburg, Virginia. We had the perfect traveling weather, no traffic, and the most beautiful views. We basically had tree-lined roads the whole way, and then we had tree-lined roads through the hills. It was definitely fun to drive through such a beautiful part of the country.

If you look closely, you can see evidence of the M&M's the Grandma snuck to her :)

We made it!!

Since we had 2 long days of travel, we decided to stay 2 nights in Blacksburg to give the kids a little break before making the push to our final destination in Northern Virginia. We stayed up in the hills of Blacksburg, at the Wandering Goat Lodge, and we were blown away by the gorgeous view. We arrived just in time for sunset, and the colors were spectacular. Of course, the kiddos were all too happy to just run and move after being stuck in the car for 2 days :)

I'll share more about our stay at the Wandering Goat Lodge in another post, but we were grateful for a little rest and fun in the middle of our road trip. Aside from birthday fun, we had plenty of time for reading books, watching the deer, and running around, getting out all that pent up energy.

After a full day of rest and birthday celebrations, we were ready to make the final trek in our journey. On the fourth day, we didn't have to leave quite as early, so we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, and then we traveled the last few hours to Chantilly. We got checked in at the extended stay, where we will be for the next couple of months, and we were all grateful to be off the road. It was a long trip, for sure. But we are so thankful for the good travel, with little to no hiccups along the way.

We made it. Hello, Virginia!