Anniversary Weekend

We recently celebrated our five year anniversary with a trip to Charlottesville for the weekend - kid free! We dropped Bonnie off at Katie and Chris's house Saturday morning. We are SO thankful for their constant willingness to help with B anytime. We are so lucky and blessed to have them, and so is Bonnie!

Bonnie went straight to playing with cousins (pictures curtesy of Katie). Seeing how well she was doing made our trip a thousand times more enjoyable.

As soon as Eric and I got to Charlottesville we grabbed a quick lunch then headed to Blue Ridge Tunnel Hike. When construction finished in 1858, the 4,273 foot tunnel was the longest tunnel in the United States. It only recently opened to hikers in November 2020 so we were excited to check it out! 

It was a 4.5 mile hike out and back but all very flat. The tunnel was pitch black, there were signs leading up to it the whole way reminding you to bring flashlights or headlamps. 

This picture was taken with a flash, but it was completely dark and disorienting without light.

Our favorite thing to do is explore new places so this was a great way to start the trip. We also snuck in a little shopping trip to try and find an outfit for baby (we hadn't bought any clothes for him/her yet) before we got checked into our hotel and cleaned up. 

For dinner we ended up going to Sedona Taphouse which had fantastic food. Most of the restaurants had pretty long waits or very late reservations, we honestly didn't care because we weren't on a toddler's schedule! It was SO nice to be able to just do things on our own timeline. 

Once we got back to the hotel we headed down to the indoor heated pool/hot tub. This was the perfect way to end the night after a full day. 

The next morning we walked the Charlottesville historic downtown mall which was right outside our hotel. It was very cute but also a little early for many of the shops to be open on a Sunday morning. 

From there we checked out of our hotel, grabbed some breakfast and headed out to Humpback Rock Trail. This one was recommended by a few people we knew.

It was a gorgeous (albeit strenuous) hike up 1.5 miles to the top. It was a pretty steep hike up and I was moving slowly so it took us longer than expected to reach the top.

It was well worth it when we reached the top! 

We ended up taking the longer 3 mile hike back down on the Appalachian Trail because it wasn't as steep. All in all we underestimated how long the hike would take and it was already 2:30 by the time we were finishing. We still had a 2.5 hour drive home so we got back on the road.

We were so excited to pick up Birdy and be back together again! We asked her if she ever wanted to do another sleepover with her cousins and she immediately said yes. It was getting late in the evening so we went to dinner together before heading home and were all smiles. 

I honestly am so so incredibly glad we planned this trip and just decided to do it. It's so easy to make excuses (especially when you have a kid and are preparing for another) and just put it off. But it was much needed, Benny and I got some really good quality time together before we add another one to this crew! And of course we couldn't of done it without our amazing family nearby.