The best laid plans … Between work deadlines, having two children (one who just started crawling!) and the chaos (and depression) of war, I haven’t been able to write about my fun-filled mini-vacation to Lexington, Va. with the family … until now. I’m sure everyone has been waiting with bated breath, so here goes.

So we decide to get outa Dodge for a while to escape and try to relax. I wanted to rent a cabin, but it is NCAA playoff time, so we had to go someplace with electricity and a television, preferably with ESPN. We end up booking a hotel in Lexington a few days before we leave, with the grand plans of visiting the Natural Bridge Zoo, which purportedly has the largest collection of animals and birds in the state, then trekking over to Lexington to walk around Washington and Lee, check into the hotel and take a much coveted nap.

After taking the car in for a much-needed oil change and Ethan in for an emergency doctor’s visit to take care of what would be his third ear infection, we were off. Remarkably, we were only one hour behind my anally kept schedule. We get to the zoo. It’s closed. Yes, we checked its web site, which stated it was open. I promised Ty animals and that was the only word he repeated incessantly on our one-hour journey.

So, we break into the zoo. Not an all out lock-pickin’, fence-climbin’ break-in, mind you. We just found an open employees-only gate and walked right in. We got to see the two tigers, bears, mountain lion and a bunch of little fuzzy petting zoo donkeys before a few zoo personnel came and booted us. It satiated Ty anyway and kept us true to our word. And we didn’t get arrested! (Ha! Imagine sweet 8-month-old Ethan in prison stripes!)

We walk around Washington and Lee and eat at a great little café called Joyful Spirit. I had no idea how yuppyville W&L would be. I saw guys in light blue Bermudas with pale yellow Polo shirts on and every, I mean every, girl had a black Kate Spade bag.

We check into the hotel. There’s no way in Hell that Ty is going to take a nap so we watch basketball then go to VMI’s campus and watch the parade. I used to be very anti-military in my younger days and you never would’ve caught me there. However, several experiences and I suppose just getting older, has made me appreciate the military more. I thought the parade and campus were beautiful and very moving. As I held Ty and the early evening sun dropped slowly behind the mountains I got a little verklempt. Ty was unaffected. If anything, I figured at least we were safe there cause there were a bunch of guys and gals with guns. (ha)

Post parade we walk around downtown, which is totally adorable and quaint with lots of cute little shops. We go to dinner at the Palms (no similarity to Vegas’ version). After we went to an adorable little ice cream shop where the W&L schoolgals oohed and aahed over the boys (Ty is such a flirt!).

Saturday morning we head over the horse show – another favorite of Tyler’s (or so we thought). Ever since he rode a horse at Sinkland Farms (they have a pumpkin patch in the fall and offer all kinds of fun things for little kids) he adores horses and couldn’t wait to see them. The horse show was very small (and cold!). A bit of a disappointment, but I did see the most beautiful horse I’ve ever seen in my life there. Was it worth the build-up … uh, no.

Next we went to Rockbridge Vineyard. I would have to say this was the highlight for me. The woman there was wonderful, warm and knowledgeable. It was just us on the little tour, so we got to ask every question we’ve ever had about wine-making. It was fabulous. We then had a little tasting while the hostess pulled out a basket of toys for the boys. Smart lady! We bought a bottle each of the Chardonnay Reserve, Merlot and Traminette (Brian’s favorite – a little too sweet for me). After a nap and some more basketball we walked around town again, then went for Mexican food.

The next morning we packed to go, got some coffee at the downtown coffee shop (again, so adorable!) and drove around town to look at the beautiful houses and fantasize about our perfect house when we move back home to Colorado.

I’ve left out the parts about trying to sneak in war tv and radio every chance I could. It was odd trying to have fun and forget about the current state of the world, then crave information once I got near a radio or television. Brian and I played our tv tango – if I left the room he would turn back to basketball, when I came back in, or if he left, I would turn it back to CNN. Either way it’s bad news – my bracket choices have been horrible this year and, well, the war is the war.