This past weekend, Justin, JJ, Hayden, Lucas, and I headed out of town for our friend Calvin's wedding. We stayed in Harper's Ferry, WV and the wedding was in Bluemont, VA (only 20 minutes east of where we stayed). Paige was gracious enough to travel with us to stay at the hotel while Justin and I went to the adult only wedding. We reserved a room with three queen beds and plenty of room for playing and made sure our hotel had a nice indoor pool for them to swim in while we were away. Can you tell how much these boys love her?
The wedding was held outside at Whitehall Manor. The setting was beautiful. Think southern plantation and you're there. This beautiful swing was hanging in the garden area and, of course, a photo op could not be passed up.
While the wedding was beautiful, the most memorable part for me was when the minister strayed from the everyday wedding routine and called the bride and groom's parents up front. Before he pronounced them husband and wife, he had the parents lay hands on their children and the groom's father offered a blessing. It was amazing! I think every wedding should incorporate this.
On Sunday, our original plan had been to spend most of the day visiting historic, downtown Harper's Ferry. However, next door to our hotel was a tubing/canoeing/white water rafting tour business. It was a beautiful, but hot day so we couldn't pass up a tube ride down the Shenandoah River. To say that I'm disappointed we didn't risk taking the camera, isn't saying enough. It was a blast and the kids cracked us up. We will definitely need a redo so that we can get pictures of them.
Hayden was his usual 'bob brother'. I spent most of my tube ride holding on to his tube because he chose to float down the river - just he and his life jacket. Lucas would float in the tube to a while, then get out and "swim" as he called floating down the river, and then get back in his tube for a little while, etc. JJ was being himself and sat straight up on the edge of his tube the entire hour and a half trip. He didn't want to lay back on his tube or get out of his tube and float with the other boys. He's still having some back pain, so I'll attribute it to that. Paige, Justin, and I enjoyed just floating in our tubes and enjoying the quiet. The water was perfect - not too cold, but cool enough to be refreshing. We told Paige next time we're going white water rafting to add a little extra excitement to our trip!
After we went tubing, we met some other friends who were in town for the wedding in downtown Harper's Ferry for lunch. After we ate, we did a short bit of walking around. The boys weren't really interested in the history, so it was a brief look around only.
Harper's Ferry is where abolitionist John Brown, on October 16, 1859 organized a takeover of the United States Armory and Arsenal in order to gain weapons for his planned colony for runaway slaves. His intended plan failed, and he was eventually tried and hung for his crime against the State of Virginia. Northern abolitionists claimed John Brown as their martyr for their cause. After the Civil War, a Storer College was created for African Americans. In 1881, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at the school honoring Brown. In 1905, Harper's Ferry was recognized for its importance to African Americans and Storer College was named as the site for a meeting of the Second Niagara Movement, which later became known as the NAACP.
(wvculture.org/history/jnobrown.html)
The boys played with Chip and Charlie while Justin and JJ circled the town in the van waiting for us to finish our siteseeing (parking was not an easy thing to find - he actually paid a guy to let Justin park in his yard while we ate lunch. That's how bad it was!!)
High Street in 1886 and in 2010
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