Roanoke, Our Home Away from Home

As mentioned before in a previous post, we spent a considerable amount of April and the beginning of May in a hotel in Roanoke, Virginia.  Jim had to be there, so we did what we could to spend time with him.  Since I homeschooled Ethan this year, we could pick up and do school wherever we needed to.  It was wonderful to have that flexibility so we could make the trips possible.  To the left is a shot of Ethan reading out of his social studies book while Micah and Verity play in the background.

However, it was much harder than I anticipated.  Living in hotel room for weeks on end with 3 young kids (2 being very active boys) and trying to cook meals on crooked stove top burners with severely scratched pots was a challenge.  Our ironing board was so bad I had to take a picture of it.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but the ironing board sloped downhill so badly that it was difficult to use. 

The room we had did have its advantages though.  It was down the hall from the washer and dryer, which made doing laundry easier (I could even send Ethan down the hall to check and see if the machines were done).  We were also right off the flight path for the local airport, which would be bad for most people, but it was fun for the kids to watch the planes fly by our window.  Here they are watching a plane (it's not the highest quality picture, but it does capture their delighted expressions):

I tried to do as much as I could to make it feel like home and tried to keep the kids schedules as regular as possible.  So I kept plugging along with potty training, I put school papers up on the wall with blue painters' tape, I had the kids chip in and help pick up or put silverware away, and I kept naptime at the same time everyday.  The kids adjusted really well to being there and were even sad to leave, although that probably had more to do with the fact that they could watch Playhouse Disney in the mornings at the hotel (since we don't have cable at home). 

This picture I had to include because it was so sweet.  I was getting ready for church on Sunday, and Verity saw me and wanted to brush her hair, too, just like mommy.  I thought it was cute.

While in Roanoke, we also had a chance to spend a Saturday morning downtown.  We saw a children's steel drum band at the strawberry festival (Verity liked it, but Micah... well, you decide), and we ate at Awful Arthur's (a seafood restaurant) for lunch.