A walk down memory lane with Grandma and Grandpa

Thursday, March 26th, we picked up Grandma and Grandpa Mattson at the Roanoke airport and headed straight to Christiansburg for some good old-fashioned fun...rollerskating. Jared, Clarissa, and Krystal really enjoyed their first time at a skating rink. We were really surprised at how well they did. I guess all that time practicing with Mom and Dad's rollerblades in our basement really paid off. Chris joined the kids out on the rink and although I had not planned on skating, I couldn't resist a rehash of my disco skating days from college when "Dancing Queen" came over the speakers. Once I was out, I didn't stop until I had a blister on my right foot. Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed watching Amber and the tired older kids bounce on the moon bouncers.

Friday we went further back in history to prepare for our History Book Club. While we were helping Jared get ready for his presentation, Grandma read the whole book of "The Cabin Faced West" and helped Jared finish his diorama. She also joined in on the book discussion and cabin building. We built our own cabins out of pretzel sticks and frosting. Here's Krystal and her friend Delaney working on their cabins.
We took advantage of a break in the rainy weather on Sunday and took a drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to visit Mabry Mill, an old gristmill and sawmill.

Amber helps put into perspective how big the wagon wheels are.

The wagon wheels might be large, but the doors sure aren't. Jared was excited to see that the door was just his size. We also decided that this cabin was built much stronger than our pretzel cabins.

Grandpa couldn't help but admire the excellent dovetailing in the cabin timbers.

Mabry Mill is said to be the most photographed site in Virginia, I'm sure you can see why. It's not just that good looking family that makes this such a nice picture.

Grandma was also able to dig back into her yesteryears of elementary school as she helped the kids with their schoolwork (and did lots of laundry) so that I could work on our taxes.

Finally, we made Grandpa's day by taking them along for one of Clarissa's riding lessons. The kids really enjoyed all of Grandpa's stories of adventures with his horses and Grandpa enjoyed being able to see his Grandaughter follow in his footsteps of being a horselover.

We are grateful that Grandma and Grandpa made the long trip out to visit us so that we could make a little history of our own, family history.