Quick Trip to Virginia

We had been home for about 2.5 days when we left again. This time we went to Woodbridge, Virginia for some family events. Rich’s brother, Joe, and his wife, Heather, live in Woodbridge in a beautiful home. It was so nice to get to see their home. Heather’s oldest son got married on a spectacular Friday evening in their backyard, which backs up to a state park. His new wife is from Russia and so there was plenty of vodka flowing along with yummy food from Russia and the U.S. Heather did a wonderful job making it a special event for them. She turned around the next night and threw a massive Halloween party – very obviously her favorite holiday. Her house was….well, it is really indescribable. I have a pretty large vocabulary, but I have to say I have no words for the décor of her house during Halloween. It was so creative. It was a marvel. Rich was told the theme of the party was Halloween movies. Well, I am more of a harvest person than a Halloween person and not a movie person…let alone Halloween ones. Rich came up with the idea of being characters from “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” Tim had driven over from West Virginia to spend the weekend with us and attend some rugby games at FedEx Field before going to the Halloween bash. Tim was Pig Pen, I was Lucy, and Rich was Charlie Brown. It was fun but we ditched the sheets pretty quickly so we could communicate a bit better! We had a great time watching the rugby games! It has been a hot minute since I have seen 15’s being played on an international level. We watched Army beat Navy and then the All Blacks absolutely smashed the USA Eagles. But it is always a treat to get to see the haka. We knew one of the players on the Eagles…he is originally from South Africa but went to high school in the Omaha area and played with both Joe and Tim in high school. It was awesome watching Hanco play again…and at such a high level. We bumped into a few of the Eagles at the airport the following day and stopped to talk with them. Nice blokes. We had a fabulous time in Virginia and will be going back for a big Messina gathering during the Christmas break. I didn’t take my camera with me, so these are all phone photos!