Big Family Steps: Stepanoff Girls Visit

We recently had a visit by the Stepanoff girls here in Virginia. It was a great trip filled with shopping, history, wine, and of course spoiled boys.

Lots of spoiling of these boys. Z Step was cooking something in his kitchen. E Step was being adorable, and Z Step stole his brother's namesday gift.

Daddy Step had a short day at work on friday, so afterwards he was able to come down to Fredericksburg with us. We started the trip out with a visit to the site of the Battle of Fredericksburg. It's an eerie place, knowing that more then 2,000 people lost their lives here. But it was fascinating to say the least.

Top- the Fredericksburg cemetery, which holds over 15,000 union soldiers.
Middle- Part of the actual wall.
Bottom- this is the foundation of the Stevenson family, a home that stood during the battle. The owners stayed home the entire time, even while gunshots hit their home.

Z Step and Auntie

Z Step thought these were really cool to stand on.

The top number is the grave number, the bottom is the amount of unknown soldiers who were buried here. There were a lot of them with 5-6 but as I walked deeper in I found some that housed more and more. This was the most I found in one place. It definitely made me stop in my tracks for a moment.

After our trip, we headed into downtown Fredericksburg to walk around. D Step and I had come downtown when we lived here 4 years ago, but didn't explore too much and I think we didn't really appreciate it too much yet. This time we discovered some wonderful shops and restaurants. It is the most amazing little town. There is really something for everyone here. From cat stores to consignment stores to wine shops to children's toys and antiques. We spend a few hours walking around and I don't think we even discovered half of the beauty of this area.

Z Step's new raincoat from Baba. Adorable!

The boys at an old fashioned ice cream shop. They only sell vanilla and chocolate. No E Step didn't have any. Just keys

Horse and carriage

I loved this pink door at a small boutique shop

We also celebrated D Step's birthday a few days early since we had the company. He is obsessed with Funfetti so as always, I whipped up a batch of cupcakes for him. They came out great and we even threw in a piñata to hit afterwards. It was part of our summer 60, and I filled it up with some snack foods for D Step to bring to work. Z Step loved watching him hit it!