As promised, I'm following up last night's huge update with another big one chronically our beach vacation.  We packed up the kiddos and headed out to Virginia Beach to share a house rental with our good friends the Nicotinas.  Val and I have been planning this vacation for months and we were just a little bit excited about it :-)  Sammy was sooo excited that she made a countdown that I neglected to take a picture of, but it had 20 days out she made a string of 20 pictures of the beach that she drew that she could take off one at a time to show the number of days left. The vacation had a few surprises, Owen decided that he really wanted to meet the nice people of the Virginia Beach EMS squad during our first full day there and had a big ol' seizure, but was kind enough to avoid the ER for us.  A nice little stomach bug made its appearance the first night (hence the seizure) and so we all took turns spending quality time with the porcelain goddess during the week.  That was the icky part of the vacation. The great part was getting to actually sit down and talk to our friends without typing long winded emails.  We made some excellent dinners - we all like to cook recreationally and it's always fun to show off our favorites.  We had incredible weather for the beach - upper 80's and lower 90's all week so we got in LOTS of beach time. But what you really want is the pictures, so here goes! July 9, 2010 We took a walk on the beach the first night that we got there just to prove to ourselves that we were actually there.  Sammy hanging onto Daddy for dear life in the waves: Owen hanging out on the sand with Tessa: A really nice picture of Val: Vince in the water with Sammy, Eric and Garrett: And that picture is, to my knowledge, the last known picture of Vince's glasses before they were given up the next day as a sacrifice to Neptune.  You can see Neptune, he's on the Boardwalk further down the beach... July 10, 2010 Our first full day at the beach.  Sammy, Eric and Garrett playing in the sand: Eric with a boogie board: Garrett with a boogie board: Sammy Sells Seashells By the Seashore... Later that night we met this crab on the beach and the kids followed him around for a while.  You can see someone's big toe at the top of the picture for scale: July 11, 2010 Yeah, more beach time.  I proved once again that it is against some law of nature to have both children smiling at the camera at the same time: Daddy with Owen: Mommy with Owen: Sammy sculpts sandcastles on the seashore: We spent a LOT of time at the beach that day.  I think it was a little much for my boys as this is how I found them when I got out of the shower: July 12, 2010 We made an attempt at Colonial Williamsburg today.  It was moderately successful.  It was only 85 degrees out, but the humidity was about 120%, so Owen didn't last very long before heading back to the air conditioned van while Sammy and I saw some of the highlights.  We were somewhat bummed about the highly commercialized nature of the place, I'd recommend Mystic Seaport in CT,  Old Sturbridge Village in MA, or The Frontier Culture Museum in VA over Williamsburg - they are much better quality and they don't try to sell you something every 15 feet.  Still though, there were some sights to see, like this really old church that Thomas Jefferson attended - which was also nice and cool inside: The blacksmith shoppe: The silversmith making a bowl: And some nice spoons that they made there: - although I don't think the smith appreciated it when Sammy pointed out that they weren't terribly useful spoons since any liquid would go right through the holes.  They also make solid spoons though: Perhaps the best part of Williamsburg for Sammy and I was a hidden wonder.  Sammy discovered that the gates leading out behind most of the houses were open and wondered if we could go look.  Since they were pretty big on putting signage and cords where you weren't allowed to go, we assumed that the open gates were an invitation.  As it turns out, you could walk through the back gardens of all the houses, which were absolutely beautiful: That evening after we all met back at the house and the kids were in bed, the bigger kids decided to enjoy an evening off.  And since we even had babysitting for Owen with us, we decided that perhaps it was time to break out the blender for a pina colada, complete with umbrellas: July 13, 2010 Today we had to fulfill a Quest.  This is one of those things that got started of its own accord many years ago and now you feel obligated to keep up no matter what.  In this case it was the Quest of the SeaShell Photograph.  Here are Sammy and I in September of 2004 when we took the first innocent SeaShell Photograph: When we returned in 2005 we also stayed near the SeaShell and so we thought to take another picture: By 2006 we were not staying anywhere near the SeaShell,  Daddy was in his Grizzly Adams phase, I was 100+ months pregnant with Owen and it was pouring rain out, but we continued the tradition! We took a hiatus from our VA Beach trips due to the arrival of Owen.  This year we REALLY had to have our SeaShell Photograph because now we could get both kids in: It was Owen's nap time and he would have preferred to have been in the stoller snoozing, but the tradition lives on! We never can remember where the sea shell sculpture is, and we have to find it anew each year.  So, just to be certain that we remember where it is in the future, I took a picture showing which street it is on: And for reference, the house we were staying at was on 63rd street and we walked the whole way.  There was a nice ocean breeze though and we stopped for lunch after the pictures so it was nice to get in some exercise. July 14, 2010 With our Quest fulfilled we could spend the day relaxing on the beach again: Sammy and Daddy riding a wave: When we got back Owen decided to do some background reading about the area: and then took a nap on a fish: In the meantime, Val and Sammy made some yummy scones for the next day's breakfast: July 15, 2010 This was our last real day at the beach because we had to be out by 10:30 the next day.  The weather was perfect and Sammy and I spent hours out riding the waves on our boards, and I taught her how to leave the board on the shore and body surf the waves as they came in.  Owen finally decided that the sand wasn't evil and that it felt funny on his tummy and when he squished it around in his fingers.  I think this is my favorite picture from our trip: Both kids playing together in the sand.  Owen was signing "more" when Sammy and Tessa would stop putting the sand on his legs and then he was rubbing the sand all over his belly.  It was an idyllic moment. I did take a bit of video during the week and I put it together in a little movie.  Some of the video was taken with my big camera in HD and some was taken on my little Powershot so it is a bit of a mix, but the end of the movie with Sammy and the baby crab is guaranteed to make you laugh... I'm sorry, Colin, that I don't appear to have gotten a single picture with you in it...but it was definitely good to see you too and I promise to do better the next time around. Alas, all good things must come to an end and it was time to say good-bye to Virginia Beach for this year:
Posted By Michelle At 7/20/2010 10:43 PM • Comments (1)