Virginia Beach, Days 3&4

Welcome back to more family photos than you ever wanted to see our vacation! I will wrap up our trip to Virginia Beach with this post.

If you missed Day 1, click here.

If you missed Day 2, click here.

I know, I took WAY too many pictures. Trust me, I deleted many, and you are not seeing all!

Day 3

Sunday morning when we got up it wasn't raining yet and the temperature was about 75 deg. After a quick breakfast we headed to the beach for a little more time in the surf...except the water may have been 65 degrees so we didn't go in.

#1 does Navy Seal workouts almost everyday as part of his being a personal trainer person now. I guess on their website they have people doing handstands all over the world on different beaches, and he wants to submit this one. Cool, huh?

Like father, like son!

Because we had only been on the beach many 20 minutes on Saturday, we didn't have any sand toys with us. We brought them down this time and sandcastles were constructed.

Snug just loved the beach. He was sad when it was time to go.

Day two of the beach wasn't as traumatic for Baby J. Although he doesn't take a paci anymore, except occasionally at church, we tried to have him use one at the beach to keep the sand out of his mouth!

That didn't last long at all.

Instead the paci was thrown to the wind towel and fistfuls of sand were inserted where it had been.

My job, besides being the photographer, was to keep it OUT of his mouth. I buried him in the sand which kept him busy for a bit.

He thought it was pretty funny!

We were disappointed not to have any sunshine, but we still had a great time out in the sand with the boys.

We decided to try and find the museum that we had originally planned on going to, and it was about an hour trip from the beach, but right off the highway we had to take home. It was pouring and freezing the entire trip. I made up wraps for lunch in the car and we ate in the parking lot. Our admission, because of our membership to Boonshoft, was free! The Virginia Living Museum was really nice, but I still like the Boonshoft the most of any museum we've taken the kids to.

Snug like to be a turtle. I think after seeing so many between the two museums we visited, he may have a new interest. Although it was freezing out and raining, I at least had the sense to pack jackets for both boys. Even though they are sporting tank tops in these pictures, they were dressed properly outside.

Baby J loved the honey bee exhibit. It kept his interest for a long time.

The touch and feel area was nice. They had an assortment of fish and crabs to interact with.

I think the aquarium viewing areas were really neat for Baby J. If you saw Day 1, you'll remember his interest in the sea turtle. Here he is staring at a large ugly fish!

I have a lot of red eye to fix before I get these pictures printed, but look how happy he is. This was in a woodland exhibit it is a "log".

In case you didn't know, it is the year of the frog...whatever that means!

After a quick family photo and a stop at McDonald's to get coffee, it was back on the road for us!

After driving a few more hours, we decided to find a place to stay for the night. Many things had been less expensive than we had anticipated, including hotel rooms. We decided to look for a hotel with a pool so the boys could actually swim. We ended up at this one and after #1 bartered for a while, and got a great price.

This hotel was nice. We didn't even fit in with the rest of the patrons. At all. I think we were the only people there in blue jeans. This room was so relaxing and beautiful. In the end #1 switched some things around so he didn't have to work at all on Monday (instead today he has to work a 14 hour shift :o( very nice of him) and we could enjoy this room a little more.

A full kitchen? Really? I mean, we packed most of our food to cut down on cost, but I'm pretty sure that the people who stay here don't do that...after reading the bookn hotel amenities, I found out that if you stay here they will do your grocery shopping for free and the maid does the dishes. I might move in there.

We picked up a pizza for dinner. I served it on the dishes that were provided, and even use stemware for root beer. You only live once. Besides, the maid does the dishes :o)

We used the pool for awhile, and it was a hit. Actually it was quite chilly, but Baby J didn't mind at all. It was like he didn't even notice it was turning his feet purple!

More red eye, sorry. Snug didn't like the cold pool. Well, he did, but he was shivering so hard he could hardly move. He kept jumping in and swimming to the side of the pool and then he'd like cramp up. Because the hot tub wasn't that hot #1 decided it would be safe to let him "swim" in there for a bit. That was more his speed. Baby J and I sat in the regular pool as I really didn't think it was safe for a baby, even though Snug was ok.

After swimming, Snug finished off his juice box. That was a big treat this trip, as he doesn't get juice very often. I guess taking the straw out and drinking it was easier.

Day 4

The morning started off slow and Snug enjoyed an episode of Dora on TV. I had to laugh because he doesn't understand TV as he doesn't watch syndicated TV hardly ever. Whatever he watches is a video or DVD. When I turned on the TV at Virginia Beach to find out the weather, he wanted to watch Dora or Bob and Larry. Of course, neither was on, but I couldn't figure out how to explain it to him. He just thinks whatever you want to watch is always on!

Baby J doesn't have an interest obsession with Dora, so he just cheesed for the camera.

When we went to breakfast (think Bob Evans, in the lobby) we were the ONLY ones whose children were still pajama clad, I was the ONLY woman who had wet hair, and #1 was the ONLY man in shorts. We got some seriously dirty looks. Some "you are so red neck we can only stare" looks. I thought maybe I was just being sensitive until #1 mentioned that the stares we were getting were less than polite.

Maybe it was that #1 and I were both sporting Harley Davidson T-shirts...or that Baby J's shirt said "Big Rig" (we had decided to stay at this nice place last minute...that was all we had to wear!). Everyone else was in slacks or skirts with designer tops and loafers. They were wearing what I wore to dinner on Saturday night for a hotel breakfast! They were not even business people, this was 9:30 am, and most were families. I would like to say that my two "red neck" children were the best behaved children in the place by far, even though after many days of less than normal sleep and no schedule, they their behavior was less than what was normally expected.

Ah, it was so fun!!!!!

The rest of the day was spent driving...and driving...and driving. We made two stops. One was in Radiator Springs (ok, not the name, but it should have been) West Virginia for gas. The gas pumps were from what we judged to be the early 70's. There was a little country store where we poked around for a bit. I should have taken a picture, but I just didn't. I could have lived there.

The next stop was at a gas station to use the restroom and get lunch prepared. Snug ended up throwing up his sandwich into a trash can because he was a bit car sick and maybe, just maybe, his mommy had been spinning him to make him happy because he was a bit grumpy. That was not a picturesque moment, so I didn't capture it.

I just leave you with a picture of the hotel grocery list, standard with every room. Hilarious.

Thanks for taking the time to enjoy our vacation with us!