Vacation's All I Ever Wanted - VA 2011

Last Tuesday we left MD and headed to VA to see Holly and the Lamarres. We had a pretty uneventful trip and as always made a stop at Sonic for lunch.

We went to the Lamarre's house for fried ice cream the first night we were in VA. It was really yummy and we learned a neat way to make a delicious new dessert.

Rick was letting everyone on Facebook know that we arrived safely

 Parker's face was priceless

Fried ice cream. forgot to get a picture of the finished product. 

It was topped with whipped cream and chocolate syrup!

On Wednesday, we headed to Sandbridge Beach for the day. It is a great, family-friendly beach with gentler waves and a neat playground. I even enjoyed being in the water, instead of standing at the water's edge. It was so calm and a lot warmer than when we were at Virginia Beach last June. Noah enjoyed using his boogie board and Kari loved body surfing. Holly read on the beach while we played in the waves.

After the beach, we stopped by a roadside stand and got some peaches, strawberry jam, root beer and sarsaparilla (which is really just very sweet root beer). Then we stopped at Handel's for some ice cream.

After we rested a bit at home, we met Kayti for dinner at a local Chinese buffet. The food was alright, but the company was awesome!

On Thursday, we headed to Virginia Beach to walk on the "boardwalk". We went to Candy Kitchen (the kiddos had $10 to spend and each bought stuffed animals (not candy), Bella's Pizza and Kohr's Bros. Ice Cream. The chocolate peanut butter swirl soft serve ice cream was the best! 

 

 Kayti and her friend, Jackie came over for dinner. Rick made chocolate chip pancakes. After dinner, we played Apples to Apples and Wii Sports Resort. 

On Friday, we went to The Portsmouth City Park playground and let the kiddos get nice and sweaty and then headed to the Lamarres' house for some swimming.

After the park, we stopped at DQ for a sweet treat. Noah was sure we had never been to a DQ before and was so excited about getting a Blizzard. He also wanted to know if we could buy a bottle of their bubbles since they have kittens in them. Gotta love marketing/commercials!

The kiddos enjoyed being able to swim at the Lamarres' house and we enjoyed that they were worn out enough that evening to watch the movie, Soul Surfer and have an earlier bedtime than they had had all week. 

On Saturday, we headed to downtown Norfolk. We had lunch at Schlotzsky's, tried to go to the Caribbean Festival, but it was raining and explored a free art exhibit. 

That night, we stayed in, made some homemade pizza and played a lot of Wii Sports Resort.

On Sunday after church we headed to the Lamarres' house for a cookout. The kiddos got to swim again and we got to meet Kayti's boyfriend, Kevin. Noah also got to see Jackie again, which made him very happy.

We headed home today and had a pretty uneventful trip home. We did get stopped on the HW Nice Bridge, which wasn't nice at all, but we got to see Janie, the kiddos and the new chicks and bunny, so it was worth it.

I am very glad we are home, as school starts in two weeks and we still have some more summer to enjoy before that happens. But, I will definitely miss being able to spend so much time with Holly and the Lamarres. We are so blessed to have such great friends and family!

  

   

   

The Rest of July

After we got back from house sitting for the Pilkertons, we had to deal with Josh's jaw surgery. Thankfully, he did not have to have his jaw wired shut. They were able to put a plate and screws in to secure his jaw so it could heal properly. His recovery time was also considerably less - 2-3 weeks versus 6-8 weeks. He came through the surgery well and has minimal soreness. He is still eating soft foods, but should be back to complete health by next week.

We finally got all of Cody's boxes shipped and have the kiddos' rooms almost completely set up and functional. I still have to work on switching the closets around, but they finally have bedding and decor on the walls. I am so thankful that we had mostly everything we needed for Kari's room. We are still waiting on curtains for both rooms and some more decor for Noah's room. They love having their own space and seem to be sleeping better.

Our bedroom still needs some work and the biggest problem right now is getting the bathroom operable. Once we get the toilet fixed, we can paint and set everything up in there. It will be nice to have another bathroom (or toilet, at least) since we all seem to need to be in the bathroom at the exact same time, especially in the morning. Plus, I will appreciate not having to run all the way downstairs to pee in the middle of the night.    

The kiddos finished up a week of marathon VBS last week. They attended our church's VBS in the morning and another church's VBS at night. They thoroughly enjoyed both and it gave Rick and me a chance to have some alone time together. We especially enjoyed being able to have dinner on Thursday night to celebrate our 11th anniversary. The kiddos were in the musical production on Friday night, but Kari requested that we not videotape her performance. I think Rick did get a few pictures, though.

This week we are having a few swim play dates now that the weather has cooled off a bit. It was in the 100s every day last week and we didn't have any AC in the van and Rick's car was in the shop. His car is still not fixed, but the van's AC got fixed today. Thank you, Jesus!

We are planning to be in VA for a bit next week and are looking forward to spending time at Holly's, the beach and with the Lamarres. We were hoping to make it to SC to see the Hersheys this summer as well, but are probably going to have to postpone that trip.

I can not believe that school starts in less than a month! This summer has really flown by!  

A Few Days Away

We've been at the Pilkerton abode for the last few days housesitting and duck/chickensitting. We came up on Tuesday night and will be heading home some time today. It has been nice to be away from the normal every day routine of being home, that lately has consisted of cleaning, purging, dump and Goodwill runs. The kiddos have been able to swim, I have been able to nap and Rick was able to get some schoolwork finished. We also celebrated Noah's 7th birthday and had dinner at Cracker Barrel. But, not on his birthday. No, on his birthday Noah wanted Costco's pizza for dinner =)

I have also done something while we've been here that I never expected to do - I picked up a chicken, more than once even. Yeah, it has been good to get away and do somethings a little different.